The Economics of Infrastructure Provisioning

Infrastructures - tangible, intangible, and institutional public facilities, from bridges to health care - are a vital precondition for economic and societal wellbeing. There has been an increasing awareness that we cannot rely on market forces for infrastructure investment and maintenance. In this volume, experts from Europe, North and South America, and Asia examine the complexities of financing, installing, implementing, and regulating public infrastructures. Their contributions span a range of methodological approaches, including historical and empirical research, analytical models, theoretical analysis, and sector and regional case studies; they consider the economics of infrastructure provisioning by government, through private-public partnerships, and privatization arrangements. The book first treats general investment, growth, and policy issues, and then offers sector-specific analyses of transportation, energy, telecommunications, and water infrastructures. The chapters cover topics that include the evolution of historical infrastructure; the relationships between the state and private finance in funding and financing infrastructure; and the relevance of infrastructure for economic growth.