Regulation and Contractual Adaptation in Public Utilities: The Case of Argentina

This paper (IFM-115) evaluates a set of contractual adjustments, renegotiations and disputes that have taken place in different public utility industries in Argentina since 1991, considering: 1) Whether the decisions analyzed are inside the initial contract or represent a modification of it; 2) Whether they were motivated by unexpected shocks, by "loopholes" in the initial contracts, or just responded to a contractual failure (holdup by one of the parties); 3) The actors involved in the disputes and "production" of these innovations; and 4) How these disputes were resolved. In addition, lessons from twelve case studies within the energy and infrastructure sectors are observed.