Power pools constitute a set of sometimes complex institutional arrangements for efficiency-enhancing coordination among power systems. Where such institutional arrangements do not exist, there still can be scope for voluntary electricity-sharing agreements among power systems. This paper uses a...

Infrastructure contributed 1.3 percentage points to Burkina Faso's annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the past decade, much of it due to improvements in information and communication technology (ICT). Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's...

Improvements in infrastructure across Sudan in recent years have contributed 1.7 percentage points to the country's per capita growth. Consistent with trends in other countries, the ICT revolution that swept Africa contributed more than any other sector to growth in Sudan. Raising the...

Newly independent South Sudan faces a challenge in making its own way in infrastructure development. Despite earning $6 billion in oil revenues since 2005, South Sudan's spending has not been proportional to its income, but rather has lagged behind North Sudan's development of infrastructure and...

Despite external shocks, Mali's economy grew by 5.3 percent per year between 2003 and 2006, driven primarily by the telecommunications sector. But Mali's landlocked condition, together with the uneven distribution of population and economic activities between the arid north and the much richer...

Between 2000 and 2005, infrastructure contributed less than 1 percentage point to the Central African Republic's annual per capita GDP growth, despite substantial spending in the road sector. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could...

Cape Verde stands out in West Africa as a country whose economic geography poses major and unique challenges for infrastructure development. Its small population of half a million people is spread across a nine-island archipelago. The islands need complementary infrastructure in terms of roads,...

Liberia's power generating capacity and national grid were completely demolished during 14 years of civil war. Piped water access fell from 15 percent of the population in 1986 to less than 3 percent in 2008. War also left the national road network in a state of severe disrepair. Since the...

The authors present simulation results on the benefits of alternative power tariffs for Nigeria and Indonesia, based on several closely related models of the firm. Nigeria is representative of developing countries where the public sector is inefficient and manufacturers provide their own...

Accelerating development in Sub-Saharan Africa will require massive expansion of access to electricity -- currently reaching only about one-third of households. This paper explores how essential economic development might be reconciled with the need to keep carbon emissions in check. The authors...