Reforming Infrastructure

Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.

Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.

Editor's description : "During the past two decades, Latin American countries have made pioneering efforts in reforming infrastructure services. The "first generation of reforms" encompassed widespread privatization, deregulation and restructuring of the provision of energy, water, transport and telecommunications services. Second-Generation Reforms in Infrastructure Services evaluates the current challenges, leading to the consolidation of the initial reforms. This volume deals with post-privatization dispute settlement mechanisms, access arrangements in network industries, and inroads to effective competition in the reformed industries. The authors evaluate a set of contractual adjustments resulting from renegotiations and disputes that have taken place since the beginning of the reform process. In an effort to promote competition in the provision of public services, the authors suggest some practical rules for pricing access in network industries. The book presents a dynamic, global vision of second-generation reforms underway in energy markets around the world. - See more at: https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/310#sthash.M23WTIKV.dpuf"

This book provides evolutionary and institutional perspectives on the reform of infrastructure industries, tracing the development of this process in a number of sectors and countries. The contributors contend that infrastructure based industries such as telecommunications, public transport, water management and energy have been increasingly exposed to the dynamism of the market since becoming privatized, and have therefore been stimulated into short-term efficiency and long-term innovation. Drawing on institutional economic theory backed up with case studies such as the California energy crisis, the Dutch gas industry, oil and electricity companies in Spain and the privatization of Schipol airport in Amsterdam the book focuses on process, driving forces, and actors' roles to explain how new balances are established between competing institutions. The degree to which the processes of institutional change are predictable and the effects of deliberate strategic interventions of governments or private actors are explored. Specific technical and sector aspects and their influence on institutional change in various infrastructures are also discussed.

This book compiles the proceedings of four meetings held at the request of the Minister for Antimonopoly Policy of the Russian Federation, on the reform of railroads, telecommunications, electricity and natural gas, during December 2000-September 2001.

Fears of job loss and changes in employment status have often led workers and unions to oppose privatization and to take actions that delay or block reforms. Many developing country governments have been reluctant to undertake reforms because of labor opposition and the political costs involved. Such difficulties are often compounded by concerns about the social impact of reforms, particularly in countries where social safety nets and labor markets are lacking. The objective of the Toolkit, which includes a CD-ROM, is to provide practical tools and information to help policy makers and practitioners deal with these sensitive issues. The Toolkit helps governments identify and select appropriate strategies and approaches, offers guidelines for design and implementation based on best practice and actual experience, and indicates the factors influencing the choice of strategy and options. The Toolkit is illustrated with examples, checklists, and templates that walk decision makers through best practice methodologies.

During the 1990s, a new paradigm for power sector reform was put forward emphasizing the restructuring of utilities, the creation of regulators, the participation of the private sector, and the establishment of competitive power markets. Twenty-five years later, only a handful of developing countries have fully implemented these Washington Consensus policies. Across the developing world, reforms were adopted rather selectively, resulting in a hybrid model, in which elements of market orientation coexist with continued state dominance of the sector. This book aims to revisit and refresh thinking on power sector reform approaches for developing countries. The approach relies heavily on evidence from the past, drawing both on broad global trends and deep case material from 15 developing countries. It is also forward looking, considering the implications of new social and environmental policy goals, as well as the emerging technological disruptions. A nuanced picture emerges. Although regulation has been widely adopted, practice often falls well short of theory, and cost recovery remains an elusive goal. The private sector has financed a substantial expansion of generation capacity; yet, its contribution to power distribution has been much more limited, with efficiency levels that can sometimes be matched by well-governed public utilities. Restructuring and liberalization have been beneficial in a handful of larger middle-income nations but have proved too complex for most countries to implement. Based on these findings, the report points to three major policy implications. First, reform efforts need to be shaped by the political and economic context of the country. The 1990s reform model was most successful in countries that had reached certain minimum conditions of power sector development and offered a supportive political environment. Second, countries found alternative institutional pathways to achieving good power sector outcomes, making a case for greater pluralism. Among the top performers, some pursued the full set of market-oriented reforms, while others retained a more important role for the state. Third, reform efforts should be driven and tailored to desired policy outcomes and less preoccupied with following a predetermined process, particularly since the twenty-first-century century agenda has added decarbonization and universal access to power sector outcomes. The Washington Consensus reforms, while supportive of the twenty-first-century century agenda, will not be able to deliver on them alone and will require complementary policy measures

Annotation This book provides practical guidelines and options for infrastructure reform that result in access and affordability for the poor. It includes a new model for reform that consists of three main components - policies, regulation, and provision which when properly balanced minimize the risks associated with reform.

"Briceno, Estache, and Shafik review the evidence on the state of infrastructure in the developing world, emphasizing the investment needs and the emerging policy issues. While their assessment is seriously constrained by data gaps, they provide useful insights on the main challenges ahead, emphasizing that, in addition to the widely discussed access problems, the poorest also face major affordability and service quality issues which were not well addressed by the reforms of the 1990s. The authors make a case for a stronger commitment of the international community to generate the information needed to assess and monitor infrastructure needs and policies. This paper--a product of the Office of the Vice President, Infrastructure Network--is part of a larger effort in the network to upgrade economic and policy work in infrastructure"--World Bank web site.

Since 1978 when it embarked on sweeping agricultural and industrial reforms, China's economic growth has been remarkable. Its success in transforming itself within just three decades from a very poor low-income country to a successful middle-income country is unparalleled. During this period, however, and in contrast to the first 30 years of the People's Republic, progress in the health sector has been disappointing. For example, during the period 1980-2007, China increased its income per head as a percentage of the OECD average from 3 percent to 15 per cent, but infant mortality fell no faste.