Provision Of Public Infrastructure Research Articles

Commodification of urban space in the Atlixcáyotl-Lomas de Angelópolis corridor in Puebla, Mexico

ABSTRACT Market-oriented urban development has reconfigured social life in Mexican metropolises in recent decades. The Atlixcáyotl-Lomas de Angelópolis corridor in Puebla illustrates how neoliberal policies stimulate the commodification of urban space, as the current physical, economic, and social arrangements in this corridor result from a state-led planning strategy that has mainly benefited private actors. The extended urban corridor—approximately eight miles long—in the southwest area of the metropolis was enabled by an ambitious regional plan in the 1990s that created a new crucial centrality known as Angelópolis developed over a land reserve of approximately 1,000 ha of expropriated agrarian social land (ejidos). The paper explores the role and impact of urban policies supposedly created for “public interest” to encourage the provision of affordable housing, green areas, public infrastructure, and social facilities, which, in contrast, have fostered elite residential horizontal and private developments, financial capital investments, and private facilities.

Public infrastructure provision in the presence of terms‐of‐trade effects and tax competition

AbstractThis paper analyses and compares the performance of resource taxes and capital taxes in financing public goods while considering the positive effects of public expenditure on firm productivity. It is motivated by Franks et al. (2017), who argue that the advantage of the resource tax consists in its potential to reap foreign resource rents. I employ an analytical general equilibrium framework of identical resource‐poor countries, where local firms use internationally mobile capital and a net imported resource in production as well as local public infrastructure. The latter is financed solely by either taxing the input of the resource or capital. The choice of the policy instrument is exogenous to policy makers and symmetric across countries. I find that expenditure on infrastructure renders the impact of fiscal policy on the terms of trade ambiguous under resource taxation and negative under capital taxation. Moreover, public expenditure weakens the outflow of factors moderating the deficit of public spending caused by tax competition. This holds for both policy scenarios. Considering both effects simultaneously, resource taxation cannot generally be identified as the policy to provide higher provision or efficiency. A numerical exercise shows cases for higher provision of either policy.

Does Density Foster Shorter Public Transport Networks? A Network Expansion Simulation Approach

One argument for containing urban densities is that cities need a critical population density to sustain sufficiently available public transportation. However, the question of whether denser cities foster shorter public transport networks empirically is problematic because real-world transport nets are a product of many additional factors presumably not related to urban form. This paper adopts a network expansion simulation approach to generate and analyze counterfactual data on network lengths for 36 world cities, in which all networks are generated with similar expansion restrictions and objectives. Denser cities are found to have shorter simulated public transport networks, regardless of the tested model parameters. This provides additional proof that densities are needed to facilitate the provision of proximate public transport infrastructure, with potentially self-reinforcing effects.

Cooperating and competing for land-based interests in the growth coalition of market-oriented urban redevelopment: The case of Longsheng village, Shenzhen

ABSTRACT This study seeks to enrich our understanding of the concept of growth coalition through analyzing the extended and changeable composition of the urban redevelopment growth coalition and its dynamic operation within the context of market-oriented urban village redevelopment in China. An analytical framework which combines growth coalition theory with the varieties of urban entrepreneurialism is developed. An in-depth investigation of a representative case of urban village renewal projects in Shenzhen has been further conducted to reveal the complex and dynamic processes of cooperating and competing for land-based interests within the coalition. Results show that the coalition of the Village Shareholding Companies (VSCs) and developers has become the key actor in initiating and implementing urban village redevelopment. Competition and cooperation between the cooperative developers and the local governments on provision of public infrastructures and between developers and the VSCs on the distribution proportion of land-based interests are key determinants in implementing the redevelopment.

As pharma is to people, so infrastructure is to cities

The pharmaceutical industry is a profit-making sector of the healthcare system and has grown into a self-regulating complex system over the years. Starting from the pre-clinical to clinical development of drugs to the authorisation and marketing thereof, a typical multi-national pharmaceutical company of today operates in complex ways which partly emerge from the multiple interactions within and without the company. The complexity is further given by the unpredictability of the outcomes: merely 1 out of 10 drugs that are in development are likely to be approved. The plethora of regulations by authorities such as the European Medicines Agency pose a negative feedback on this complex system which is further aggravated by the reimbursement landscape of each country, taking a toll on the innovative side of this privately funded sector.
 By analogy, infrastructure operations with distinct supply systems delivering specific critical products and services, pharmaceutical companies have become the exclusive suppliers of drugs within the healthcare system. Increasingly traditional public sector infrastructure provision has been privatised, as has national health services drug development, resulting in high levels of regulation in each, constraining innovation and profitability, hall-marks of the private sector. Just as infrastructure delivers the life-blood of cities, pharma delivers medicines for the health of individuals: both aim for public health and societal good. Failures in infrastructure delivery, such as unaffordability by the poor, match with pharma failures to provide equitably to all individuals: the poor cannot afford the best drugs. The urban sprawl in cities and the rise of informal settlements without sufficient infrastructure, can be observed in health care by the rise in use of alternative and unreliable medications by sections of the population who are excluded from pharma penetration.
 Our work studies such analogies between infrastructure and pharmaceutical companies in the hope of a better understanding of the operations of and connections with each other and inspirations about finding solutions from these two similar, yet distinct complex systems.

