Caught Between Theory and Practice: Government, Market, and Regulatory Failure in Electricity Sector Reforms

Rabindra Nepal and Tooraj Jamasb

No 1301, Heriot-Watt University Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, School of Management and Languages, Heriot Watt University

Abstract: The world-wide electricity sector reforms of the early 1990s have revealed the considerable complexities of making market driven reforms in network and infrastructure industries. This paper reflects on the experiences to date with the process and outcomes of market-based electricity reforms across less-developed, transition and developed economies. The reforms outcomes suggest similar problems facing the electricity sector of these countries though their contexts vary significantly. Many developing and developed economies continue to have investment inadequacy concerns and the need to balance economy efficiency, sustainability and social equity after more than two decades of experience with reforms. We also use a case study of selected countries that in many respects represent the current state of the reform though they are rarely examined. Nepal, Belarus and Ireland are chosen as country-specific case studies for this purpose. We conclude that the changing dynamics of the electricity supply industry (ESI) and policy objectives imply that analysing the success and failure of reforms will indeed remain a complex process.

Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.hw.ac.uk/sml/downloads/economics/HW_DP_2013_01.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
Journal Article: Caught between theory and practice: Government, market, and regulatory failure in electricity sector reforms (2015)
Working Paper: Caught Between Theory and Practice: Government, Market, and Regulatory Failure in Electricity Sector Reforms (2014)
Working Paper: Caught Between Theory and Practice: Government, Market, and Regulatory Failure in Electricity Sector Reforms (2013)
Working Paper: Caught Between Theory and Practice: Government, Market and Regulatory Failures in Electricity Sector Reforms (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hwe:hwuedp:1301

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Heriot-Watt University Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, School of Management and Languages, Heriot Watt University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Colin Miller ().