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The Privatization of the national public utilities that took place almost a decade ago in Argentina seem to be explained by the persisting deficits of the enterprises, a general dissatisfaction with their performance and the difficulties government faced in their control. During the period of private management, companies restructured their revenues by both regrouping consumers and raising their two-part tariffs unevenly, increased the number of customers and achieved perceptible quality improvements. For assessing the impact of the reforms in the telecomunications, electricity, natural gas and sanitation services upon residential consumers' economic well being, welfare changes of the initial consumers and the surplus of the newcomers are estimated using household level data from the Gran Buenos Aires. The results obtained suggest that the direction as well as the intensity of welfare changes differ across income groups and services and that magnitudes vary according to the rigidity of demands; the benefits for the newcomers also differ across services but they seem to have had little significance in all cases, except in water and sewage.

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Prepayment meters have been widely adopted by utilities in different countries. Yet its practice, they are still controversial. This chapter uses social cost-benefit analysis to assess the adoption of prepaid electricity meters within a local community. The analysis highlights how the role of tariffs, the cost of start-up investment and the socio-economic characteristics of the population affect system performance. Simulation exercises are used to examine the sensitivity of results to change in some distinctive elements of policy implementation. The chapter also summarizes the results of a survey conducted among local electricity users. Results indicate that prepaid meters lead to an increase in welfare. They also indicate that the advantages of the system are linked to a reduction of arrears in accounts receivable, and operational and financial costs on the part of the service provider, as well as to a better allocation of resources for the consumer. However, survey evidence suggests that the main argument against prepayment relates to the possibility of self-disconnection by low income consumers.Los sistemas de comercialización prepago de servicios públicos constituyen una solución innovadora al problema de facilitar las posibilidades de pago de los usuarios. A pesar de su amplia difusión, el uso de estos sistemas es aún controvertido. Este trabajo contribuye a ese debate porque emplea un análisis costo-beneficio para examinar la adopción del sistema prepago de energía en una comunidad. Los resultados resaltan la potencialidad del sistema prepago de energía como herramienta tendiente a incrementar el bienestar social y permite identificar sus consecuencias para cada uno de los grupos afectados. Los resultados también destacan el papel de los descuentos en las tarifas, el costo de la inversión inicial y las características socioeconómicas de la población, por lo que contribuyen a la definición de las políticas regulatorias que afectan la adopción de mecanismos de prepago.

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