Ideas for Developing Asia and the Pacific

Call for Papers on Reforming Asian Utilities: Institutional Reforms for Boosting Private Investments

Reforming Asian Utilities: Institutional Reforms for Boosting Private Investments
Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East-Asia (ERIA), and Economic Analysis and Policy Journal
Tokyo, Japan

The complexities of the market-based reforms of Asian utilities that began in the early 1990s are reflected in the experiences of the region’s developing countries. The changing regional and global landscape is moreover compounding reform challenges within the sector. Energy reform in Asia, for instance, must increasingly address issues such as decarbonization, surging demand and supply pressures, and infrastructure financing gaps.

These phenomena are raising new questions for Asian policy makers, including whether existing institutional frameworks in the utility sector remain adequate, how utilities reform can meet sector-specific objectives, and how utilities can be made more attractive to private investors. At the same time, there are opportunities to identify and learn from reform lessons in the region, the application of which could significantly lift Asia’s economic growth and development.

Against this backdrop, ADBI is seeking related empirical papers for possible inclusion in a special issue of the journal Economic Analysis and Policy. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Utilities reform in Asian countries
  • Financing and investments in utilities
  • Utility structure, competition, and regulation

Submission Procedure

Contributors should submit their full manuscript in English by 15 May 2020 to [email protected].

Contributors should clearly indicate that the paper is submitted to the Special Issue on Reforming Asian Utilities: Institutional Reforms for Boosting Private Investments. All papers must adhere to Economic Analysis and Policy’s Guidelines for Contributors.

Writers of accepted papers will be invited to the paper development workshop to be sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), to be organized on 1-2 September 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. The selected papers will then be submitted to the journal Economic Analysis and Policy. The usual journal refereeing standards and quality processes will apply.

Guest Editors

  • Peter J. Morgan, Senior Consulting Economist, Vice Chair, Asian Development Bank Institute, Japan
  • Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, Senior Energy Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, Indonesia
  • Rabindra Nepal, Senior Lecturer, University of Wollongong, Australia
  • Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, Associate Professor, Tokai University; Visiting Professor, Keio University, Japan

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