农村公共基础设施服务外文中英文翻译外文文献英文文献.doc

外文出处: World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3365, August 2004 Private Provision of Rural Infrastructure Services: Competing for Subsidies By Bjorn Wellenius, Vivien Foster, and Christina Malmberg-Calvo Three billion people live in rural areas worldwide and many lack communication, electricity, water, sanitation, and transportation services that are deemed essential for economic development and directly impact the quality of life. Monopoly provision ,inmost countries by the public sector, often leads to high investment and running costs, weak operation and maintenance ,and limited responsiveness to local needs. Market distortions, government intervention, and hidden subsidies fail to promote efficient use of resources to meet social objectives ,effectively target the poor, account for costs and benefits ,or reduce dependence on subsidies. Market-oriented economic reforms have opened the way to more effective solutions for infrastructure services based on private sector provision, cost recovery through tariffs, increasingly competitive markets, and regulation where sufficient competition does not materialize. These reforms aim at accelerating service growth and innovation ,making production more efficient, and increasing responsiveness to differing user needs and payment capabilities. Gaps typically remain ,however, between what service providers are prepared to do solely on commercial grounds and what governments consider necessary from broader development perspectives. Many rural areas and, to a lesser extent, low-income urban areas, continue to be excluded. Subsidies may be justified to narrow these gaps. Loosely speaking, a subsidy exists when the costs incurred in supplying a service are not fully recovered from the revenues raised by selling this service, the difference being met by other customers in the same or related industries or by governments(Wad dams Price 2000).The economic rationale for subsidy is based on the existence of consumption