Publication: An Assessment of Telecommunications Reform in Developing Countries
Date
2002-10
ISSN
Published
2002-10
Author(s)
Fink, Carsten
Mattoo, Aaditya
Rathindran, Randeep
Abstract
The authors analyze the effect of policy
reform in basic telecommunications on sectoral performance
using a new panel data set for 86 developing countries
across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America and
the Caribbean over the period 1985 to 1999. The authors
address three questions: 1) What impact do specific policy
changes-relating to ownership and competition-have on
sectoral performance? 2) How is the impact of change in any
one policy affected by the implementation of the other, and
by the overall regulatory framework? 3) Does the sequence in
which reforms are implemented affect performance? The
authors find that both privatization and competition lead to
significant improvements in performance. But a comprehensive
reform program, involving both policies and the support of
an independent regulator, produced the largest gains-an 8
percent higher level of mainlines and a 21 percent higher
level of productivity compared to years of partial and no
reform. Interestingly, the sequence of reform matters:
mainline penetration is lower if competition is introduced
after privatization, rather than at the same time. The
authors also find that autonomous factors, such as
technological progress, have a strong influence on
telecommunications performance, accounting for an increase
of 5 percent a year in teledensity and 9 percent in
productivity over the period 1985 to 1999.
Citation
“Fink, Carsten; Mattoo, Aaditya; Rathindran, Randeep. 2002. An Assessment of Telecommunications Reform in Developing Countries. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2909. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19209 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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