This paper builds on Yang et al (2021) which analysed the effect of wealth inequality on UK economic growth in recent decades with a heterogeneous-agent growth model where agents can enhance individual productivity growth by undertaking entrepreneurship. In this supplementary note we examine...

The EU's Global Gateway Initiative seeks to create new strategic partnerships by supporting infrastructure investments around the world. While much attention has been paid to its geopolitical implications, its long-term trade potential remains unexplored. This paper analyses the potential impact...

I investigate the social costs imposed by poor implementation of public infrastructure. Focusing on the period from 2005 to 2015 in Peru, when the government embarked on a nationwide initiative to expand sewerage systems, I leverage quasi-random variation in initiation of the implementation...

We present an open economy growth model incorporating various elements of fiscal policy, including government expenditure on education and public capital (infrastructure), budget deficit, internal and external public debt, public consumption, and four tax rates. This detailed description of...

Exploiting the economic dividends of the mega-infrastructure investments related to the Belt and Road Initiative as a timely global South-South cooperation model, this study follows the New Structural Economics theory to examine the effects of the BRI membership on Africa's industrialization. A...

What determines the aggregate and distributional effects of new transportation infrastructure? One key overlooked channel is the role that infrastructure policy plays in changing the incentives of firms to enter, exit, and grow--in turn generating endogenous changes in local productivity. In...

Using rich geospatial data and causal machine learning (ML), this paper maps potential economic benefits from incremental investments in all major types of public and economic infrastructure across Africa. These 'infrastructure potential maps' cover all African populated areas at a spatial...

This report explores key challenges and priorities in safeguarding Europe's critical energy infrastructure against both physical and cyber threats amid rising geopolitical tensions. It follows recent sabotage incidents and the extensive development of new offshore energy infrastructure planned...

The recent debates on infrastructure spending have led to renewed interest in the measurement of infrastructure and its effects on growth and well-being. This paper updates estimates of one important type of infrastructure capital—highways and streets. We compare BEA's capital measures with...

This paper builds on a previous paper by the authors (Kornfeld and Fraumeni, 2022) that primarily used U.S. Federal Highway Administration Highway Statistics data to disaggregate investment in highways and streets into more detailed types to produce updated estimates of net wealth stocks and...

Despite the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region's vast size in terms of human capital and physical capital resources, the industrial output growth in SSA still needs to catch up to the other regions. This is because of low productive skills and the dilapidated spread of infrastructural technology...

What determines the relative gains from improving different parts of a transportation network? Ports and roads are key components of a country’s infrastructure to access international markets. I provide a framework to jointly estimate the quality of different ports and trade costs on normal...

Community-driven reconstruction (CDR) is an approach to post-war reconstruction that gives discretion to local community councils in establishing priorities and overseeing the implementation of reconstruction and development activities. A series of methodologically exceptional studies has raised...

This paper revisits the instrumental variable (IV) approach in Lipscomb et al. (2013, 2021, LMB) to study the impacts of electrification. We first make corrections to the construction of the dataset, including the modelled IV. Revised estimates on main outcomes and mechanisms are statistically...

Making a comprehensive comparison of subnational levels of infrastructure development in the Philippines is difficult due to the uneven availability of data on infrastructure indicators across geo-political areas. This study shows that this is possible at the regional level by developing a...

This paper provides new evidence of the effects of road construction on both domestic and international trade flows in the People's Republic of China (PRC) using customs data and information on transport investments in the region, including those supported by multilateral development banks. We...

High hopes are pinned to mini-grids for rural electrification, especially in remote and sparsely populated areas. This note presents new evidence from a large evaluation of a US Millennium Challenge Corporation investment into mini-grids in Indonesia. We find that, a few years after...

The purpose of this paper is to identify the driving elements of the South African financial sector. While South Africa's financial sector appears robust, there exists a dearth of empirical research investigating the determinants of its development. Thus, this work assesses how three critical...

Public works programmes (PWPs) are widely used social protection instruments in low- and middle-income countries. Participants carry out temporary, labour-intensive works in exchange for cash or in-kind compensation. The available empirical evidence indicates that these programmes are usually...

Digital technologies play a crucial role in transforming today's learning landscape. The integration of online platforms, digital learning materials, and collaborative tools has become commonplace in many countries, offering students access to various resources and opportunities for engagement...

We study firm responses to local policies through a survey experiment, providing randomized information on the competitiveness of business tax rates and highway access in their headquarters' municipality. Firms often misperceive local policy competitiveness, especially for tax rates. Investment...

We study firm responses to local policies through a survey experiment, providing randomized information on the competitiveness of business tax rates and highway access in their headquarters’ municipality. Firms often misperceive local policy competitiveness, especially for tax rates....

We study firm responses to local policies through a survey experiment, providing randomized information on the competitiveness of business tax rates and highway access in their headquarters' municipality. Firms often misperceive local policy competitiveness, especially for tax rates. Investment...

This paper studies the causal effect of transport infrastructure on the spatial distribution of economic activity within subnational regions across a large number of developing countries. To do so, we introduce a new global dataset of geolocated Chinese grant- and loan-financed development...

This paper examines the impact of a large-scale rural road construction program-the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-on the performance of rural manufacturing firms in India. While these firms provide vital non-farm employment in rural areas, their growth is often thought to be...

This paper builds on Yang et al (2021) which analysed the effect of wealth inequality on UK economic growth in recent decades with a heterogeneous-agent growth model where agents can enhance individual productivity growth by undertaking entrepreneurship. In this supplementary note we examine...

In recent years, Jordan has increasingly strengthened its commitment to enhancing public service delivery through digital public infrastructure (DPI). DPI refers to foundational and reusable digital platforms and building blocks-such as digital ID, digital payments, and data sharing-that...

DPI is an approach to digitalization focused on creating "foundational, digital building blocks designed for the public benefit." By providing essential digital functions at society scale that can be reused across sectors, DPIs enable public and private service providers to build on these...