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Making infrastructure reform in Latin America work for the poor

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  • Estache, Antonio
  • Foster, Vivien
  • Wodon, Quentin

Abstract

Ten years of infrastructure reform in Latin America can teach us a lot about how to make privatization work for the poor. There are macroeconomic and microeconomic transmission mechanisms through which such reform may affect those sectors. This paper discusses policy instruments to increase their access to services and make the latter more affordable for them. The advantages and disadvantages of each instrument are evaluated and examples are given. The ways in which policy-makers should go about setting social priorities in infrastructure reform and choosing the most appropriate policy instruments in each case are then considered. Emphasis is placed on the need for simple and rapid empirical diagnostic tools, and finally it is stressed that a pro-poor reform strategy requires a political commitment from the outset of the reform process and an integrated approach between privatization, social and regulatory policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Estache, Antonio & Foster, Vivien & Wodon, Quentin, 2002. "Making infrastructure reform in Latin America work for the poor," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col070:10910
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    2. Lisa Bagnoli & Salvador Bertomeu & Antonio Estache & Maria Vagliasindi, 2020. "Are the Poor Better Off with Public or Private Utilities ?A Survey of the Academic Evidence on Developing Economies," Working Papers ECARES 2020-24, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. Nepal, Rabindra & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2012. "Reforming the power sector in transition: Do institutions matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1675-1682.
    4. Julian Andrés Diaz Tautiva & Felipe Ignacio Rifo Rivera & Sebastian Andrés Barros Celume & Sergio Andrés Rifo Rivera, 2024. "Mapping the research about organisations in the latin american context: a bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 121-169, February.
    5. Malini Ranganathan, 2014. "Paying for Pipes, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 590-608, March.

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