Read and Download eBook Full
Author: Michael A. Cohen
Publisher:
Published: 2024
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781032655765
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book reframes the purpose of infrastructure from being an input to economic growth to becoming a major instrument in reducing socio-economic inequalities in both industrialized and developing countries.
Author: Michael A. Cohen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2024-04-04
Total Pages: 217
ISBN-13: 1040011489
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book reframes the purpose of infrastructure from being an input to economic growth to becoming a major instrument in reducing socio-economic inequalities in both industrialized and developing countries. Drawing on global and national lessons of COVID-19 and extensive working experience in 55 countries, this book reviews infrastructure policies and performance over several decades and suggests that the “underperformance” of infrastructure could be improved by more attention to users and the demand side, and thereby contribute to overcoming many obstacles facing low-income communities around the world. This book argues that growth is not a necessary condition for sustainability or social justice, and that both are undermined by structural inequalities which reduce the income and opportunities of urban households. More focus on user needs can substantially change the distribution of benefits and the quality of living conditions of low-income people. It provides a unique theoretical and on-the-ground critique of conventional infrastructure practices while illustrating to readers the many positive experiences around the world. More infrastructure is not enough; different and better is needed. This book reviews World Bank experience in launching a 30-year program to alleviate urban poverty through some 7,000 projects, showing that many significant policy changes have led to a big improvement in global urban policies adopted by national and local governments, yet have failed to significantly address and reduce intra-urban inequalities. The audience for this book includes academics, both faculty and advanced graduate students, while also a wider public interested in the prospects for international development.
Author: Gregory K. Ingram
Publisher: Lincoln Inst of Land Policy
Published: 2013
Total Pages: 438
ISBN-13: 9781558442511
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMore than 50 percent of the global population resides in urban areas where land policy and infrastructure interactions facilitate economic opportunities, affect the quality of life, and influence patterns of urban development. While infrastructure is as old as cities, technological changes and public policies on taxation and regulation produce new issues worthy of analysis, ranging from megaprojects and greenhouse gas emissions to involuntary resettlement. This volume, based on the 2012 seventh annual Land Policy Conference at the Lincoln Institute, brings together economists, social scientists, urban planners, and engineers to discuss how infrastructure issues impact low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Infrastructure drives economic and social activities. For urban areas, the challenges of balancing economic growth with infrastructure development and maintenance are reflected in debates about finance, regulation, and location and about the sustainable levels of infrastructure services. Relevant sectors include energy (electricity and natural gas); telecommunications (phone lines, mobile phone service, and Internet); transportation (airports, railways, roads, waterways, and seaports); and water supply and sanitation (piped water, irrigation, and sewage collection and treatment). Recent research shows that inadequate infrastructure is associated with income inequality. This is likely linked to the delivery of infrastructure services to households, such as direct health benefits, improved access to education, and enhanced economic opportunities. Because so much infrastructure is energy intensive, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative impacts must address services such as electric power and transport. Bringing the management of infrastructure up to levels of good practice has a large economic payoff, and performance levels vary dramatically between and within countries. A crucial unmet challenge is to convince policy makers and voters that large economic returns can result from improving infrastructure performance and maintenance.
Author: Santanu Chatterjee
Publisher:
Published: 2013
Total Pages: 35
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWe develop a model in which public capital is both an engine of growth and a determinant of the distributions of wealth, income, and welfare. Government investment increases wealth inequality over time, regardless of its financing. The time path of income inequality is, however, highly sensitive to financing policies, and is often characterized by sharp intertemporal tradeoffs, with income inequality declining in the short run but increasing in the long run. Public investment generates a positive correlation between growth and income inequality along the transition path, but their short-run and long-run relationship depends critically on (i) how externalities impinge on allocation decisions, (ii) financing policies, and (iii) the time period of consideration. Finally, these policies also generate sharp trade-offs between average welfare and its distribution, with government investment improving average welfare, but also increasing its dispersion. Our results are obtained numerically but extensive sensitivity analysis confirms their robustness across key parameter values.
