Regulatory Governance In Developing Countries

Provides a review of regulatory reforms in developing countries, with a particular focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the 'best practice' model of reform, the significance of institutions of regulatory governance, and the impact of post-privatisation governance on development and poverty reduction agendas.

This report encourages governments to “think big” about the relevance of regulatory policy and assesses the recent efforts of OECD countries to develop and deepen regulatory policy and governance.

Regulation, Markets and Poverty analyses the policy implications of research into issues of competition, regulation and regulatory governance in developing countries. Particular attention is paid to factors affecting poverty and to the connection between regulation, competition and poverty. It represents the culmination of research undertaken in the past five years by the Centre on Regulation and Competition. Written in a non-technical manner with references to the more technical literature, each chapter draws on the work of leading experts across a range of disciplines who frequently challenge conventional wisdom. This accessible and lively study will appeal to policymakers and practitioners dealing with regulation and competition in developing countries, postgraduate students of regulation, competition, public policy and international business. Staff of international development agencies and NGOs working on governance issues, competitiveness, utility policy and infrastructure investment will also find this important book of value and interest.

This report encourages governments to “think big” about the relevance of regulatory policy and assesses the recent efforts of OECD countries to develop and deepen regulatory policy and governance.

This is the first of two volumes that examine the changing nature of state-business relations. This book assesses the potential and limits of CSR in developing countries, by focusing on aspects that are often ignored in the CSR literature: historical experience, theoretical perspectives, and institutional and political dimensions of change.

The 1990s and 2000s have witnessed a spurt of energetic institution-building in the developing world, as regulatory agencies emerge to take over the role of the executive in key sectors. This rise of the regulatory state of the south is barely noticed both by scholars of regulation and of development, let alone adequately documented and theorized. Yet the consequences for the role of the state and modalities of governance in the south are substantial, as politically charged decisions are handed over to formally technocratic agencies, creating new arenas and forms of contestation over the gains and losses from development decisions. Moreover, this shift in the developing world comes at a time when the regulatory state in the north is under considerable stress from the global financial crisis. Understanding the regulatory state of the south, and particularly forms of accommodation to political pressures, could stimulate a broader conversation around the role of the regulatory state in both north and south. This volume seeks to provoke such a discussion by empirically exploring the emergence of regulatory agencies of a range of developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The cases focus on telecommunications, electricity, and water: sectors that have often been at the frontlines of this transition. The central question for the volume is: Are there distinctive features of the regulatory state of the South, shaped by the political-economic context of the global south in the last two decades? To assist in exploring this question, the volume includes brief commentaries on the case studies from a range of disciplines: development economics, law and regulation, development sociology, and comparative politics. Collectively, the volume seeks to shape the contours of a productive inter-disciplinary conversation on the emergence of a significant empirical phenomenon - the rise of regulatory agencies in the developing world - with implications both for the study of regulation and the study of development.

Jointly developed by the OECD and the Korean Development Institute, this report presents cutting-edge thinking in how to facilitate good regulatory design and implementation.