Are the Poor Better Off with Public or Private Utilities ?A Survey of the Academic Evidence on Developing Economies

Lisa Bagnoli, Salvador Bertoméu Sánchez, Antonio Estache and Maria Vagliasindi

No 2020-24, Working Papers ECARES from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: The paper surveys the evidence for developing countries of the relevance for the poor of the ownership choice (i.e. public vs. private vs. mixed) in electricity and water & sanitation utilities. It shows that most of the still widely quoted evidence is outdated (based on pre-2010 data) and fails to reflect the longer term evolution of the ownership choices of the 1990s. The most recent data suggests that it matters less to social outcomes than regulatory governance and market structure. It makes the case for an ownership choice more coherent with the context and capacity constraints of countries and sectors. It also identifies significant knowledge gaps on the ways in which social considerations can be addressed under any ownership type and this defines a new research agenda.

JEL-codes: F63 H54 H57 L51 L90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 p.
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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