When will regulations work?

In many countries, like the Nordic countries, subjects normally are aware of new regulations and seek to operate in compliance with them. In other countries, compliance with regulations is far less predictable, and this poses difficulties not only for governments but also for companies that enter a market. With reference to infrastructure procurement and regulation, Antonio Estache describes the difficulty of making regulations work as intended: What are the policy concerns that governments try to solve through regulations? To what extent is the economic literature helpful in designing solutions? What are the institutional and country characteristics that are most frequently associated with regulatory failure? To what extent do we have empirical answers? And eventually, are there any promising new trends in the regulation of firms that operate in international markets?

Invited by Tina Søreide