Sandy's Selections
Sanford V. Berg
Teaching, Research, and Outreach: Sanford (Sandy) Berg at the University of Florida
The five write-ups below survey my views about teaching, research, and outreach based on my own professional evolution. As a graduate student at Yale University, I could not have imagined my good fortune in finding a university position that would open so many doors. There are still some years before I become less active as a teacher, researcher, and workshop organizer. So the notes here do not represent a "final chapter;" however, assembling the ideas has provided me with some fresh perspectives on what I have most enjoyed since I came to the University of Florida in 1971. The sections may not be of interest to anyone else. Nevertheless, I have attempted to describe my passion for teaching, my love of economics as a policy science, how my research has complemented classroom activities, managerial economics as a component of professional education, and observations on mentoring outside the classroom.
It is a real privilege to have such flexibility that allowed me to explore so many interesting (and useful) ideas over the years. In return, I have tried to shape the Public Utility Research Center into an institution whose impact will continue long after I can no longer contribute to its programs.
My Teaching Philosophy and Objectives
Teaching and Scholarly Pursuits: the Policy Sciences at UF
Integrating Research into Classroom Teaching
Observations on Graduate Managerial Economics
Overview of Mentoring
2009 Resources of Interest
A new book by Philippe Marin on Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Water Utilities provides a review of experiences in developing countries. He provides an overview of PPPs, including evidence on how private participation affects access, service quality, operational efficiency, and tariffs. Implications for coverage, water losses, and collections are also discussed. The author then presents lessons for the next generation PPPs in the water sector. The volume is nearly 200 pages long, and a comprehensive bibliography provides additional references.
Two reports jointly produced by the African Development Bank, PPIAF and the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) provide useful cases from Africa:
Water Utilities in Africa: Case studies of Transformation and Market Access. This report presents case studies from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia on the qualities and attributes that signal the readiness of utilities to access commercial finance. Each case study incorporates an assessment of the local financial market environment as well as attempts that have been undertaken by the utility to access those markets.
How Can Reforming African Water Utilities Tap Local Financial Markets?. This overview accompanies the above publication and gives a summary of key lessons and recommendations that emerged from the case studies.
Water Services for the Urban Poor. The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) has issued a new Guide for improving Water Supply and Sanitation Services to the Urban Poor. The Guide identifies obstacles to reaching the poor, and proposes six action areas:
- Give the Poor a Voice
- Neutralize Vested Interests (water vendors, organized crime, public officials, and utility staff)
- Eliminate Administrative and Legal Barriers (address land ownership/tenure issues)
- Strengthen Capacity, Autonomy, and Accountability of Service Providers and Provide Incentives to Serve the Poor
- Adopt Appropriate Financial Policies (Promote financial sustainability and cost containment strategies)
- Overcome Physical and Technical Barriers (water resource management and growth management)
The report includes a compilation of 19 case studies from 12 countries as well as consultations with urban poor communities to analyze similar barriers and propose solutions.
Improving Water Utility Services through Delegated Management. This case study provides lessons from utility and small scale providers in the informal settlement of Nyalenda in Kisumu, Kenya. Utility partnerships with small-scale providers are becoming increasingly important as mechanisms for serving the poor. The Field Note discusses the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders (the state, the utility provider, citizens/clients, and local providers).
Resource Archives
Sustainable Community Management of Urban Water and Sanitation Schemes (A Training Manual)
The Water and Sanitation Program published a practical course manual for trainers of urban communities in Tanzania (and elsewhere) to improve water supply and sanitation management practices. The seven modules are meant to equip communities with the tools to eliminate or reduce the major constraints in managing infrastructure and providing services. The manual also clarifies the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders.
This manual covers technical issues such as operations and maintenance activities, with a strong focus on institutional, managerial, and financial issues. The material is especially relevant for communities who have a relationship with the main water services provider and who are committed to hiring an Operations Manager.
Consumer Participation in Infrastructure Regulation: Evidence from the East Asia and Pacific Region by Elisa Muzzini. This paper draws on results of a survey questionnaire conducted among 45 infrastructure regulators in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region. It finds that EAP regulators have successfully begun to involve consumers in the regulatory process.
Tariff Setting Guidelines: A Reduced Discretion Approach for Regulators of Water and Sanitation Services - By Chris Shugart and Ian Alexander. The objective of the project 'Tariff Setting Guidelines - A Reduced Discretion Approach' is to prepare a set of sound, well-specified guidelines that can be used by regulators to improve the predictability and transparency of the tariff-setting and adjustment process and thus reduce uncertainty. The guidelines are primarily conceived to be used in concession-type contracts or in regulatory licenses, and the project focuses on the regulation of companies providing WSS; nonetheless, the logic, and in many cases the specific guidelines proposed, have wider applicability for other sectors and other contract types.
