Accounting for Poverty in Infrastructure Reform : Learning from Latin America's Experience

by Estache, Antonio; Foster, Vivien; Wodon, Quentin

• ISBN13: 9780821350393
• ISBN10: 0821350390
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: World Bank

Summary

"During the 1990?s a number of countries in Latin America including Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, developed policies focused on utility sector liberalization through increased private sector participation. This focus resulted from the recognition that overall quality and availability of services were inadequate. Infrastructure reform is inexorably linked to poverty alleviation and therefore must be carefully constructed and enacted.This book provides practical guidelines and options for infrastructure reform that result in access and affordability for the poor. Accounting for Poverty in Infrastructure Reform: Learning from Latin America?s Experience includes analysis of the trade-offs that must be made between efficiency, equity, and fiscal costs of the options. It includes a new model for reform that consists of three main components - policies, regulation, and provision which when properly balanced minimize the risks associated with reform."

Table of Contents

Foreword	v
Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(6)
Background	2	(2)
Investment and Reform Needs	4	(1)
Competition Rules and Regulatory Design	5	(2)
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Linkages between Infrastructure Reforms and Poverty	7	(18)
Macroeconomic Linkages	7	(7)
Microeconomic Linkages	14	(8)
Policy Implications	22	(3)
Promoting Access	25	(32)
Trends in Access Rates	25	(4)
Time Frame of Benefits	29	(2)
Who Has Gained Access?	31	(6)
Instruments to Improve or Facilitate Access	37	(14)
Concluding Comments	51	(6)
Ensuring Consumption Affordability	57	(24)
Impact of Infrastructure Reform	57	(2)
Improving Consumption Affordability for the Poorest	59	(9)
Reducing the Costs of Service	68	(1)
Facilitating Payment	69	(2)
Targeting an Instrument	71	(8)
Concluding Comments	79	(2)
Establishing Priorities	81	(30)
Diagnostic Tools for Access	82	(5)
Diagnostic Tools for Affordability	87	(5)
Setting Access and Affordability Priorities	92	(5)
Setting Infrastructure Sector Priorities	97	(2)
The Decision Tree	99	(5)
General Policy Guidelines to Protect the Poor	104	(4)
Concluding Comments	108	(3)
References	111	(6)
Index	117