Water and sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean : an update on the state of the sector

The purpose of this paper is to provide with an updated snapshot of the water and sanitation sector across Latin American countries, focusing of its key policy characteristics. Access to water and sanitation in the region has improved since the 1990s, decade during which almost every country adopted major reforms of the sector, consisting mainly in increasing private sector participation and the creation of autonomous regulatory bodies. We find that challenges remain in tariff design, service quality, financial health of the sector, and in governance issues related to a lack of coordination between the level of decentralization of the regulation and management of the sector. Finally, the paper provides with a review of the related empirical literature

The diffusion of Internet: a cross-country analysis

This paper analyzes the process of Internet diffusion across the world using a panel of 214 countries during the period 1990-2004. Countries are classified as low and high-income and it is shown that the diffusion process is characterized by a different S-shape in each group. The estimated diffusion curves provide evidence of very slow "catching up". The paper also explores the determinants of Internet diffusion and shows that network effects are crucial to explain this process. One important finding is that the degree of competition in the provision of Internet contributes positively to its diffusion.Technological diffusion, Internet, S-shape curve, Network externalities, Digital divide

understanding transport expenditure patterns

En América Latina y el Caribe, el transporte constituye uno de los principales artículos en la canasta de bienes y servicios consumidos por los hogares, representando entre el 12-17% de los gastos totales. A pesar de su importancia, sorprende la falta de evidencia sobre los patrones de gasto en transporte en la región. El documento presenta un doble propósito. El primer objetivo es describir el gasto de los hogares en transporte y su reciente evolución en la región, prestando especial atención a la identificación de patrones entre el transporte público y privado a través de la distribución del ingreso, el género y los grupos de edad. El segundo propósito es desarrollar una caracterización de la demanda obtenida al estudiar la relación entre el gasto de los hogares en transporte e ingresos a través de la estimación de las curvas de Engel. Utilizando encuestas de ingresos y gastos de 2003 a 2014 de 12 países (Bahamas, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay y Uruguay), se encuentra una notable heterogeneidad en el gasto en transporte en la región y un crecimiento del gasto en transporte privado en ese período. Los resultados muestran que las mujeres jefas de familia tienden a gastar relativamente menos en transporte privado y que la desigualdad en el gasto en transporte es mayor que la desigualdad en el gasto total, lo que demuestra que la demanda de transporte privado crece rápidamente con el ingreso. Dado que en ALC, el transporte privado tiende a ser un “bien de lujo”, las políticas basadas en precios (como las tarifas de congestión o los impuestos al combustible) podrían ser menos efectivas que las políticas de restricción cuantitativa cuando el objetivo de la política es reducir el crecimiento de la propiedad y uso de vehículos privados

Increasing the Efficiency of PublicInfrastructure Delivery: Evidence-based Potential Efficiency Gains in Public Infrastructure Spending in Latin America and the Caribbean

The state of infrastructure in LAC is well below what it should be considering the region’s level of development—and the consequences are devastating. The state of infrastructure reflects both inadequate and inefficient spending. The region invests about 3.5 percent of its annual GDP in infrastructure—about 1.5 percentage points less than the 5 percent of GDP needed to meet the region’s needs. But increasing infrastructure spending is likely to be difficult given the weak economic outlook for the region. Having fewer resources available for investment forces countries to find ways to provide infrastructure services more efficiently. The focus therefore needs to be on increasing the efficiency of infrastructure investment. The present study identifies components and processes of the project cycle of infrastructure delivery that can be improved to generate efficiency gains. This study concludes that gains from increasing efficiency in LAC are considerable, stemming primarily from three sources: improving project selection and optimizing infrastructure portfolios, streamlining infrastructure delivery by reducing cost overruns and delays, and making the most of existing assets. Improvements in these areas could potentially save as much as 40 percent of infrastructure investment, more than 1 percent of regional GDP. The magnitude of potential efficiency gains in public infrastructure spending illustrates that it is not necessarily more investment what is needed, but more efficient investment to close the prevailing infrastructure gap in LAC

When It Comes to Container Port Efficiency, Are All Developing Regions Equal?

This paper develops a port productivity and efficiency analysis of all developing regions between 2000 and 2010, using both parametric and nonparametric approaches. From a unique dataset -our sample covers 70 developing countries, 203 ports, and 1,750 data points-, we carry out an analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity and efficiency changes across developing regions. We show that productivity growth rates between 2000 and 2010 vary significantly and that this heterogeneity is explained by pure efficiency changes rather than scale efficiency of technological changes. Therefore, we carry out a detailed efficiency analysis to determine the drivers of port efficiency. Time series results show an upward trend for port efficiency in developing regions, as it increased from 47 percent in 2000 to 57 percent in 2010. Our analysis indicates that private sector participation, the reduction of corruption in the public sector and improvements in liner connectivity and the existence of multimodal links increase the level of port efficiency in developing regions

Benchmarking Container Port Technical Efficiency in Latin America and the Caribbean

We developed a technical efficiency analysis of container ports in Latin America and the Caribbean using an input-oriented stochastic frontier model. We employed a 10-year panel with data on container throughput, port terminal area, berth length, and number of available cranes in 63 ports. The model has three innovations with respect to the available literature: (i) we treated ship-to-shore gantry cranes and mobile cranes separately, in order to account for the higher productivity of the former; (ii) we introduced a binary variable for ports using ships¿ cranes, treated as an additional source of port productivity; and (iii) we introduced a binary variable for ports operating as transshipment hubs. Their associated parameters are highly significant in the production function. The results show an improvement in the average technical efficiency of ports in the Latin American and Caribbean region from 36% to 50% between 1999 and 2009; the best performing port in 2009 achieved a technical efficiency of 94%with respect to the frontier. The paper also studies possible determinants of port technical efficiency, such as ownership, corruption, transshipment, income per capita, and location. The results revealed positive and significant associations between technical efficiency and both transshipment activities and lower corruption levels

When It Comes to Container Port Efficiency, Are All Developing Regions Equal?

This paper develops a port productivity and efficiency analysis of all developing regions between 2000 and 2010, using both parametric and nonparametric approaches. From a unique dataset -our sample covers 70 developing countries, 203 ports, and 1,750 data points-, we carry out an analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity and efficiency changes across developing regions. We show that productivity growth rates between 2000 and 2010 vary significantly and that this heterogeneity is explained by pure efficiency changes rather than scale efficiency of technological changes. Therefore, we carry out a detailed efficiency analysis to determine the drivers of port efficiency. Time series results show an upward trend for port efficiency in developing regions, as it increased from 47 percent in 2000 to 57 percent in 2010. Our analysis indicates that private sector participation, the reduction of corruption in the public sector and improvements in liner connectivity and the existence of multimodal links increase the level of port efficiency in developing regions. Document type: Articl