Until recently, utility services (telecommunications, power, water, and gas) throughout the world were provided by large, usually state-owned, monopolies. However, encouraged by technological change, regulatory innovation, and pressure from international organizations, many developing countries...

Previous research suggests a correlation between income shocks and remittances (money migrants send to households in their home country). Data constraints, however, have prevented this research from dealing with endogeneity issues or estimating the degree to which remittances may insure against...

What drives governments with similar revenues to publicly provide very different amounts of goods for which private substitutes are available? Key examples are education and health care. This paper compares spending by Brazilian municipalities on pre-primary education---a good that is also...

Until recently, utility services (telecommunications, power, water, and gas) throughout the world were provided by large, usually state-owned, monopolies. However, encouraged by technological change, regulatory innovation, and pressure from international organizations, many developing countries...

June 1999 - Empirical analysis of telecommunications reforms in 30 African and Latin American countries yields results largely consistent with conventional wisdom. Competition seems to be the most successful change agent, so granting even temporary monopolies may delay the arrival of better...

This article discusses the potential of private sector participation (PSP) to improve the urban water supply in South Asia. I first provide background on the literature linking a safe and adequate water supply with malnutrition, morbidity, and mortality. To better understand the selection...