The aim of this paper is to empirically explore the relationship between the quality of political institutions and the performance of regulation, an issue that has recently occupied much of the policy debate on the effectiveness of infrastructure industry reforms. Taking the view that political...

In a recent issue of this journal, L.L. Johnson and D.P. Reed (J and R) address an important regulatory issue concerning the 'economy of scope' of integrated broadband networks versus separate voice and cable TV networks. However, we do not believe that the technical question of economy of scope...

This paper presents an empirical application and analysis of the social contract in countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The paper suggests a simple operational model that synthesizes a social contract's three main characteristics: participation, protection, and provision, between a...

This paper analyzes Côte d'Ivoire's experience with telecommunications liberalization and privatization. Côte d'Ivoire privatized its incumbent operator in 1997, and granted the newly privatized firm seven years of fixed-line exclusivity while introducing "managed competition" in the cellular...

This paper seeks to assess the extent to which a country's overall level of development and that of its financial sector, in particular, are factors that attract private capital into infrastructure projects. The authors investigate these effects in a 1990-2007 dataset on the power sector in 37...