The world's urban population doubled between 1970 and 2008, growing from 1.5 billion to 3 billion people. Future world population growth will be concentrated in developing countries-the majority in medium-size and smaller cities and towns. International institutions and governments alike face...

This book reviews Latin America's experience with infrastructure reform over the last fifteen years. It argues that the region's infrastructure has suffered from public retrenchment and unrealistic expectations about private involvement. Poor infrastructure now hampers productivity, growth, and...

Government guarantees can help persuade private investors to finance valuable new infrastructure. But because their costs are hard to estimate and usually do not show up in the government's accounts, governments can be tempted to grant too many guarantees. Drawing on a diverse range of...