This study examines the question of private versus public performance in a natural monopoly setting. It analyzes data from 301 utilities with private sector participation (PSP) and 926 utilities without PSP in 71 developing and transition economies to evaluate the impact of PSP on firm performance in electricity distribution and water and sanitation services. Private participation is shown to be associated with an increase in connections, labor productivity, and bill collection rates, and a decrease in employment and electricity distributional losses.

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.

Massive private investment that complements public investment is needed to close the demand-supply gap and make reliable power available to all Indians. Government efforts have sought to attract private sector funding and management efficiency throughout the electricity value chain, adapting its strategy over time.

This book offers theoretical and methodological guidelines for researching the complex regulation of local infrastructure, utilities and public services in the context of rapid urbanisation, technological change, and climate change. It examines the interactions between regulators, public officers, infrastructure and utilities firms, public service providers, citizens, and civil society organisations. It contains contributions from academics and practitioners from various disciplinary perspectives and from many regions of the world, illustrated with case studies from several sectors including water, natural gas and electricity distribution, local public transport, district heating, urban waste, and environmental services.

Expectations are high regarding the potential benefits of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development in low-income countries. The development community, led by the G20, the United Nations, and others, expects these partnerships between goverments and private companies in infrastructure service provision to aid "transformational" mega-projects, as well as efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet PPPs have been widely used only since the 1990s, and discussion of their efficacy is still dominated by best-practice guidance, academic studies that focus on developed countries, or ideological criticism. Meanwhile, practitioners have quietly accumulated a large body of empirical evidence on the actual performance of PPPs. The purpose of this book is to summarize and consolidate what this critical mass of evidence-based research indicates about PPPs in low-income countries, and thereby develop a more realistic perspective on the practical value of these mechanisms. With a primary focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, though drawing on critical insights from other regions, it demonstrates that the benefits of such partnerships will only be realised if expectations remain modest and projects are subject to transparent evaluation and competition.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are long-term contracts between a private party and a government agency that strive to provide a public asset or service in which the private party bears both some risk and some management responsibility. If implemented well, PPPs can help overcome inadequate infrastructure that constrains economic growth, particularly in developing countries. The use of PPPs has increased in the last two decades; they are now used in more than 134 developing countries, contributing about 15-20 percent of total infrastructure investment. The World Bank Group has expanded its support to PPPs through a wide range of instruments and services. During the last 10 years, its support has increased about threefold, to nearly $3 billion per year. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assesses how effective the World Bank Group has been in helping countries use PPPs. In the evaluation, IEG examines the relevance of Bank Group support, how successful projects were, how the Bank Group coordinated support among its business lines (support to the public sector versus the private sector), and how it compares with the experience of other multilateral development banks with PPP support. IEG distills lessons to apply to the Bank Group's support of PPPs. Finally, IEG presents six recommendations that apply to both the organizational and the operational aspects of this work.