WTO membership and closer integration with the European Union in the context of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership are reinforcing pressures on MEDA countries to improve their competitive position. Privatisation, regulatory reform, and the creation of independent regulatory agencies in telecoms are key elements of this reform package for a number of reasons: the direct effects that divestiture receipts and foreign investment flows may have, the indirect contribution of an efficient service sector to the rest of the economy, and the positive externalities of well functioning institutions on the rest of society. By considering such dynamics in five MEDA countries — Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey — that together account for more than two thirds of the total 2000 GDP of Middle East and North Africa, this paper shows the role that the institutional endowment plays in constraining the reform path. Three of the countries have been characterised until recently by a quasi ...