The Path to Rational Regulation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Issues, Concepts and Experience (Directions in Development)

Business & Money

Guasch, J. Luis

Spiller, Pablo T.

Management & Leadership

World Bank

' ... the relationship between employment growth and output growth ... is greatly affected by the functioning, efficiency and institutional structure of the labor market.' - Joseph Stiglitz, Chief Economist, World Bank Despite the resumption of economic growth in most LAC countries since the late 1980s, improvements on the employment/unemployment front have been sluggish at best, with a few notable exceptions. In many countries, renewed growth in LAC in the 1990s has so far failed to generate adequate new jobs in place of those lost during the adjustment, and to restore wages to pre-crisis levels. The focus of this book is on: * the performance of labor markets in the LAC region since the beginning of significant structural reforms most countries in the region have undertaken; * the structure of labor markets, institutions, and incentive structures; * the effects of that structure on employment, earnings, income distribution, and poverty levels; * the role of labor market institutions in labor market trends; * the options for reform and the benefits of comprehensive labor reforms, as evidenced inside and outside the region; * labor policy reforms to improve in a sustainable way the employment/unemployment outlook.

Labor Market Reform and Job Creation: The Unfinished Agenda in Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Economics

'...developing countries, complementing their far-reaching privatization programs, are engaged in deregulating various sectors of their economies and devising new regulatory frameworks for others, particularly the utilities sectors.'As economies become more open, pressures on countries to become more competitive drive the call for regulatory reform to reduce costs and foster increased productivity, competitiveness, and growth. This report provides an overview of the costs and benefits of regulation throughout the world. It provides case histories of regulation in different countries, developed and developing and in various sectors, such as, transportation, utilities, and power. It presents different strategies that were employed. Furthermore, it identifies lessons learned and lays the foundations for a best practice scenario for other countries to adopt. While the challenges to regulatory reform are considerable, so are the efforts that developing countries are making to face them. These lessons, when properly adapted to each country's own environment, can significantly increase the likelihood of effective regulation.

Managing the Regulatory Process: Design, Concepts, Issues, and the Latin America and Caribbean Story (World Bank Latin American and Caribbean Studies)

World Bank Publications

Little over a decade ago, infrastructure concessions promised to solve Latin America's endemic infrastructure deficit. Awarded in competitive auctions, these concessions were supposed to combine private sector efficiency with rent dissipation brought about by competition. Yet something did not go quite right, as concessions were plagued with opportunistic renegotiations, most of them at the expense of taxpayers.Granting and Renegotiating Infrastructure Concessions is a major contribution toward understanding what went wrong and what should be done differently in the future to reap the potential benefits of infrastructure reform and private participation in infrastructure provision. It begins by analyzing a rich data set on more than 1,000 infrastructure concessions, uncovering a series of puzzling stylized facts. It then considers alternative explanations for the patterns it has uncovered, and concludes with a series of insightful policy proposals aimed at avoiding common mistakes, enabling concessions to efficiently contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.

Granting and Renegotiating Infrastructure Concessions: Doing it Right (WBI Development Studies)

Infrastructure plays a key role in fostering growth and productivity and has been linked to improved earnings, health, and education levels for the poor. Yet Latin America and the Caribbean are currently faced with a dangerous combination of relatively low public and private infrastructure investment. Those investment levels must increase, and it can be done. If Latin American and Caribbean governments are to increase infrastructure investment in politically feasible ways, it is critical that they learn from experience and have an accurate idea of future impacts. This book contributes to this aim by producing what is arguably the most comprehensive privatization impact analysis in the region to date, drawing on an extremely comprehensive dataset.

The Impact of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure: Lights, Shadows, and the Road Ahead (Latin American Development Forum)

Foster, Vivien

Andrés, Luis A.

Haven, Thomas

This book provides insights into infrastructure sector performance by focusing on the links between key indicators for utilities, and changes in ownership, regulatory agency governance, and corporate governance, among other dimensions. By linking inputs and outputs over the last 15 years, the analysis is able to uncover key determinants that have impacted performance and address why the effects of such dimensions resulted in significant changes in the performance of infrastructure service provision.

Uncovering the Drivers of Utility Performance: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean on the Role of the Private Sector, Regulation, and ... (Directions in Development - Infrastructure)

Schwartz, Jordan

Processes & Infrastructure

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Books by Guasch, J. Luis