[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/3185.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does infrastructure reform work for the poor? A case study from Guatemala

Author

Listed:
  • Vivien Foster
  • Maria Caridad Araujo
Abstract
Following the 1996 Peace Accords, Guatemala embarked on a major program of infrastructure reform involving the restructuring and privatization of the electricity and telecommunications sectors and a substantial increase in infrastructure investments partially financed by privatization proceeds. As a result, the pace of new connections to electricity, water, and sanitation services increased by more than 40 percent. Moreover, households in traditionally excluded sectors-the poor, rural, and indigenous populations-were twice as likely to be the beneficiaries of a new infrastructure connection than they had been prior to the Peace Accords. The teledensity index increased by a factor of five from 4.2 in 1997 to 19.7 in 2001, largely because of the growth in cellular telephones, which now outnumber fixed lines. The number of public telephones in rural areas increased by 80 percent since the Peace Accords, so that 80 percent of rural households are now within six kilometers from a public telephone. Although real electricity tariffs increased by 60-80 percent following the reform, residential consumers have been shielded by a"social tariff"policy that has kept charges at pre-reform levels. This policy, which costs US$50 million a year, does little to benefit poor households. The reason is that 60 percent of poor households are not connected to the electricity network, and those that are consume modest amounts of electricity and hence capture only 10 percent of the total value of the subsidy. In contrast, poor households without access to electricity pay about US$11 a kilowatt-hour (or 80 times the electricity tariff) to light their homes with candles and wick lamps. The resources used to finance the"social tariff"would therefore be better used in further accelerating the pace of new connections for currently underserved households.

Suggested Citation

  • Vivien Foster & Maria Caridad Araujo, 2004. "Does infrastructure reform work for the poor? A case study from Guatemala," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3185, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/01/29/000160016_20040129113807/Rendered/PDF/WPS3185.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walker, Ian & Ordonez, Fidel & Serrano, Pedro & Halpern, Jonathan, 2000. "Pricing, subsidies, and the poor : demand for improved water services in Central America," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2468, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Foster, Vivien & Yepes, Tito, 2006. "Is cost recovery a feasible objective for water and electricity ? The Latin American experience," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3943, The World Bank.
    2. Ali,Rubaba & Barra,Alvaro Federico & Berg,Claudia N. & Damania,Richard & Nash,John D. & Russ,Jason Daniel & Ali,Rubaba & Barra,Alvaro Federico & Berg,Claudia N. & Damania,Richard & Nash,John D. & Russ, 2015. "Transport infrastructure and welfare : an application to Nigeria," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7271, The World Bank.
    3. Gulyani, Sumila & Talukdar, Debabrata & Jack, Darby, 2010. "Poverty, living conditions, and infrastructure access : a comparison of slums in Dakar, Johannesburg, and Nairobi," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5388, The World Bank.
    4. Matthias Finger & Rolf W. Künneke (ed.), 2011. "International Handbook of Network Industries," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12961.
    5. Rachel Peletz & Clara MacLeod & Joan Kones & Edinah Samuel & Alicea Easthope-Frazer & Caroline Delaire & Ranjiv Khush, 2020. "When pits fill up: Supply and demand for safe pit-emptying services in Kisumu, Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Banerjee, Sudeshna & Wodon, Quentin & Diallo, Amadou & Pushak, Taras & Uddin, Elal & Tsimpo, Clarence & Foster, Vivien, 2008. "Access, affordability, and alternatives: Modern infrastructure services in Africa," MPRA Paper 27740, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. World Bank, 2010. "Lesotho - Sharing Growth by Reducing Inequality and Vulnerability : Choices for Change A Poverty, Gender, and Social Assessment," World Bank Publications - Reports 2884, The World Bank Group.
    8. Blimpo, Moussa P. & Postepska, Agnieszka & Xu, Yanbin, 2020. "Why is household electricity uptake low in Sub-Saharan Africa?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Gunasekera, Kumudu & Anderson, William & Lakshmanan, T.R., 2008. "Highway-Induced Development: Evidence from Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2371-2389, November.
    10. Whittington, Dale & Nauges, Céline & Fuente, David & Wu, Xun, 2015. "A diagnostic tool for estimating the incidence of subsidies delivered by water utilities in low- and medium-income countries, with illustrative simulations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 70-81.
    11. World Bank, 2004. "Drivers of Sustainable Rural Growth and Poverty Reduction in Central America : Guatemala Case Study, Volume 1. Executive Summary and Main Text," World Bank Publications - Reports 14560, The World Bank Group.
    12. Catarina Figueira & David Parker, 2011. "Infrastructure Liberalization: Challenges to the New Economic Paradigm in the Context of Developing Countries," Chapters, in: Matthias Finger & Rolf W. Künneke (ed.), International Handbook of Network Industries, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Luis A. Andrés & J. Luis Guasch & Thomas Haven & Vivien Foster, 2008. "The Impact of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure : Lights, Shadows, and the Road Ahead," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6545.
    14. Tsimpo, Clarence & Wodon, Quentin, 2016. "Residential Electricity in Uganda," MPRA Paper 114702, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. repec:idb:brikps:358 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Komives, Kristin & Halpern, Jonathan & Foster, Vivien & Wodon, Quentin & Abdullah, Roohi, 2006. "The distributional incidence of residential water and electricity subsidies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3878, The World Bank.
    17. Vivien Foster & José Luis Guasch & Luis Andrés & Thomas Haven, 2008. "The Impact of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure: Lights, Shadows, and the Road Ahead," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 59818, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Strand, Jon, 2012. "Low-level versus high-level equilibrium in public utility services," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 163-172.
    2. Whittington, Dale & Nauges, Céline & Fuente, David & Wu, Xun, 2015. "A diagnostic tool for estimating the incidence of subsidies delivered by water utilities in low- and medium-income countries, with illustrative simulations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 70-81.
    3. Deichman, Uwe & Lall, Somik V. & Suri, Ajay & Rajoria, Pragya, 2003. "Information-based instruments for improved urban management," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3002, The World Bank.
    4. Basani, Marcello & Isham, Jonathan & Reilly, Barry, 2008. "The Determinants of Water Connection and Water Consumption: Empirical Evidence from a Cambodian Household Survey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 953-968, May.
    5. Irina Klytchnikova & Michael Lokshin, 2009. "Measuring Welfare Gains from Better Quality Infrastructure," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 1(2), pages 87-109, December.
    6. Estache, Antonio & Gomez-Lobo, Andres & Leipziger, Danny, 2000. "Utility privatization and the needs of the poor in Latin America - Have we learned enough to get it right?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2407, The World Bank.
    7. Komives, Kristin & Halpern, Jonathan & Foster, Vivien & Wodon, Quentin & Abdullah, Roohi, 2006. "The distributional incidence of residential water and electricity subsidies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3878, The World Bank.
    8. Estache, Antonio & Gomez-Lobo, Andres & Leipziger, Danny, 2001. "Utilities Privatization and the Poor: Lessons and Evidence from Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1179-1198, July.
    9. Barde, Julia Alexa & Lehmann, Paul, 2013. "Distributional effects of water tariff reforms: An empirical study for Lima, Peru," UFZ Discussion Papers 14/2013, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    10. Deichmann, Uwe & Lall, Somik V., 2007. "Citizen Feedback and Delivery of Urban Services," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 649-662, April.
    11. -, 2011. "Sistema de cuentas ambientales y económicas del agua. Borrador final," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 3148 edited by Cepal.
    12. Deichmann, Uwe & Lall, Somik V., 2003. "Are you satisfied? citizen feedback and delivery of urban services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3070, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.