Public Infrastructure Investment Research Articles

Declining Public Health Protections within Autocratic Regimes: Impact on Global Public Health Security, Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics

Public health emergencies of international concern, in the form of infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics, represent an increasing risk to the world's population. Management requires coordinated responses, across many disciplines and nations, and the capacity to muster proper national and global public health education, infrastructure, and prevention measures. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of nations are ruled by autocratic regimes which have characteristically failed to adopt investments in public health infrastructure, education, and prevention measures to keep pace with population growth and density. Autocratic leaders have a direct impact on health security, a direct negative impact on health, and create adverse political and economic conditions that only complicate the crisis further. This is most evident in autocratic regimes where health protections have been seriously and purposely curtailed. All autocratic regimes define public health along economic and political imperatives that are similar across borders and cultures. Autocratic regimes are seriously handicapped by sociopathic narcissistic leaders who are incapable of understanding the health consequences of infectious diseases or the impact on their population. A cross section of autocratic nations currently experiencing the impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) are reviewed to demonstrate the manner where self-serving regimes fail to manage health crises and place the rest of the world at increasing risk. It is time to re-address the pre-SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) global agendas calling for stronger strategic capacity, legal authority, support, and institutional status under World Health Organization (WHO) leadership granted by an International Health Regulations Treaty. Treaties remain the most successful means the world has in preventing, preparing for, and controlling epidemics in an increasingly globalized world."Honesty is worth a lot more than hope…" The Economist, February 17, 2020.

Belgium

This 2020 Article IV Consultation with Belgium highlights that economic activity has held up relatively well over the last year, but the outlook is clouded by unusual uncertainty and risks. The coronavirus outbreak is expected to reduce growth this year, and the outlook is highly uncertain and subject to risks, including more widespread and damaging effects of the coronavirus, escalating trade tensions, a sharper euro-area growth slowdown, and prolonged domestic political gridlock. Policies should focus on addressing the coronavirus outbreak in the near term and rebuilding resilience and addressing structural challenges in the medium run. The immediate policy priority is to contain the spread and damaging effects of the coronavirus through targeted temporary support measures to affected firms and individuals, while ensuring that the healthcare system has adequate resources to address the crisis. Reversing the declining trend in productivity growth is essential to support higher standards of living and safeguard fiscal sustainability. Thus, reform efforts would need to focus on reducing red tape for start-ups, lowering regulatory barriers to competition in key sectors, supporting access to venture capital for innovative firms, and boosting public investment in infrastructure, fiscal space permitting.

Public Infrastructure and Economic Takeoff

The purpose of this paper is to incorporate the role of public infrastructure investment on economic takeoff process in underdeveloped and emerging economies in a dynamic general equilibrium model. We use a two-period overlapping generations model, and consider two types of technologies (traditional and modern) that are used to produce the final output of firms. This paper confirms that economic takeoff is possible only when the capital per labor unit exceeds a certain threshold level. Thus, the takeoff process depends on the productivity race between traditional and modern technologies with increasing public infrastructure investment, while public infrastructures foster the productivity of both technologies. Similarly, an effective tax rate supports the takeoff process by stimulating the wage rate which in turn increases the capital per labor along with the saving rates. Hence, we clarify the conditions required for succeeding in the takeoff of an economy. In addition, we review some empirical evidence related to the output elasticity of public infrastructures.

Determinants of Tourism Demand in Indonesia: A Panel Data Analysis

By 2014 Indonesia registered 11.6 million inbound foreign tourists, 135% higher than the year 2000. Since then, government policies to promote tourism flourished. This article investigates the determinants of inbound tourism from the top nine mayor tourist origin countries into Indonesia covering the period of 2000 to 2014. This research employs a dynamic panel dataset to estimate the impact of per capita real income, relative prices, accommodation capacity, distance, and public infrastructure investment on international tourism demand in Indonesia, capturing demand- and supply-side effects. The results show that per capita income of tourists, relative price, and available rooms have a positive effect on tourism expenditure in Indonesia, while distance has a negative effect. Dummy variables capture large negative shocks in tourism arising from two terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005, as well as from the global financial crisis in 2008. Income plays a positive but low impact on tourism demand compared to other nations. The positive effect of prices suggests an advantage of Indonesia in competitive tourism prices. Nevertheless, low prices also denote low value in tourism services. The substantial impact of accommodation may indicate that significant effects of tourism are allocated in lodging, minimizing the impact on other sectors.

