Region: Global
Country: Global / Non-Specific
Keywords: Legal Framework *, Legislation and Laws **
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Document Summary:
Handbook For Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems
Document Details:
Evaluation and criticism of regulatory systems began almost as soon as they were first established. The three most common forms of evaluation are crosscountry statistical studies, cross-country descriptive analyses, and singlecountry structured case studies. The strengths and weaknesses of these different methods are analyzed. It is concluded that individuals who make decisions on whether to undertake changes in a country’s existing regulatory system are typically not interested in multicountry studies that prove or disprove general propositions about the theory and practice of economic regulation.
Instead, their principal concern is whether specific reforms should or should not be applied to their existing regulatory systems. Given the interests and needs of this audience, the handbook recommends that evaluations be performed through well-written, single-country case studies, supplemented by cross-country benchmarking, if possible. These structured case studies should be prepared by respected individuals who are familiar with the regulation of infrastructure industries and who understand the country’s political, economic, and legal realities.
The handbook presents detailed, practical guidance on how to conduct quick, mid-level, and in-depth regulatory evaluations of existing national- and state- or province-level regulatory systems through structured case studies. The focus is on economic regulation of commercialized sector enterprises, whether publicly or privately owned.
The handbook discusses evaluation methods in detail and provides a set of evaluation tools. These tools include questionnaires, interview guidelines, a list of needed background documents, and a model terms of references for hiring the evaluators (appendixes B, C, D, E, and F). The handbook also gives detailed instructions on how to use each of these tools. The questionnaires and interview guidelines have been designed specifically for power sector regulation. However, the basic techniques and many of the regulatory issues are also relevant for other infrastructure sectors. Consequently, the questionnaires can be used with little or no change when evaluating regulatory systems in other infrastructure industries. The handbook’s focus is on the power sector because other ongoing World Bank research projects are examining how to improve the design and operation of regulatory systems in the telecommunications and water and sanitation sectors.
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