Research

Research Areas

MIR focuses its research activities on the  following three core areas:  

  • The co-evolution between institutions and technology in infrastructures

Research in this area is conducted since 2005. The idea is to establish an empirically verifiable link between a given state of technology, a state of institutional governance, and performance (of these infrastructures).

  • Network industry regulation and governance

The economic regulation of the network industries in the communications, the transport, the energy, and the water sectors is the area of research MIR is best known for. In the past MIR has mainly worked on economic regulation of the postal, the telecommunications, the electricity, and the water sectors. This activity is currently being expanded to the area of transport (rail, road, air, maritime) in collaboration with the European University Institute (see Florence School of Regulation).

  • Governance of urban systems

Within this area of research the aim is to analyse key urban infrastructure Sectors such as transport, energy, water and sewage, and telecommunications in order to determine efficient and effective governance. For this purpose, the role of the most relevant actors for such governance (public, private, third sector) is explored, as well as their optimal relationships impacting performance and the role intelligent systems can play to improve these relationships. (see IGLUS)