Utility Privatization and the Needs of the Poor in Latin America : Have We Learned Enough to Get It Right?
Efforts to reform utilities can affect poor households in varied, often complex, ways, but it is by no means certain that such reform will hurt vulnerable households. Many myths have been perpetuated in discussions of utility reform - and in many c...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/08/443558/utility-privatization-needs-poor-latin-america-learned-enough-right http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19814 |
| Summary: | Efforts to reform utilities can affect
poor households in varied, often complex, ways, but it is by
no means certain that such reform will hurt vulnerable
households. Many myths have been perpetuated in discussions
of utility reform - and in many cases poor households have
benefited from reform. What is amazing is the extent to
which governments, and their advisors - sometimes including
multilateral organizations - fail to measure, anticipate,
and monitor how the privatization of utilities actually
affects the poor. Many questions must still be answered
before good general guidelines can be drawn, but the authors
offer many suggestions about how social, regulatory, and
privatization policy, can increase the benefits of utility
reform for poor households. The good news is that many
measures can be taken to improve the chances that poor
households will benefit from reform. Chief among these is
promoting competition, where possible. Essentially what is
needed is political commitment to doing the right thing. If
policy is weak before privatization, it is going to be weak
after privatization as well. Privatization is no substitute
for responsible policy on redistribution. |
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