The paper documents the case of Uganda's telecommunications reform. Uganda is one of only two countries in Africa that decided to privatize telecommunications in a competitive framework by selling a second national operator license. The authors find that Uganda did not sacrifice significant...

Infrastructure industries-including telecommunications, electricity, water, and gas-underwent massive structural changes in the 1990s. During that decade, hundreds of privatization transactions valued at billions of dollars were completed in these sectors in developing and transition economies....

The case in Mexico City offered an opportunity to observe the advantages, and disadvantages of gradualist reform. Unfortunately, the authors find that the long-term nature of an incremental approach does not match well with the generally shorter-term horizons of elected politicians. Difficult...

The signing of a concession contract for the Buenos Aires water and sanitation system in December 1992, attracted worldwide attention, and caused considerable controversy in Argentina. It was one of the world's largest concessions, but the case was also interesting for other reasons. The...

In 1983 Korea dramatically changed the way it managed the largest and most important group of its public enterprises, or GIEs. The reforms increased enterprise autonomy, changed managerial selection procedures, and began systematically to evaluate performance and provide incentives on the basis...

This report assesses the performance evaluation system being used for industrial public enterprises in Pakistan. The assessment aims to assist the Pakistani government in strengthening the system as needed, and to inform interested officials in other countries of the costs and benefits of the...

The authors analyze experience with written performance contracts between developing country governments and the managers of their state-owned enterprises. Such contracts have been a vogue since the mid-1980s, and substantial resources have been sunk into their design and enforcement, yet the...

In the late 1980s, Chile planned to privatize Santiago's sanitary works enterprise (EMOS) but instead reformed it under public ownership. It did so through a regulatory framework that mimicked the design of a concession with a private utility, setting tariffs that ensured at least a seven...

Countries around the world are liberalizing their telecommunications networks by privatizing incumbent state-owned firms and introducing competition. For many, this change represents a return to private provision and competition-not a new phenomenon. The beginning of the 20th century saw great...

Policymakers are simultaneously concerned about the consequences of a worsening"digital divide"between rich and poor countries and hopeful that information and computing technologies could increase economic growth in developing countries. But very little research has explored the reasons for the...