Transit effects on poverty, employment, and rent in Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Local mass transportation systems are significant public infrastructure investments that constitute an essential policy and planning tool for urban areas. Previous research suggests a heterogeneous effect by city, but when the expansion of public transit systems results in increased housing costs, it potentially leads to a displacement of low-income groups. While there is an expanding literature on the effects of public transit on low-income populations, surprisingly, the research mainly focuses on the effects of rail stations and bus rapid transit, while ignoring the effects of buses, despite their higher prevalence and use by low-income households. This paper fills this gap with an accessibility measure that exploits the annual variation in transit (bus and rail) service frequency and analyzes its effect longitudinally on poverty, employment, and rental values in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, using data from the General Transit Feed Specification, American Community Survey, and Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics. The study finds that transit service provides job accessibility without increasing rental values, thus reducing the probability of displacement for low-income groups. The findings support a policy of increasing bus frequency and route density as a low-cost way to help low-income households gain employment and increase wages without affecting rents and values in the short-term.

Main factors stimulating innovative development of Ukraine

Problem setting. The introduction of the model of innovative development of the national economy requires the improvement of the system of state regulation of investment and innovation processes. It is the transformational trends in the national innovation system that necessitates a comprehensive analysis of the main factors that contribute to innovative development. At the same time, the stimulation of innovation orientation of any country’s development should be considered as part of the model of investment development of its economy, provided that this model has priority in innovative development. Target of research is to study the main factors promoting innovation. To achieve this goal, structural, comparative and statistical research methods were used. Analysis of resent researches and publications. Problems of development of the national innovation system and innovation infrastructure, ensuring the development of innovation processes have received considerable coverage in the works of scientists: S. V. Hlibko, O. V. Rozghon, A. M. Liubchych, A. V. Strizhkova and others. Article’s main body. One way to conceptually organize all the factors that determine innovation in a country is to think about the triangle of innovation success: the factors of the business environment along one side of the triangle; trade, tax and regulatory environment – the other party; and the innovation policy environment – along the third party. An effective business environment includes the institutions, activities and opportunities of the country’s business community, as well as broader societal attitudes and practices that promote innovation. An effective trade, tax, and regulatory environment has a competitive and open trade regime that includes strong government efforts to protect its businesses from foreign mercantilist practices; supporting competitive markets so that new entrants, including those implementing new business models, can thrive; processes that make it easy to open a new business and bring innovation to market; transparency and the rule of law; a reasonable tax burden on business, especially for innovation-based firms and commercial companies. The final stage of the innovation triangle is a complex and powerful system of innovation policy. Although markets and business are key to innovation, without an effective innovation policy, markets will be inefficient. Conclusions and prospects for the development. Effective innovative development of the country is possible only if there is a developed business, trade, tax, regulatory environment and an environment of innovation policy that can guarantee proper support for public investment in innovation infrastructure. At the same time, for Ukraine to be attractive to foreign investors, legislation on attracting investment must be clear, democratic and stable.

The impacts of public investment on return and economic growth by economic industry in Vietnam

This study empirically analyses the impact of public investment from government budget on economic growth by measuring the indirect effects of public investment on return and private investment in 16 economic industries from 1990 to 2016. The findings show the positive relationship between private investment and return on total assets by industry. Economic growth, the share of public investment in infrastructure and the share of public investment in education also have a positive impact on return on total assets by industry. However, total state sector investment has the negative effect on the return on total assets by industry. In addition, when observing after tax profit by industry, there appears that the share of total investment in GDP is positively affected by the share of manufacturing industry in GDP and labour productivity by industry.

Slowdown and Crisis in the Indian Economy - A Study of the Macroeconomic Developments between the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 Crisis (2011-12 to 2019-20)

Slowdown and Crisis in the Indian Economy - A Study of the Macroeconomic Developments between the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 Crisis (2011-12 to 2019-20)

DETERMINANTS OF TOURISM DEMAND IN INDONESIA: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

By 2014 Indonesia registered 11.6 million inbound foreign tourists, 135% higher than the year 2000. Since then, government policies to promote tourism flourished. This paper investigates the determinants of inbound tourism from the top nine mayor tourist origin countries into Indonesia covering the period of 2000 to 2014. This research employs a dynamic panel dataset to estimate the impact of per capita real income, relative prices, accommodation capacity, distance and public infrastructure investment on international tourism demand in Indonesia, capturing demand and supply-side effects. The results show that per capita income of tourist, relative price, and available rooms have a positive effect on tourism expenditure in Indonesia, while distance has a negative effect. Dummy variables capture large negative shocks in tourism arising from two terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005, as well as from the global financial crisis in 2008. Income plays a positive but low impact on tourism demand compared to other nations. The positive effect of prices suggests an advantage of Indonesia in competitive tourism prices. Nevertheless, low prices also denote low value in tourism services. The substantial impact of accommodation may indicate that significant effects of tourism are allocated in lodging, minimizing the impact on other sectors.

