While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. This publication brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of...

The authors use the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys from 15 countries (covering more than 55,500 households) to examine the relationship between infrastructure coverage and household income. The results show that throughout the world all income groups have much...

Subsidies to residential utility customers are popular among policymakers, utility managers, and utility customers alike, but they are nonetheless the subject of much controversy. Utility subsidies are seen as a way to help make utility service affordable for poor households and as an...

This report addresses a pressing issue in Mexico's electricity sector the large and growing subsidies to residential consumers and their regressive incidence across different segments of the population. It responds to requests from the Ministry of Energy to provide a preliminary assessment of...

The authors address the question of infrastructure reforms in a novel way by focusing on the impact which they can have on consumers through the prices paid by different groups and on their access to the networks. They analyse original material from four Latin American countries –...