This review of the empirical literature shows that industries with more intense domestic competition will export more. Competition law enforcement can be traced to export performance and is complementary to trade reforms. Pro-competition market regulation that reduces restrictions and promotes...

New data from the World Bank Group entrepreneurship snapshots show that new businesses are created at a faster rate in countries with good governance, a strong legal and regulatory environment, low corporate taxes, and less red tape. The data also show that nearly all countries experienced a...

Private financial flows such as foreign direct investment seem toencourage economic growth and relieve poverty in part because theycreate excellent incentives for transferring know-how and in partbecause they are subject to a stern market test that ensures they areallocated and monitored...

Using data from 270 water and sanitation providers, this Note investigates the relationship between a utility's size and its operating costs. The current trend toward transferring responsibility for providing services to the municipal level is driven in part by the assumption that this will make...

Somalia has lacked a recognized government since 1991-an unusually long time. In extremely difficult conditions the private sector has demonstrated its much-vaunted capability to make do. To cope with the absence of the rule of law, private enterprises have been using foreign jurisdictions or...

Every year oil producers flare and vent gas equivalent to the combined gas consumption of Central and South America. Africa flares and vents gas equivalent to half its power consumption. To reduce this practice, governments need to develop and enforce an appropriate legal and regulatory...

Among the key risks facing foreign private entities investing in the infrastructure of developing countries is depreciation or devaluation of the local currency. Indeed, over the past 25 years developing country currencies lost 72 percent of their value relative to the U.S. dollar on average-and...

This Note looks at systems some governments have used to transform unsolicited proposals for private infrastructure projects into competitively tendered projects. It focuses on the policies that Chile, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and South Africa have adopted for managing such...

To guarantee adequate and affordable water and sanitation services for vulnerable households, Chile introduced an individual means-tested water consumption subsidy a decade ago. Although the public authorities determine how the subsidy is applied, the mostly private companies deliver the service...

Which is best for effective competition in power sectors, a separate system operator, a joint-owner operator, or some combination of the two? The question is being hotly debated among power reformers. The answer? Both types of system operators can be made to work, singly or in combination. What...