Structural and regulatory reform in Turkey: Lessons form public utilities

Turkey is one of the countries that recently initiated regulatory reform in public utilities. Although Turkey tried to introduce competition to many industries through a liberalization movement that started in the 1980s, utilities remained as monopolies until the early 2000s. In the beginning of the 2000s, reforms restructured the utilities through deregulation and competition policies and established independent regulatory agencies. Whereas the reforms have been successful in some aspects, they remain insufficient in others. This paper anecdotally investigates the effects of (de)regulation on selected public utility industries and analyzes the pros and cons of the reform process. Also, it presents a comparative analysis to better understand the current institutional and governmental issues in the reform process. The findings suggest that the recently changing stance of government towards the (de)regulatory process could thwart the success of reform.