Water nationalization: network access, quality, and health outcomes

Fernando Borraz, Nicolás Gonzalez Pampillón () and Marcelo Olarreaga
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Nicolás Gonzalez Pampillón: Universidad de Montevideo
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Nicolás González-Pampillón ()

No 1811, Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) from Department of Economics - dECON

Abstract: In the case of natural monopolies there tends to be a trade-off between a higher quality of output provided by private firms, and a better access for poor consumers provided by public firms. This is partly the reflection of differences in objectives by private and public firms. The former tend to be product-driven, whereas the latter tend to base decisions on political agendas (Chong and Lopez de Silanes, 2005). The objective of this paper is to explore the impact on network access, water quality, and health outcomes of Uruguay's nationalization of water services. An important advantage of focusing on nationalization rather than privatization is that it avoids selection bias due to cherry-picking by firms or governments at the time of privatization. Indeed, nationalization in Uruguay affected all previously privatized firms, as water was declared "part of the public domain". Results suggest that the change in ownership led to an increase in the sanitation rate, as well as improvements in water quality. It was also accompanied by a decline in water-related child mortality, although this latter effect tends not to be statistically significant across specifications.

Keywords: minimum wage; wage inequality; IV; semiparametric estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D60 H51 I10 I30 L33 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/2208 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Water Nationalization: network access, water quality, and health outcomes (2011)
Working Paper: Water nationalization: network access, quality, and health outcomes (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ude:wpaper:1811

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