An Assessment of Telecommunications Reform in Developing Countries

Fink, Carsten ; Mattoo, Aaditya ; Rathindran, Randeep

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AVERAGE COSTS;    COMPETITIVENESS;    CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK;    CONSUMERS;    DEVELOPED COUNTRIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2909
RP-ID  :  WPS2909

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors analyze the effect of policyreform in basic telecommunications on sectoral performanceusing a new panel data set for 86 developing countriesacross Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America andthe Caribbean over the period 1985 to 1999. The authorsaddress three questions: 1) What impact do specific policychanges-relating to ownership and competition-have onsectoral performance? 2) How is the impact of change in anyone policy affected by the implementation of the other, andby the overall regulatory framework? 3) Does the sequence inwhich reforms are implemented affect performance? Theauthors find that both privatization and competition lead tosignificant improvements in performance. But a comprehensivereform program, involving both policies and the support ofan independent regulator, produced the largest gains-an 8percent higher level of mainlines and a 21 percent higherlevel of productivity compared to years of partial and noreform. Interestingly, the sequence of reform matters:mainline penetration is lower if competition is introducedafter privatization, rather than at the same time. Theauthors also find that autonomous factors, such astechnological progress, have a strong influence ontelecommunications performance, accounting for an increaseof 5 percent a year in teledensity and 9 percent inproductivity over the period 1985 to 1999.