EUROPEAN UNION TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE: ROADS AND RAILWAYS SUBSECTORS CASE

This article tests transport infrastructure‘s roads and railways subsectors impact on economic growth in the European Union during the 1990-2017 years time span. The latest public infrastructure investments trends in those subsectors are analyzed as well. Article’s empirical research encompasses all 28 European Union countries (at that time) data, and fills the gap of such researches in roads and railways subsectors case in the full European Union area. Proxy variables used for roads and railways subsectors are physical type, but with ability to encompass the usage of chosen infrastructure subsectors. It is a new feature in such type of researches, which usually uses either raw physical or raw monetary type of infrastructure variables. The research results show that both roads and railways subsectors have positive short run impact on economic growth in the European Union. Results are almost the same, with overall elasticity coefficients in both subsectors. Though post-2009 public infrastructure investments in these subsectors show declining pattern, in the overall situation‘s context there is no need to worry about it yet.

CONDIÇÕES E PROJEÇÕES DE ACESSO AO SANEAMENTO BÁSICO NAS CIDADES MÉDIAS BRASILEIRAS

This paper aims to portray the situation of access to basic sanitation in Brazilian regional capitals as mid-sized cities. It also intends to demonstrate the prospects of access to basic sanitation through projections, considering the advance of demographic growth and the targets set by the Federal Government for a 20-year horizon. Data from the demographic censuses of 1991, 2000, and 2010 were used upon 64 regional capitals. The results show that access to basic sanitation has progressed in recent decades, although serious deficiencies persist, especially due to the country's regional disparities. The projections highlight a scenario of expansion and, sometimes, the universalization of access, but indicate cases in which the situation should be unsettling, demanding imminent public policies and investments in infrastructure that meet the new local demands.

From Jails to Sanctuary Planning: Spatial Justice in Santa Ana, California

Today’s immigrant rights movements bring attention to jails—some cities’ largest public safety expenditures—as primary sites for deportation operations. This article examines how these movements push for sanctuary while challenging jails’ political and economic place in cities. With qualitative and archival data from a case study in Santa Ana, California, this research finds that by ending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts, exposing the economic and political interests invested in jails, and pushing for jail reuse alternatives, sanctuary planning threatens public investment in police and security infrastructure. Challenges to these movements include jurisdictional fragmentation with diverse approaches to detention.

Land financialisation and the financing of urban development in China

There is a growing body of literature on China’s land reform, land system and land-centred urbanisation. While the contribution of land proceeds to Chinese local public finance and infrastructure investment has been widely acknowledged, few studies examine land through the perspective of financialisation, namely how land development uses financial instruments to generate development finance. The process of land-driven financialisation in China has not been well understood. This paper examines the land mortgage, which has accelerated since 2008, and subsequent waves of financialisation through local government financial vehicles (LGFVs) and Chengtou Bonds (urban construction and investment bonds). We highlight that the adoption of a fiscal stimulus package triggered land financialisation, which started as a development strategy for crisis management in China.

The Displacement of Human Judgment in Science: The Problems of Biomedical Research in an Age of Big Data

