Utility Privatization and Regulation: A Fair Deal for Consumers?

Latin American countries have now privatized a large number of their utility industries and make more use of market approaches to delivery through networks. Privatization has major consequences for efficiency, long-term growth, consumer welfare and income distribution but insufficient attention has been paid to the direct effect on consumers of regulation and the introduction of competition. This book assesses how reform processes can be improved, particularly in the light of experience in some Latin American and European countries.

The authors address the question of infrastructure reforms in a novel way by focusing on the impact which they can have on consumers through the prices paid by different groups and on their access to the networks. They analyse original material from four Latin American countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru - and two European countries - Spain and the UK. Access is especially relevant when considering immature systems which have not yet extended to cover the majority of the population, as is the case in many Latin American countries. The authors also address the widespread impact of privatization on the economy (via macroeconomic influences) and the more general issues of subsidies and regulation which are endemic to these industries. The book focuses on the reform of four sectors: telecommunications, electricity, gas, and water and sanitation.

Academics, students, practitioners and policymakers specialising in economics, development and institutional reform will value the book's unique focus on the consumer experience of utility privatization and regulation, complemented by the rigorous case study analysis of the effects on prices and access.

Edited by Cecilia Ugaz, UNRISD, Geneva, Switzerland and Catherine Waddams Price, Director, ESRC Centre for Competition Policy and Professor of Regulation, School of Management, University of East Anglia, UK