Privatization of infrastructure for water, electricity, transportation, and communications services has gained momentum in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past decade. Success has often depended on the extent to which countries implement the institutional and regulatory reforms essential to attract private investment.

This book analyzes the legal, regulatory, economic, and institutional issues that are key to smoothing the transition to privatized infrastructure. As the reform process reaches economies that are smaller and less developed, the emphasis is on establishing sound and credible rules that foster private initiative, preserve property rights, settle disputes, and protect contracts and consumers.

Distinguished analysts from the private sector, academia, the banking community, and international multilateral institutions recommend reforms to promote private sector involvement in infrastructure and to bring national legal systems in line with international standards. Case studies examine privatization of electricity in Central America and water systems in Trinidad and Tobago and Chile.