The Economics of Infrastructure Provisioning ― The Changing Role of the State

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.

ContributorsJulio C. Aguirre, Laure Athias, Stephen J. Bailey, Sumedha Bajar, Biswa Nath Bhattacharyay, Federico Boffa, Daniel Danau, Sumit S. Deole, Balazs Egert, Massimo Florio, Stephan Fretz, Asmae El Gallaa, Marco Giorgino, Hugh Goldsmith, Nico Grove, Markus Hofmann, Lynne Kiesling, Johann Kranz, Antonio Nunez, Arnold Picot, Michael Pollitt, Olivier Crespi Reghizzi, Martina Santandrea, Stephane Straub, Annalisa Vinella

Arnold Picot is Head of the Research Center for Information, Organization, and Management at the Munich School of Management, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich. Massimio Florio is Professor of Public Economics at the University of Milan and author of The Great Divestiture (MIT Press). Nico Grove is CEO of the Institute for Infrastructure Economics and Management, Munich. Johann Kranz is Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems and Methods at the University of Goettingen.