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This paper analyzes government-led renegotiations in infrastructure concession contracts in Latin America, based on the same sample used in Guasch, Laffont and Straub (2003) to examine firm-led renegotiations. After extending the theoretical framework to a multiple-period context in which both Pareto-improving and rent-shifting renegotiations at the initiative of the government can occur, we develop an original instrumental variable strategy to address the issue of contract endogeneity and derive empirical results. While some of the main insights concerning the importance of having a regulator in place when awarding concessions and the fragility of price cap regulatory schemes are unchanged, significant differences arise with respect to the effect of investment and financing, as well as the corruption variables. We provide evidence that a good regulatory framework is especially important in contexts with weak governance and political opportunism.

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.

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. This book 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 the common mistakes and make concessions to efficiently contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.

We construct a regulation model in which renegotiation occurs due to the imperfect enforcement of concession contracts. This enables us to provide theoretical predictions for the impact, on the probability of renegotiation of a concession, of regulatory policy, institutional features, economic shocks and of several characteristics of the concession contracts themselves.

Although the Latin American region's growth rates are at a three decade high, they have been historically disappointing in relative terms, which cannot be dissociated from the microeconomic environment in which firms operate. Policy makers may need to complement their focus on macroeconomic stability with an increased emphasis on microeconomic reforms. By providing empirical evidence linking actual firm performance to shortcomings in Latin America's investment climate, the book discusses policies that could have a significant impact on firm productivity by improving the environment in which firms invest and operate.

Quality systems and standards have a significant impact on market access, export growth, productivity, industrial upgrading, diffusion of innovation, and other central ingredients for reducing poverty and enhancing country competitiveness. This book provides a comprehensive evaluation and blueprint for implementing quality systems for private sector development and trade and competition initiatives. By thoroughly analyzing the diversity of institutions, linkages, and arrangements involved in quality systems and by identifying success factors in country quality strategies, this book provides a clear methodology on how to implement effective demand-driven national quality systems. It describes the necessary institutions and jurisdictions, the structure of required services and appropriate programs, the procedures and processes to be followed, the financing requirements and responsibilities, the incentive structure, and the relative roles of the public and private sector. With rich examples and case studies drawing best practices and lessons from around the world, this book will be invaluable to policy makers and development, trade, and competitiveness practitioners confronted with the challenge of building trade competitiveness in the new global economy.

This books focuses on a) the performance of labor markets in the Latin American and Caribbean region since the beginning of the significant structural reforms most countries in the region have undertaken; b) the structure of labor markets, institutions, and incentive structures; c) the effects of that structure on employment, earnings, income distribution, and poverty levels; d) the role of labor market institutions in labor market trends; e) the options for reform and the benefits of comprehensive labor reforms, as evidenced inside and outside the region; and f) labor policy reforms to improve in a sustainable way the employment/unemployment outlook. The book was written to encourage a call for comprehensive labor market reforms. Successful labor market reforms must be complemented with strengthening of the safety nets and with macroeconomic policies that sustain robust growth, particularly in the sectors that are likely to give rise to substantial job creation.

The literature on the benefits and costs of regulation demonstrates that this issue can be explored systematically using standard economic analysis. It also shows that regulation can have a significant adverse impact on economic growth. Specifically, regulation aimed at controlling prices and entry into markets that would otherwise be workably competitive is likely to reduce growth and adversely affect the average standard of living. In addition, process regulation can impose a significant cost on the economy. Nonetheless, social regulations may have significant net benefits for the average consumer if designed judiciously. There are several policies developing countries might consider adopting to improve their general approach to regulation. The appropriate regulatory tools and framework will depend on many factors, including bureaucratic expertise, resource availability, political constraints, and economic impacts. There is a general need to enhance the capability for evaluating regulation at the local and national levels.