Infrastructure, Growth, and Inequality : An Overview
Academics and policy makers have long considered an adequate supply of infrastructure services to be essential for economic development. This paper reviews recent theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of infrastructure development on...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/09/20210994/infrastructure-growth-inequality-overview http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20365 |
| Summary: | Academics and policy makers have long
considered an adequate supply of infrastructure services to
be essential for economic development. This paper reviews
recent theoretical and empirical literature on the effects
of infrastructure development on growth and income
distribution. The theoretical literature has employed a
variety of analytical settings regarding the drivers of
income growth, the degree to which infrastructure represents
a public or a private good, and the extent of market
distortions, notably in capital markets. In turn, the
empirical literature has used various econometric
methodologies on time-series and cross-section macro and
microeconomic data to test for the effects of infrastructure
development. However, these empirical tests face challenging
issues of measurement, identification, and heterogeneity.
Overall, the literature finds positive effects of
infrastructure development on income growth and, more
tentatively, on distributive equity. Still, the precise
mechanisms through which these effects accrue, and their
full impact on welfare, remain relatively unexplored. |
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