Publication: Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
Date
2017-11
ISSN
Published
2017-11
Author(s)
Abstract
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.
Citation
“Foster, Vivien; Witte, Samantha; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh; Moreno, Alejandro. 2017. Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8235. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28853 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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