The World Bank Infrastructure and Law Web site. This website is designed for government officials, lawyers and project managers who are involved in the planning, design and legal structuring of infrastructure projects, especially projects with private sector participation.
Infrastructure Benchmarking - A comprehensive bibliography of Data Envelopment Analysis with more than 4000 journal articles is now published.
Part 1
Part 2
Material on the methodology
Fall 2008
Taylor, Robert P., Chandrasekar Govindarajalu. 2008. Financing Energy Efficiency: Lessons from Brazil, China, India, and Beyond. This new book examines the strengths and limitations of energy efficiency programs in developing countries and economies in transition with emphasis on practical lessons from recent experience.
Bogetic, Zelijko, and J. Fedderke. 2006. "International Benchmarking of Infrastructure Performance in the Southern African Customs Union Countries." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3987. This paper provides a first, systematic benchmarking of infrastructure performance in the SACU countries in four major sectors.
Benchmarking Data of the Electricity Distribution Sector in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, 1995-2005. This web site enables users to conduct cross-country and cross-utility comparisons.
Gratwick, Katharine Nawaal and Anton Eberhard. 2007. "An Analysis of Independent Power Projects in Africa: Understanding Development and Investment Outcomes." University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business, MIR Working Paper. This document provide a valuable overview of IPPs.
Visit the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility web site and read summaries of several recent publications including, Recent Trends in Private Activity in Infrastructure: What the Shift Away From Risk Means for Policy, Does the Private Sector Deliver on Its Promises? Evidence from a Global Study in Water & Electricity, and The Role of Developing Country Firms in Infrastructure: New Data Confirm the Emergence of a New Class of Investor (Updated with 2005 and 2006 Data)
Studies on Infrastructure seem to be available on a monthly basis. Two recent policy research working papers on regulation and sector performance are available, one for Latin America and another for Southern Africa:
Regulatory governance and sector performance: methodology and evaluation for Electricity distribution in Latin America (WPS4494)
International benchmarking of infrastructure performance in the Southern African Customs Union Countries (WPS3987)
Spring 2008
This helpful resource is a report by the Independent Evaluation Group: The Welfare Impact of Rural Electrification: A Reassessment of the Costs and Benefits.
Another helpful resource on the power sector is the report, Reforming Power Markets in Developing Countries: What Have We Learned? by John E. Besant-Jones. The paper is a sourcebook of some 240 references that study international experiences in power market reforms. The author will be a featured presenter at the 24th PURC/World Bank International Training Program on Utility Regulation and Strategy in June.
Winter 2008
OARE, Online Access to Research in the Environment, enables developing nations to gain free access to its large collections of environmental science literature. AGORA, Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture, offers online access to its digital collection at a reduced-cost or no cost to developing nations.
As state-owned utilities gain experience with benchmarking and improve their performance, they may seek the endorsement of regulators for the issuance of bonds. The Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) has announced a three-year pilot, the Sub-National Development Technical Assistance Program (PPIAF-SND), to help sub-national entities improve their creditworthiness so they can access market-based financing on their own account without sovereign guarantees. The goal of this new program is to help mobilize local capital for improvements in infrastructure services and promote the development of local financial markets.
Fall 2008
The volume, Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems (Brown, Stern, and Tenenbaum, World Bank, 2006), provides an overview of why, what, and how to evaluate regulatory systems; discusses the rationale for regulatory evaluations and describes various forms of regulation; compares the dominant styles of evaluation, emphasizing the importance of analyzing regulation systems against sector-based outcomes; presents the case for using the independent regulator as the benchmark for performing the most credible and effective evaluations; details elements of different hybrid or transitional regulatory systems when "best practice" regulatory systems are not feasible; describes how to assess the impact of regulation on sector outcomes and provides tools to identify these impacts; offers guidance on conducting quick,
mid-level, and in-depth evaluations of regulatory systems.
Student Notes
In the Spring Semester of 2007, University of Florida undergraduate student teams in the course, Public Utility Economics: International Infrastructure, examined issues in infrastructure industries, such as the political economy of regulation, market structure and competition, performance benchmarking, service to the poor, cost analysis, and environmental impacts.
Public Utility Economics: International Infrastructure
