ABSTRACT
This study has investigated the infl uence of governance on the performance of WS services in developing countries. The motivation for choosing this subject was the insight that the focus on provider ownership (private versus public), which has dominated the academic and the political debate, was too narrow in order to explain success or failure in the provision of WS services. By shifting the attention towards the infl uence of governance, this study has worked out those political and sectoral institutions that are essential for the provision of WS services and has found empirical evidence for their infl uence on the access to services and the internal effi ciency of providers. Democratic participation and checks and balances have a statistically signifi cant positive impact on the coverage with WS services in developing countries. Moreover, for the Colombian context there was found some evidence that low quality governance of sub-national governments compromises the internal effi ciency of service delivery and the widespread access to services. With regard to the role of provider ownership, it can be said that PSP is just one important institutional design characteristic of the WS sector among others. The results obtained have yielded some evidence that PSP contributes to enhance the internal effi ciency of providers. However, the results also suggest that PSP is not necessary and even less suffi cient for achieving widespread access to low-cost and good-quality services.
