This paper reviews the book “Infrastructure and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa” by Antonio Estache and Quentin Wodon. The authors summarize the political debate on infrastructure policy in Africa in a very compelling and knowledgeable way and make a convincing case for pro-poor subsidies....

This paper compares water and sanitation services in municipalities that entered into a concession arrangement with a private operator versus those in a comparable control group of municipalities that continued with a public operator, and we explore five variables of interest: (i) water coverage;...

This paper provides a 'back-of-the-envelope' assessment of the efficiency effects of the reforms of the water sector in Argentina. Private operators are now key players in 15 of Argentina's provinces. While all have adopted incentive based regulatory regimes which require estimates of economic...

Water and wastewater infrastructure (W&WI) in the U.S. is in need of immediate capital investments. Support from the federal government has declined significantly in the last two decades, forcing state and local governments to contribute a larger share. With increased decentralization of...

We argue that the concession contracts in the Italian water sector may have been shaped by the very local circumstances. In turn, different contract designs may have influenced the aptitude of bidding companies. To investigate these issues, we assemble an original dataset and two composite...

The problems of environment protection in the industrial sectors are becoming more and more relevant, with strict legal requirements that imply considerable investments. This encourages researchers to look for new systemic solutions and methodologies to improve efficiency of environment...

Where they exist, tariffs for water supply and sanitation services face a tension between different policy objectives, such as ensuring the financial sustainability of service provision and ensuring access to all, including vulnerable and poor social groups. Governments (local and national)...

Potable water supply in Germany is highly fragmented. A consolidation of the industry could, therefore, lead to lower cost of water supply and price savings for the customers. In this paper we estimate a total cost function for potable water supply based on a unique sample of German water...

The present paper investigates the factors affecting water utility companies' willingness to implement public information campaigns aimed at promoting sustainable water use and reducing household water consumption. We have analyzed 114 Italian water utility companies. For each we hand-collected...

The paper investigates the organization of the Italian water sector in the light of the reforms of public utilities. The aim is to examine the degree of implementation of the water sector reform (the so-called Galli Law of 1994) and assess the performance of operators through a study of their...