A decade of experience has shown that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies is the hardest part of electricity sector reform in South America-because operators control most of the information needed for effective regulation. South American electricity regulators can reduce...

We analyze the impact of alternative regulatory regimes on the labor productivity of electricity distribution firms in Latin America. We find that (i) incentive-based regimes lead to higher labor productivity than rate-of-return regulation, and (ii) privatized firms operating under rate of...

Infrastructure has particular challenges in public procurement, because it is highly complex and customized and often requires economic, political and social considerations from a long time horizon. To deliver public infrastructure services to citizens or taxpayers, there are a series of...

The authors bring new empirical evidence on the impact of the choice of ownership and regulatory regime on firms'productivity and prices paid by consumers. They collect the evidence from a sample of electricity distribution companies in Latin America. The authors rely on estimations of labor and...

This paper offers a survey of the economic literature on the policy challenges and options available to improve energy efficiency. We emphasize energy efficiency in buildings since it has the largest potential impact in terms of emission of reduction on the demand side and since this impact is...

This paper provides a "back-of-the-envelope" assessment of the efficiency effects of the reforms of the water sector in Argentina. Private operators are now key players in 15 of Argentina's provinces. While all have adopted incentive based regulatory regimes which require estimates of economic...