This paper documents how regulatory uncertainty may undermine public service when different levels of government share a mandate on public service provision. I examine the Brazilian water and sanitation sector, which presents a natural experiment of shared provision between state and municipal companies. Using a difference-in-differences framework, I study a legal reform that clarified the relationship between municipal and state providers and eliminated any takeover threat by state companies. I find that after the reform, municipal companies almost doubled their total system investment, leading to significant increases in system access and decreases in child mortality.

中文翻译：

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巴克停在哪里？巴西水和卫生部门的联邦制、不确定性和投资

本文记录了当不同级别的政府共享公共服务提供的任务时，监管不确定性如何破坏公共服务。我考察了巴西的供水和卫生部门，它是国家和市政公司之间共享供应的自然实验。使用差异中的差异框架，我研究了一项法律改革，该改革澄清了市政和州供应商之间的关系，并消除了国有公司的任何收购威胁。我发现改革后，市政公司的系统总投资几乎翻了一番，导致系统接入率显着增加，儿童死亡率下降。