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Investing in Public Infrastructure: Roads or Schools?

Author

Listed:
  • Manoj Atolia
  • Ms. Grace B Li
  • Ricardo Marto
  • Mr. Giovanni Melina

Abstract

Why do governments in developing economies invest in roads and not enough in schools? In the presence of distortionary taxation and debt aversion, the different pace at which roads and schools contribute to economic growth turns out to be central to this decision. Specifically, while costs are front-loaded for both types of investment, the growth benefits of schools accrue with a delay. To put things in perspective, with a “big push,” even assuming a large (15 percent) return differential in favor of schools, the government would still limit the fraction of the investment scale-up going to schools to about a half. Besides debt aversion, political myopia also turns out to be a crucial determinant of public investment composition. A “big push,” by accelerating growth outcomes, mitigates myopia—but at the expense of greater risks to fiscal and debt sustainability. Tied concessional financing and grants can potentially mitigate the adverse effects of both debt aversion and political myopia.

Suggested Citation

  • Manoj Atolia & Ms. Grace B Li & Ricardo Marto & Mr. Giovanni Melina, 2017. "Investing in Public Infrastructure: Roads or Schools?," IMF Working Papers 2017/105, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2017/105
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    Cited by:

    1. Inderst, Georg, 2020. "Social Infrastructure Finance and Institutional Investors. A Global Perspective," MPRA Paper 99239, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Holtemöller, Oliver & Schult, Christoph, 2019. "Stellungnahme zum "Strukturstärkungsgesetz Kohleregionen" anlässlich der Anhörung im Ausschuss für Wirtschaft und Energie des Deutschen Bundestages am 15. Mai 2019," IWH Online 2/2019, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    3. Trofimov, Ivan D., 2020. "Public capital and productive economy profits: evidence from OECD economies," MPRA Paper 106848, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Carlos Mendez & Erick Gonzales, 2021. "Human Capital Constraints, Spatial Dependence, and Regionalization in Bolivia: A Spatial Clustering Approach," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 44(87), pages 115-145.
    5. Atolia, Manoj & Loungani, Prakash & Marquis, Milton & Papageorgiou, Chris, 2020. "Rethinking development policy: What remains of structural transformation?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Suescun, Rodrigo, 2020. "A tool for fiscal policy planning in a medium-term fiscal framework: The FMM-MTFF model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 431-446.
    7. Sperduto Luke, 2019. "Can Human Development Bonds Reduce the Agency Costs of the Resource Curse?," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 191-245, January.

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