Interest in transparency is increasing worldwide. Literature on their determinants is evolving but is still in early stages. So far, it has typically focused on national governments while neglecting local governments. This paper examines the economic, social, and institutional determinants of...

Road safety has become an increasing concern in developed countries due to the significant amount of mortal victims and the economic losses derived. Only in 2005 these losses rose to 200.000 million euros, a significant amount – approximately the 2% of its GDP- that easily justifies any public...

Recent theoretical developments on concession contracts for long term infrastructure projects under uncertain demand show the benefits of allowing for flexible term contracts rather than fixing a rigid term. This study presents a simulation to compare both alternatives by using real data from...

Numerous studies have examined the determinants of private participation in infrastructure projects. We depart from this simple public/private dichotomy by empirically examining a rich set of contractual arrangements. Infrastructure characteristics, particularly those that reflect 'stand alone'...

El presente informe muestra que la alta velocidad es una tecnología de transporte con presencia internacional pero está enormemente concentrada en Europa occidental y Asia oriental, aunque existen importantes diferencias en cuanto a dotación. España destaca por su liderazgo en dotación de...

The road safety literature is typified by a high degree of compartmentalization between studies that focus on infrastructure and traffic conditions and those devoted to the evaluation of public policies and regulations. As a result, few studies adopt a unified empirical framework in their...

Interest in the use of tolls to fund and regulate demand on motorways has revived in recent years. However, less attention has been paid to the road safety effects of this policy. Although toll motorway quality is equal to or above that of free motorways, charging users shifts some traffic to...

Drawing on a database for 1988–2006 containing information on 157 countries, we investigate the effects on military spending of government form and democracy, electoral rules and concentration of parliamentary parties. From an OLS regression on pooled data, our results show that presidential...