Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World

Some 25 years have elapsed since international financial institutions espoused a package of power sector reform measures that became known as the Washington Consensus. This package encompassed the establishment of autonomous regulatory entities, th...

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Main Authors:	Foster, Vivien, Witte, Samantha, Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh, Moreno, Alejandro
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	POWER SECTOR REFORM REGULATION POWER UTILITY ELECTRIC UTILITIES
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/576801510076208252/Charting-the-diffusion-of-power-sector-reforms-across-the-developing-world http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28853

id	okr-10986-28853
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-288532021-06-14T10:08:57Z Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World Foster, Vivien Witte, Samantha Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh Moreno, Alejandro POWER SECTOR REFORM REGULATION POWER UTILITY ELECTRIC UTILITIES Some 25 years have elapsed since international financial institutions espoused a package of power sector reform measures that became known as the Washington Consensus. This package encompassed the establishment of autonomous regulatory entities, the vertical and horizontal unbundling of integrated national monopoly utilities, private sector participation in generation and distribution, and eventually the introduction of competition into power generation and even retail services. Exploiting a unique new data set on the timing and scope of power sector reforms adopted by 88 countries across the developing world over 25 years, this paper seeks to improve understanding of the uptake, diffusion, packaging, and sequencing of power sector reforms, and the extent to which they were affected by the economic and political characteristics of the countries concerned. The analysis focuses on describing the patterns of reform without judging their desirability or evaluating their impact. The paper finds that following rapid diffusion during 1995-2005, the spread of power sector reforms slowed significantly in 2005-15. Only a small minority of developing countries fully implemented the reform model as originally conceived. For the majority, reforms were only selectively adopted according to ease of implementation, often stagnated at an intermediate stage, and were sometimes packaged and sequenced in ways unrelated to the original logic. Country characteristics such as geography, income group, power system size, and political economy all had a significant influence on the uptake of reform. Moreover, a significant number of countries experienced reversals of private sector participation, or were unable to follow through with reform plans that were officially announced. Overall, power sector reform in the developing world lags far behind what was achieved in the developed world during the same time period. Yet, even in the developed world, the full package of reforms does not seem to have been universally adopted. 2017-11-14T21:07:17Z 2017-11-14T21:07:17Z 2017-11 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/576801510076208252/Charting-the-diffusion-of-power-sector-reforms-across-the-developing-world http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28853 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8235 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	POWER SECTOR REFORM REGULATION POWER UTILITY ELECTRIC UTILITIES
spellingShingle	POWER SECTOR REFORM REGULATION POWER UTILITY ELECTRIC UTILITIES Foster, Vivien Witte, Samantha Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh Moreno, Alejandro Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8235
description	Some 25 years have elapsed since international financial institutions espoused a package of power sector reform measures that became known as the Washington Consensus. This package encompassed the establishment of autonomous regulatory entities, the vertical and horizontal unbundling of integrated national monopoly utilities, private sector participation in generation and distribution, and eventually the introduction of competition into power generation and even retail services. Exploiting a unique new data set on the timing and scope of power sector reforms adopted by 88 countries across the developing world over 25 years, this paper seeks to improve understanding of the uptake, diffusion, packaging, and sequencing of power sector reforms, and the extent to which they were affected by the economic and political characteristics of the countries concerned. The analysis focuses on describing the patterns of reform without judging their desirability or evaluating their impact. The paper finds that following rapid diffusion during 1995-2005, the spread of power sector reforms slowed significantly in 2005-15. Only a small minority of developing countries fully implemented the reform model as originally conceived. For the majority, reforms were only selectively adopted according to ease of implementation, often stagnated at an intermediate stage, and were sometimes packaged and sequenced in ways unrelated to the original logic. Country characteristics such as geography, income group, power system size, and political economy all had a significant influence on the uptake of reform. Moreover, a significant number of countries experienced reversals of private sector participation, or were unable to follow through with reform plans that were officially announced. Overall, power sector reform in the developing world lags far behind what was achieved in the developed world during the same time period. Yet, even in the developed world, the full package of reforms does not seem to have been universally adopted.
format	Working Paper
author	Foster, Vivien Witte, Samantha Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh Moreno, Alejandro
author_facet	Foster, Vivien Witte, Samantha Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh Moreno, Alejandro
author_sort	Foster, Vivien
title	Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
title_short	Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
title_full	Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
title_fullStr	Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
title_full_unstemmed	Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
title_sort	charting the diffusion of power sector reforms across the developing world
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/576801510076208252/Charting-the-diffusion-of-power-sector-reforms-across-the-developing-world http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28853
_version_	1764467874317991936

Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World

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