Chapter 43 Human and physical infrastructure: Public investment and pricing policies in developing countries

This chapter focuses on what has traditionally been considered as the core infrastructure sectors, which enhance the productivity of physical capital and land (mainly transportation and power). It discusses human infrastructure- or those services that raise the productivity of labor (health, education, nutrition). Public investment will be defined broadly to include all government spending in these sectors, rather than just capital expenditures as traditionally defined in official statistics. This is to ensure that the economic issues regarding recurrent as well as capital spending are covered in the chapter. The chapter emphasizes on recent policy debates without presenting the basic theoretical concepts underlying them in detail. The chapter on stresses common cross-sectoral themes regarding the pricing of and investment in infrastructure services in developing countries, rather than detailed issues within sectors.