Reform of the natural gas industry in Ukraine started a year later than reform of the power industry. Because gas reform had no blueprint, its direction has remained ambiguous. That ambiguity is the result of a conflict between those who advocate vertically integrated, opaque, monopolistic...

Although reform of Ukraine's electricity sector is far from complete, the experience so far shows that ingrained attitudes are harder to change than written rules of the game. Moreover, the reemergence of old behavioral patterns during political, macroeconomic, or sectoral crises can quickly...

Most of Colombia's general cargo trade has been handled by four public ports: Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Santa Marta on the Atlantic coast and Buenaventura on the Pacific coast. These four ports were concessioned in 1993 to regional port "societies" established under company law. These...

In water and sanitation there has always been a belief that the sector has a high degree of natural monopoly. But competition is widespread at the low-income end of the retail level in developing countries. There are no inherent monopoly characteristics in, for example, reselling water by...

Water sector reforms in recent years have concentrated on involving the private sector in the operation and management of monopoly water utilities. Much effort has gone into regulation to stop utilities from abusing their monopoly power, but relatively little into considering ways to reduce that...

Developing countries started opening their power sectors to independent power producers (IPPs) some ten years ago, and IPPs have now developed into a large market. This Note examines several contentious questions relating to the developing of this market: Has risk been transferred to the private...

Once a government has decided to award a concession by auction, it needs to decide what kind of auction to use. For concessions the standard is a first-price sealed bid auction in which bidders submit sealed envelopes containing their offer and the highest offer determines the price. The bidding...

The privatization efforts of most developing countries are inhibited by embryonic financial markets, weak regulatory capacity, and a public sector that accounts for a large share of GDP. Many, particularly those with low per capita income, lack some of the main ingredients for a successful...

This Note examines the corporate roots of the financial crisis in East Asia. It summarizes the findings of a study of corporate financial performance in East Asian economies - Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan (China), and Thailand. To allow a...

Private participation in electricity industries has grown substantially since 1990, with electricity becoming one of the leading infrastructure sectors in attracting private investment. Between 1990 and 1997 the private sector took on the management, operations, rehabilitation, or construction...