The Project
Phase 1: Taking stock – national modes of liberalisation and privatisation
Research activities
Phase 1 of the project focuses on describing the process of liberalisation and privatisation of public services in the countries and sectors under investigation. It aims at a comprehensive description and comparative analysis of country- and sector-specific liberalisation/privatisation processes and of current forms of regulation.
Based on a common framework this phase will provide a description of liberalisation/privatisation and of the current state of the process for each sector in each country; a description of the drivers, actors and main conflicts between the different stakeholders; and a description of the specific modes of regulation (full privatisation, state as major or minor shareholder, regulators, private-public-partnerships, etc.). Special attention will be paid in this phase to sector-specific regulations to ensure the quality of services.
On the basis of the sector descriptions carried out for this phase as well as existing literature, a typology of regulative practices will then be developed. This typology will include country and sector comparisons and will take into account different dimensions of liberalisation and privatisation, such as the duration of liberalisation and privatisation processes in the various countries under investigation as well as the market structure and the ownership structure of the companies concerned.
Publications and dissemination activities
In addition to a number of internal country reports and sector studies on liberalisation and privatisation processes as well as on forms of regulation, this Phase will result in a Policy Paper: Conclusions from the 24 sectors studies on liberalisation and privatisation and on forms of regulation.