were quite evenly divided between Independent Power Producers, the Single Buyer Model and various forms of competition in the market. Of these, wholesale power markets are the most prevalent and can be found in more than 10 percent of countries.

Nonetheless, power sector competition has spread far wider and gone much deeper in the developed world than in the developing world (Figure 5.3). Whereas about 70 percent of developing countries have implemented some degree of competition, this falls well short of the developed world where competition is almost universal, affecting 96 percent of countries (Figure 5.3). Not only is competition more widespread in the developed world, but it has also been introduced in more advanced forms. The percentage of developed countries with some form of power market, at almost 80 percent, is around four times as high as the percentage of developing countries, which stands at just 20 percent. While the proportion of developed countries practicing more modest forms of competition, such as Independent Power Producers and the Single Buyer Model, is only 17 percent, the share is more than twice as high among developing countries at 41 percent. One possible interpretation is that developing countries are simply moving more slowly in implementing power sector reforms. An alternative view is that they have settled into an intermediate stage of reform, without any interest in going further.

The vast majority of developed countries that have introduced full retail competition are EU members and their evolution towards power markets is driven by EU Directives. Indeed, the only developed countries outside of the EU membership that have established full retail competition for electricity have been Australia, Canada, the Russian Federation, Switzerland and the United States. In the developing world, there are just a dozen countries that have introduced retail competition for electricity; although this may not always be fully operative. They are concentrated in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Peru) and Eastern Europe (Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine), as well as Asia (India, Philippines).

**Figure 5.3: Comparison of developed and developing countries regarding extent of competition as of 2015**

|Percentage of countries|Developed countries|Developing countries|
|---|---|---|
|Monopoly**|4|30|
|Some degree of competition of which:|96|70|
|<br>Independent Power Producers|13|22|
|<br>Single Buyer Model*|4|19|
|<br>Bilateral contracting with Third Party Access|0|6|
|<br>Wholesale market competition|13|8|
|<br>Retail market competition**|66|15|
||100|100|

Source: Own elaboration based on RISE 2015 database

****** Differences are statistically significant at the 5% level ***** Differences are statistically significant at the 10% level

By far the earliest and deepest efforts to introduce competition occurred in Latin America & Caribbean as well as Europe, where a majority of countries currently have power markets (Figure 5.4). In these regions, the vast majority of countries had already begun the journey towards competition as of 2005, with close to half of the countries in both regions already having established a power market. During the decade 22