Research Database on Infrastructure Economic Performance 1980-2004

Sector Performance Indicators

Energy
The energy sector is relatively well covered by the database, at least in terms of providing a relatively recent snapshot for the main policy areas. The best covered area is access where data are available for 2000 for about 61% of the 207 countries included in the database. The technical quality indicator is available for 60% of the countries, and at least one of the perceived quality indicators is available for 40% of the countries. Price information is available for about 41% of the countries, distinguishing between residential and non residential.

Water & Sanitation
Because the sector is part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it enjoys a lot of effort on data generation in terms of the access rates. The WHO is the main engine behind this effort in collaboration with the multilateral and bilateral aid agencies. The coverage is actually quite high -some national, urban and rural information is available for 75 to 85% of the countries- but there are significant concerns among the research community about the fact that access rates have been measured without much consideration to the quality of access level. The data on technical quality are only available for 27% of the countries. There are data on perceived quality for roughly 39% of the countries but it cannot be used to qualify the information provided by the raw access rates (i.e. access 3 hours a day is not equivalent to access 24 hours a day).

Information and Communication Technology
The ICT sector is probably the best covered among the infrastructure sub-sectors to a large extent thanks to the fact that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has taken on the responsibility to collect the data. ITU covers a wide spectrum of activity under the communications heading and its coverage ranges from 85 to 99% for all national access indicators. The information on prices needed to make assessments of affordability is also quite extensive since it covers roughly 85 to 95% of the 207 countries. With respect to quality, the coverage of technical indicators is over 88% while the information on perceived quality is only available for roughly 40% of the countries.

Transport
The transport sector is possibly the least well covered in terms of the service orientation of infrastructure indicators. Regarding access, network density is the closest approximation to access to the service and is covered at a rate close to 90% for roads but only at a rate of 50% for rail. The relevant data on prices only cover about 30% of the sample for railways. Some type of technical quality information is available for 86% of the countries. Quality perception is only available for about 40% of the countries.

Institutional Reform Indicators

Electricity
The data on electricity policy reform were collected from the following sources: ABS Electricity Deregulation Report (2004), AEI-Brookings telecommunications and electricity regulation database (2003), Bacon (1999), Estache and Gassner (2004), Estache, Trujillo, and Tovar de la Fe (2004), Global Regulatory Network Program (2004), Henisz et al. (2003), International Porwer Finance Review (2003-04), International Power and Utilities Finance Review (2004-05), Kikukawa (2004), Wallsten et al. (2004), World Bank Caribbean Infrastructure Assessment (2004), World Bank Global Energy Sector Reform in Developing Countries (1999), World Bank staff, and country regulators.
The coverage for the three types of institutional indicators is quite good for the electricity sector. For regulatory institutions and private participation in generation and distribution, the coverage is about 80% of the 207 counties. It is somewhat lower on the market structure with only 58%.

Water & Sanitation
The data on water policy reform were collected from the following sources: ABS Water and Waste Utilities of the World (2004), Asian Developing Bank (2000), Bayliss (2002), Benoit (2004), Budds and McGranahan (2003), Hall, Bayliss, and Lobina (2002), Hall and Lobina (2002), Hall, Lobina, and De La Mote (2002), Halpern (2002), Lobina (2001), World Bank Caribbean Infrastructure Assessment (2004), World Bank Sector Note on Water Supply and Sanitation for Infrastructure in EAP (2004), and World Bank staff. The coverage for institutional reforms in W&S is not as exhaustive as for the other utilities. Information on the regulatory institutions responsible for large utilities is available for about 67% of the countries. Ownership data are available for about 70% of the countries. There is no information on the market structure good enough to be reported here at this stage. In most countries small scale operators are important private actors but there is no systematic record of their existence. Most of the information available on their role and importance is only anecdotal.

Information and Communication Technology
The report Trends in Telecommunications Reform from ITU (revised by World Bank staff) is the main source of information for this sector. The information on institutional reforms in the sector is however not as exhaustive as it is for its sector performance indicators. While the coverage on the regulatory institutions is 100%, it varies between 76 and 90% of the countries for more of the other indicators. Quite surprisingly also, in contrast to what is available for other sectors, it proved difficult to obtain data on the timing of reforms and of the creation of the regulatory agencies.

Transport
Information on transport institutions and reforms is not systematically generated by any agency. Even though more data are needed to have a more comprenhensive picture of the transport sector, it was possible to collect data on railways policy reform from Janes World Railways (2003-04) and complement it with interviews to World Bank task managers. When possible, data were cross-checked by colleagues from other multilateral agencies, and experts in private companies. Data are available for 65% of the countries.