When the La Niña drought hit Chile in 1998–99, the country's recently reformed electricity sector suffered a price collapse. Power outages followed—but were they inevitable? No. The electricity shortage can be blamed on the rigid price system and deficient regulatory governance. In the...

In the early 1980s Chile reformed its electricity sector, introducing a regulatory framework that became influential worldwide. But in 1998 and 1999 La Nina brought one of the worst droughts on record, causing a price system collapse, random power outages, and three-hour rotating electricity...

When the La Niña drought hit Chile in 1998-99, the country's recently reformed electricity sector suffered a price collapse. Power outages followed—but were they inevitable? No. The electricity shortage can be blamed on the rigid price system and deficient regulatory governance. In the early...

This paper analyses the foundations of efficient-firm regulation (implemented in Chile for almost two decades), and the formulas that are used to set the prices of water/sanitation companies, electric power distributors and the dominant phone companies. We show that efficient-firm regulation...