Effectively Utilizing Infrastructure to Achieve Economic and Societal Growth in Developing Countries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/cfrw1x66Keywords:
Infrastructure; developing countries; development.Abstract
Developing countries can benefit economically and socially from the construction of infrastructure. However, poor policy decisions regarding investment in public goods and services often impede infrastructure’s effectiveness in achieving such benefits. This paper seeks to provide a coherent framework for developing countries to consider when planning and implementing infrastructure projects. Gathering insights and policy suggestions from various relevant studies, it proposes three factors necessary for developing countries to consider. These three factors emphasize individual quality of life and long-term development instead of simple short-term economic growth described by basic economic indicators. They also account for the social and environmental concerns or implications of infrastructure construction, often overlooked in many policy agendas. The first factor is the efficiency of expenditure and accessibility of infrastructure, achieved through the consideration of diminishing returns to scale for capital investment and an emphasis on the delivery, not just the provision, of public services; the second is resilience and sustainability in the context of local environmental attributes and regional independence during the decision-making process; the third is the maximization of indirect benefits, most notably the increases in human capital and productivity caused by infrastructure construction.
Downloads
References
Babatunde, S. A. Government spending on infrastructure and economic growth in Nigeria. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 2018, 31(1): 997-1014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2018.1436453
Thacker, Scott, Daniel Adshead, Marianne Fay, Stéphane Hallegatte, Mark Harvey, Hendrik Meller, Nicholas O’Regan, Julie Rozenberg, Graham Watkins, Jim W. Hall. Infrastructure for sustainable development. Nature Sustainability, 2019, 2(4): 324-331. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0256-8
Irshad, R., Ghafoor, N. Infrastructure and economic growth: evidence from lower middle-income countries. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2022, 14(1): 161-179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-021-00855-1
Kodongo, O., Ojah, K. Does infrastructure really explain economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa?. Review of Development Finance, 2016, 6(2): 105-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rdf.2016.12.001
Fox, W. F., Smith, T. R. Public infrastructure policy and economic development. Economic Review, 1990, 75(Mar): 49-59.
Zuluaga, S., Karney, B. W., Saxe, S. The concept of value in sustainable infrastructure systems: a literature review. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 2021, 1(2): 022001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ac0f32
Chirisa, I., Nel, V. Resilience and climate change in rural areas: a review of infrastructure policies across global regions. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 2022, 7(5): 380-390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23789689.2020.1871538
Kirshen, P., Caputo, L., Vogel, R. M., Mathisen, P., Rosner, A., Renaud, T. Adapting urban infrastructure to climate change: A drainage case study. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 2015, 141(4): 04014064. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000443
Bak, Céline, Amar Bhattacharya, Ottmar Edenhofer, Brigitte Knopf. Towards a comprehensive approach to climate policy, sustainable infrastructure, and finance. Economics, 2017, 11(1): 20170033. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2017-33
Horta, A., Carvalho, A., Schmidt, L. The hegemony of global politics: News coverage of climate change in a small country. Society & natural resources, 2017, 30(10): 1246-1260. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1295497
Monteiro, R., Ferreira, J. C., Antunes, P. Green infrastructure planning principles: An integrated literature review. Land, 2020, 9(12): 525. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land9120525
Palei, T. Assessing the impact of infrastructure on economic growth and global competitiveness. Procedia Economics and Finance, 2015, 23: 168-175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00322-6
Agénor, P. R. Infrastructure, public education and growth with congestion costs. Bulletin of Economic Research, 2012, 64(4): 449-469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8586.2011.00395.x
Downloads
Published
Conference Proceedings Volume
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.