Understanding how land prices are determined is of particular importance for policy makers; however, there is little evidence in African countries, which are currently experiencing rapid urbanization. The paper examines the relationship between land prices and locational characteristics using...

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in access to jobs in relation to transport connectivity. In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 14 million working age people are added to the labor market every year. Ensuring sustained access to jobs seems to be a prerequisite for inclusive and robust...

The paper revisits the traditional transport-agricultural growth nexus. Connectivity is particularly challenging for small island developing states, such as the Comoros, where domestic markets are limited and transport and transaction costs tend to be high. Using household survey data from...

Albania is among the most vulnerable countries to external energy shocks and climatic conditions, because of its high dependency on hydropower for electricity. Given highly volatile international energy prices and expected global warming, it is becoming increasingly important to manage the...

Transport infrastructure is important for economic growth. In Nepal, about 20 percent of rural residents have to spend more than 3 hours to go to the nearest marketplace or agriculture center. Public procurement is an important policy instrument to use resources wisely and efficiently. This...

Infrastructure projects are often technically complicated and highly customized. Therefore, procurement competition tends to be limited. Competition is the single most important factor toward auction efficiency and anti-corruption. However, the degree of competition realized is closely related...

Competition in public procurement auctions in the water supply and sanitation sector is largely limited. This is partly because of high technical complexity and partly because of auction design flaws. The division of lot contracts is an important policy choice for auctioneers to achieve...

Limited competition has been a serious concern in infrastructure procurement. Importantly, however, there are normally a number of potential bidders initially showing interest in proposed projects. This paper focuses on tackling the question why these initially interested bidders fade out. An...

Infrastructure has particular challenges in public procurement, because it is highly complex and customized and often requires economic, political and social considerations from a long time horizon. To deliver public infrastructure services to citizens or taxpayers, there are a series of...

Procurement packaging has important effects on not only the bidders' bidding behavior, but also contractors' performance. By changing the size of public contracts, procurers can encourage (or discourage) market competition and improve contract performance, avoiding unnecessary cost overruns and...