Among the countries fully liberalizing their telecommunicationssector, some have chosen to rely mainly on sector-specific rules,often applied by sector-specific institutions, while others havedepended on economywide antitrust rules and institutions to controlmarket power. This Note describes the...

Full liberalization of telecommunications markets provides scope for relying largely on general antitrust rules and institutions for economic regulation. But at least for a time after liberalization, sector-specific rules and institutions are likely to be needed in some areas, including...

During the 1990s Mexico undertook some of the world's most far-reaching reforms of business regulations. Many factors, including trade liberalization and firm political commitment, drove this process. But critical to its sustained success was the early development and then legal strengthening of...

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...

Regulating infrastructure utilities can be extremely complex and fraught with risks of political interference and capture by interest groups, especially in countries with little tradition of politically independent government agencies. To deal with these challenges, policymakers and regulators...

Many developing countries face a critical gap between the demand for health care services and their supply. Public resources often fall short of what is needed to provide universal health care, and the typical incentive structure in the public sector may not always be conducive to expanding...

Like telecommunications reformers elsewhere, Arab countries have set up independent regulatory authorities to make objective, consistent, and non-arbitrary regulatory decisions. This is a major step forward and is already delivering positive results for consumers in the form of new and better...

Officials in developing countries with legal and political systems of continental European origin often argue that the model of independent regulatory agencies for utilities is appropriate only for Anglo-Saxon countries. Yet countries in continental Europe have also adopted this model. Comparing...

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...

Regulators of concessions in newly privatized infrastructure sectors typically start the price control process with limited sectoral and corporate data. To move toward more realistic regulatory targets, they must ensure that this information base grows and that their ability to process it...