Author: Edward L. Glaeser
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2021-11-11
Total Pages: 479
ISBN-13: 022680058X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Policy-makers often call for expanding public spending on infrastructure, which includes a broad range of investments from roads and bridges to digital networks that will expand access to high-speed broadband. Some point to near-term macro-economic benefits and job creation, others focus on long-term effects on productivity and economic growth. This volume explores the links between infrastructure spending and economic outcomes, as well as key economic issues in the funding and management of infrastructure projects. It draws together research studies that describe the short-run stimulus effects of infrastructure spending, develop new estimates of the stock of U.S. infrastructure capital, and explore the incentive aspects of public-private partnerships (PPPs). A salient issue is the treatment of risk in evaluating publicly-funded infrastructure projects and in connection with PPPs. The goal of the volume is to provide a reference for researchers seeking to expand research on infrastructure issues, and for policy-makers tasked with determining the appropriate level of infrastructure spending"--
Author: César Calderón
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 29
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAcademics 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.
Author: Eric Klinenberg
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2018-09-11
Total Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 1524761184
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“A comprehensive, entertaining, and compelling argument for how rebuilding social infrastructure can help heal divisions in our society and move us forward.”—Jon Stewart NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “Engaging.”—Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves along racial, religious, and cultural lines, leading to a level of polarization that the country hasn’t seen since the Civil War. Pundits and politicians are calling for us to come together and find common purpose. But how, exactly, can this be done? In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests a way forward. He believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, churches, and parks where crucial connections are formed. Interweaving his own research with examples from around the globe, Klinenberg shows how “social infrastructure” is helping to solve some of our most pressing societal challenges. Richly reported and ultimately uplifting, Palaces for the People offers a blueprint for bridging our seemingly unbridgeable divides. LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION “Just brilliant!”—Roman Mars, 99% Invisible “The aim of this sweeping work is to popularize the notion of ‘social infrastructure'—the ‘physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact'. . . . Here, drawing on research in urban planning, behavioral economics, and environmental psychology, as well as on his own fieldwork from around the world, [Eric Klinenberg] posits that a community’s resilience correlates strongly with the robustness of its social infrastructure. The numerous case studies add up to a plea for more investment in the spaces and institutions (parks, libraries, childcare centers) that foster mutual support in civic life.”—The New Yorker “Palaces for the People—the title is taken from the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s description of the hundreds of libraries he funded—is essentially a calm, lucid exposition of a centuries-old idea, which is really a furious call to action.”—New Statesman “Clear-eyed . . . fascinating.”—Psychology Today
Author: Antonio Estache
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 43
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Estache reviews the recent economic research on emerging issues for infrastructure policies affecting poor people in developing countries. His main purpose is to identify some of the challenges the international community, and donors in particular, are likely to have to address over the next few years. He addresses six main issues: (1) the necessity of infrastructure in achieving the Millennium Development Goals; (2) the various dimensions of financing challenges for infrastructure; (3) the debate on the relative importance of urban and rural infrastructure needs; (4) the debate on the effectiveness of infrastructure decentralization; (5) what works and what does not when trying to target the needs of the poor, with an emphasis on affordability and regulation challenges; and (6) the importance of governance and corruption in the sector. The author concludes by showing how the challenges identified define a relatively well integrated agenda for both researchers and the international infrastructure community. This paper,a product of the Office of the Vice President, Infrastructure Network,is part of a larger effort in the network to stimulate more analytical assessments of emerging issues in the sector"--World Bank web site.
Author: Antonio Estache
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 43
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis paper provides an overview of the major current debates on infrastructure policy. It reviews the evidence on the macroeconomic significance of the sector in terms of growth and poverty alleviation. It also discusses the major institutional debates, including the relative comparative advantage of the public and the private sector in the various stages of infrastructure service delivery as well as the main options for changes in the role of government (i.e. regulation and decentralization).
Author: Cox, Peter
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2020-01-29
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13: 1447345150
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book offers a critical examination of existing cycling structures and the current policy and practices used to promote cycling. An international range of contributors provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the complex cultural politics of infrastructural provision and interrogate the pervasive bias against cyclists in city planning and transport systems across the globe. Infrastructural planning is revealed to be an intensely political act and its meaning variable according to larger political processes and contexts. The book also considers questions surrounding safety and risk, urban space wars and sustainable futures, connecting this to broader questions about citizenship and justice in contemporary cities.
