The last two decades have been marked by a sea change in the world of regulation—regulatory laws which facilitate the creation of independent regulators have been passed in many countries, both developed and developing.

However, it has been observed that mere adoption of regulatory laws is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for changes in regulatory/economic outcomes. Implementation often constitutes the crucial difference between success and failure and this is particularly true in developing countries.

The mentioned premise constitutes the starting point of this volume compiled by CUTS as a part of a project entitled the Competition Regulation and Development Research Forum (CDRF), which is a compendium of studies devoted to characterising the state of the world in regulation in developing countries and identifying the political economy and governance constraints that often frustrate the successful implementation of regulatory laws in the developing world. Such detailed identification of constraints is necessary if we are to solve the puzzle of how regulatory objectives/provisions that look so good on paper end up being so ineffective in practice.

The study will be of interest to almost the entire spectrum of professionals connected to regulation or its use: academicians, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, members of competition authorities or sector regulatory agencies etc.

It is hoped that through this volume the study of regulation in developing countries emerges as a distinct field, as it should, given that these countries have regulatory needs and constraints that differ markedly from those developed countries.

Pradeep S. Mehta, CUTS International and CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition, India

Simon J. Evenett, Universität St. Gallen and CEPR, Switzerland.