The Displacement of Human Judgment in Science:The Problems of Biomedical Research in an Age of Big Data Paul Scherz (bio) in the human condition, hannah arendt lamented the state of the mathematical natural sciences. While recognizing their power to transform the world, she thought that they leave much to be desired in terms of providing an explanation for the world once they lose contact with human senses and intuitions. Surveying fields like quantum mechanics in which we still do not have a good picture of the world described by the equations, Arendt suggested that science was being reduced to mere technical intervention into nature rather than an understanding of it. "But the mathematization of physics … had in its last stages the unexpected and yet plausible consequence that every question man puts to nature is answered in terms of mathematical patterns to which no model can ever be adequate" (Arendt 1998, 287). Understanding is lost, leaving "us a universe of whose qualities we know no more than the way they affect our measuring instruments" (261). Of course, similar critiques were levelled throughout the mid-twentieth century by many other scholars—Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Hans Jonas, and Georges Canguilhem. As Husserl put it, "This arithmetization of geometry leads almost automatically, in a certain way, to the emptying of its meaning" (1970, 44). Physical science had lost hold of the original [End Page 957] intuitions underlying the quantification of nature, driving it from the grasp of human understanding. To many scholars who shared this critique, one natural science seemed like an exception: biology. Heidegger argued that "all sciences concerned with life must necessarily be inexact just in order to remain rigorous. A living thing can indeed also be grasped as a spatio-temporal magnitude of motion, but then it is no longer apprehended as living" (1977, 120). Because of the rich complexity of organisms, it was not thought that they could be understood purely mathematically. Instead, one needed to understand their purposes, aims, and goals; that is, their teleology. Even those like Ernst Mayr, attempting to mathematize biology as part of the Modern Synthesis of evolution, understood this need, although he preferred the cybernetically derived term "teleonomy" to the older "teleology" (Mayr 1989). For example, a complete, detailed description of the chemical and signaling reactions that lead to birds migrating would still be a deficient explanation if we did not also include an account of why birds migrate. Because it deals with living things, biology requires richer forms of judgment and explanation than other natural sciences. This exceptional feature of biological explanation had been recognized already by Immanuel Kant, who argued that science needed something beyond the mathematics of Newtonian physics. While he would have liked to submit all of nature to that mathematical form of description, it was impossible because living organisms demanded this richer teleological description (Kant 2000, 386–88). Most philosophers in prior generations shared Kant's view. A science of purely mathematical relations between entities could not capture the complexity and goal-directedness of biological life. Then, two decades ago, the Human Genome Project brought a sea change. Biology began to be inundated by massive amounts of genetic and other data, much of which was produced and interpreted by machines. Analogous to developments in other fields like medicine and education, human judgment began to look inadequate to the task of analyzing this data and using it to develop the therapies that [End Page 958] had been promised in exchange for the massive public and private investment in the machine infrastructure. Scientists began suggesting that these vast accumulations of data, "mined" and interpreted by machines, could reveal knowledge. For instance, an editorial in Nature entitled "Can Biological Phenomena Be Understood by Humans?" quoted a biologist arguing that scientists "have to free [themselves] from the hypothesis-driven approach" and rely more on computer models (Anonymous 2000). After 2000, practicing scientists and philosophers of biology joined a broad debate over the relationship between the scientist, computer-analyzed data, and human reason in biological knowledge production (Allen 2001a, b; Gillies 2001; Smal-heiser 2002; Kell and Oliver 2004). The argument for the seeming promise of artificial intelligence in science was put...

The Real Stranded Assets of Carbon Lock-In

Climate debates over stranded assets are focusing on the wrong assets. Fossil-fuel companies and petrostates argue that they will suffer economic losses from climate policies. Although true, this ignores assets that will be stranded in the absence of climate policy. These are the real stranded assets of carbon lock-in and could prove much more costly.

Sharing the unearned increment: Divergent Outcomes in Toronto and São Paulo

Land value capture (LVC) refers to the public sector’s recovery of part or all of the land value increments (‘unearned’ income) generated by actions other than the landowner’s direct investment, including public investments in infrastructure or administrative changes in land use norms and regulations. LVC is increasingly used around the world as a tool to raise funds for urban development. This paper analyzes two LVC tools, one used in Toronto and the other in São Paulo, to show how different approaches produce divergent outcomes in practice. Expert interviews and an analysis of secondary quantitative data show that São Paulo’s formula-led approach is bureaucratized, compared with Toronto’s politicized process and that benefits from Toronto’s Section 37 are primarily located in the central wealthier neighbourhoods, while in São Paulo benefits are more dispersed. The comparison between the two cases highlights different approaches that reflect divergent values, rationales, socio-economic realities and political cultures which ultimately produce varied outcomes. The contrasting tools’ distributional and equity outcomes in Toronto and São Paulo raise questions about how cities can best share the benefits of urbanization to ensure equity and justice for all city residents.

Public perception of typhoon signals and response in Macau: did disaster response improve between the 2017 Hato and 2018 Mangkhut typhoons?

