Regulation and Development

Jean-Jacques Laffont is Professor of Economics at the University of Toulouse and at the University of Southern California. He has published extensively in public economics, incentive theory, development economics and economics of regulation.

• Foreword; Introduction; 1. Overview of regulatory issues; 2. The rent extraction-efficiency trade-off; 3. A positive theory of privatization; 4. Enforcement, regulation and development; 5. Access pricing rules for developing countries; 6. Universal service obligations in LCDs; 7. Design of regulatory institutions; 8. Separation of regulatory powers and development; 9. Concluding remarks.

'In this impressive manuscript, Jean Jacques Laffont shows why the regulation of infrastructure services is crucial to achieve equitable and sustainable expansion of infrastructure services in the poorest countries of the world. This new book by one of the fathers of the modern theory of regulation offers a huge first step towards a theory of regulation of network industries for developing countries and provides preliminary empirical tests of this theory. It opens a huge new research agenda for academics and helps practitioners improve their ability to provide effective policy advice. It is a required reading for anyone claiming to care for the effectiveness of the delivery of public services in developing countries.' Antonio Estache, Senior Economic Advisor, The World Bank