ABSTRACT In two successive years, 2017 and 2018, Macau suffered tremendously from strong typhoons, Hato and Mangkhut, respectively. Following Hato in 2017, a top officer who served as the observatory’s director, resigned amid public complaints over the late issuance of a higher warning signal during the typhoon. In light of this general disappointment in Macau’s disaster preparation and response procedures, we conducted an interview survey in downtown Macau. Our survey aimed to determine whether people felt any noticeable improvement in the authority’s disaster response during Mangkhut in 2018, compared to the response during Hato. The typhoons were of similar intensity and followed similar paths. The most notable difference between the two disasters was that Signal 8 was triggered seven hours earlier for Mangkhut than Hato, demonstrating a remarkable difference in the precaution and response taken by the authority. 18 months after Hato, we did not observe a significant investment in public infrastructure for flood protection. However, 88% of the respondents replied that they perceived that there was an improvement in the authority’s disaster response and management. Soft countermeasures, such as warning boards, evacuation drills, prompt signal issuance, and emergency responses, might be responsible for the favourable perception among the local residents.

Macroeconomic Outcomes in Disaster-Prone Countries

Using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, we study the channels through which natural disaster shocks affect macroeconomic outcomes and welfare in disaster-prone countries. We solve the model using Taylor projection, a solution method that is shown to deal effectively with high-impact weather shocks calibrated in accordance to empirical evidence. We find large and persistent effects of weather shocks that significantly impact the income convergence path of disaster-prone countries. Relative to non-disaster-prone countries, on average, these shocks cause a welfare loss equivalent to a permanent fall in consumption of 1.6 percent. Welfare gains to countries that self-finance investments in resilient public infrastructure are found to be negligible, and international aid has to be sizable to achieve significant welfare gains. In addition, it is more cost-effective for donors to contribute to the financing of resilience before the realization of disasters, rather than disbursing aid after their realization.

Effect of Public Spending on Economic Growth in Kenya

This study aimed at examining the relationship between public spending and economic growth and how the composition of government expenditure affects economic growth in Kenya using time series data from 1980 to 2014. To achieve the objectives, modified Granger causality and Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (ARDL) were used. The results revealed both short term and long term causality from economic growth to government expenditure but only short run causality from government expenditure to economic growth. Based on the economic classification, the long run ARDL regression results showed development expenditure promotes economic growth while government purchases have no significant effect on GDP. Other control variables such as inflation and unemployment had negative effect on economic growth. In terms of functional classification, the regression results showed that expenditure on education and infrastructure are important drivers of economic growth. The positive effect of health expenditure was not significant. Further, the regression results indicated that domestic savings and trade openness had significant positive effect on economic growth. Based on the empirical findings this study therefore recommends resources to be directed towards financing public infrastructure investment to improve economic performance. The study also recommends increasing resource allocation in the education sector to improve efficiency and support skills and human capital development that are important in promoting economic growth through increases in labor productivity. The study also recommends policymakers to enhance domestic resource mobilization and pursue favorable trade policies aimed at fostering robust economic growth.

Public Space, Tourism and Mobility. Projects, Impacts and Tensions in Lisbon’s Urban Regeneration Dynamics

In the wake of severe economic slowdown during the 2008-2015 crisis, and despite continued constraints on public investment in large scale infrastructure, Lisbon is emerging as one of the most attractive destinations in Europe. Tourism has been driving major spatial, functional and social changes, initially in the city’s historical districts, and nowadays exerts impact across a much larger urban and regional area. Tourism, together with new drivers of the real-estate market, is promoting the renovation of formerly vacant or rundown built stock, taking advantage of a rather fragile socio-economic milieu and changing the face of residential, commercial and public space landscapes. Recently upgraded transportation nodes and extensive improvements on public space have also played a meaningful role in this process. Central government and municipality rationale have underpinned its role in providing accessibility, “attractivity”, and “heritage valorisation”, aiming to attract young residents after decades of resident population decline. In contrast to considerable public investment in public space and infrastructure, very limited funding or policy has been targeted at maintaining an affordable housing and real-estate market: thus leaving much of the public investment return to the private sector. Criticism of gentrification and “touristification”, rising housing prices, and pressure on infrastructure is growing accordingly. The paper provides insight into aspects of this process, with a focus on the relational aspects of mobility upgrade, public space renewal and inner-city urban regeneration. Several urban projects are mapped and broadly characterised in their spatial and functional relationship with tourism. An interpretative framework that combines them with the forms of territorialisation and the main conflicts and tensions is offered as a contribution to the ongoing discussion. Conclusions point to the complex and powerful role that public space and mobility infrastructure play in the impact of territorialising tourism: as supports for better qualified, multi-scalar and shared urban spaces and as drivers of a more balanced, diverse and socially-inclusive urban tourism development.