Financing the economy in debt times: The crucial role of public–private partnerships

This paper aims to show that there is a great interest for countries to rely on Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a tool for financing the economy, especially in times of debt. First, we conceptualize through game theory a better risk management between the public and private sectors in case of co-investment. Second, building on Iossa and Martimort (2009), we demonstrate that PPPs investments produce greater economic and social gains than pure public investments by providing incentives and transferring risks to the private sector. The implications of the model are diverse: financing the provision of public infrastructure through PPPs allows for sharing the associated risks, improves the quality and reduce the costs of the provision of public goods. The model has been empirically tested on 14 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1990–2017. The impact of PPP investments is significantly higher than that of pure public investments. The evidence also shows that the positive impact of PPP investments strengthens economic growth as the public debt grows to a point where there is no longer any significant pro growth impact.

Implementation Strategy for DC Fast Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles

Adoption of electric vehicles (EV) has been on a rising trend in the recent past. Provision of public DC fast charging infrastructure at strategic points is one of the major drivers towards the adoption of electric vehicles. This paper develops an implementation strategy for DC fast charging stations as an element in transmission and distribution infrastructure at strategic points to supply electrical energy for the recharging of electric vehicles. Kenya Power Ltd., a distribution utility player in Kenya, is a key stakeholder in the e-mobility ecosystem an is keen on opportunities that can take up extra capacity especially off-peak hence smoothening the load curve, maximizing on the use of transmission and distribution infrastructure as well as exposure to new technology. DC fast charging stations encourage the purchase of electrical vehicles and is one-step closer to a low – carbon economy, using clean transport. A SWOT analysis was used to construct an implementation strategy for EVs charging stations. Financial viability of the project was analysed using payback period, cost-to-benefit ratio, net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR). The financial indicators suggested that the investment is profitable, hence it is worth to consider it for investment.

Environmental policy and carbon emissions in business cycles with public infrastructure investment

Governments have the incentive to increase public infrastructure investment for the post pandemic world so as to recover the economy, but in doing so more carbon emissions may be generated. This paper explores how governments should coordinate environmental policy with public infrastructure provision in business cycles to achieve a certain goal of emissions reduction. First, we find that stringent environmental policy is required to realize the emissions reduction goal when there is heavy investment in public infrastructure. Second, we display that in the presence of public infrastructure, the emissions tax is less able to mitigate pollutants than the emissions cap in a productivity shock, and the interaction between environmental policy and public infrastructure can amplify emissions and macroeconomic volatility in a monetary shock. Third, different from the existing literature arguing that optimal environmental policy should be procyclical in business cycles, we show that it could be countercyclical when the government's willingness to provide public infrastructure is small. This paper contributes by incorporating public infrastructure into the environmental dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model.

From Forced to Voluntary Labour in Rural Africa: The Transition to Paid Voluntary Labour on the Roads of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast

AbstractForced labour was central to the provision of public infrastructure in African colonies. Whereas current historiography focuses on the role of external drivers, such as humanitarian organizations or the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, in triggering change, no attention has been paid to the local initiatives that contributed to the end of forced labour. This article explores the transition to paid voluntary labour in the context of road building and maintenance in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, a region where incentives to resort to compulsion were very high due to the lack of alternative sources of revenue to finance public works. The article shows that movements away from forced labour were shaped by local conditions, and rural populations played a crucial part in the shifts in labour relations.

Community Institution in Managing Floods and Tidal Drainage Infrastructure in Panggung Lor Sub-District, Semarang City, Indonesia

In general, the government’s provision of public infrastructure is carried out because it is part of the government’s obligation to provide public services. However, several cases show that an institution formed by the community manages the public infrastructure. One of them is the Panggung Lor Floods and Tidal Empowerment Management Association which is known as P5L (Paguyuban Pemberdayaan Penanggulangan Air Pasang Panggung Lor). The institution was created by residents of the Panggung Lor Sub-District in North Semarang District, Semarang City, Indonesia, to overcome and prevent floods and big tidal problems in the sub-district area. Since it was formed in 2000 until now, the institution has succeeded in overcoming its problems. This article examines the research results on P5L as an institution developed by the community to manage a public infrastructure that the government usually manages. Qualitative research is used to carry out the institutional analysis framework developed by Wageningen University and Research. This study indicates that since its establishment until now, P5L has been able to carry out the mandate given by residents of the Panggung Lor Sub-District and foster a sense of security against floods and high tides. The reason is that P5L can show good performance in 4 aspects, mainly that it can boost public confidence that the institution can manage the drainage system built on a community basis; However, initially, it was an independent institution formed and supported by the community currently it has become a partner of the government in managing parts of the urban drainage system; its services can create a residential environment that is free from floods and high tide and in green and clean conditions; as well as the supervision of its works is carried out directly by the community, as part of maintaining the trust given to the institution. For the institution’s existence to continue, the mandate given by the community must be upheld.

PENGARUH KEKUASAAN TERHADAP PERUBAHAN LAHAN HUTAN DI SURAKARTA TAHUN 1900-1998

Changes in forest land is a phenomenon that accompanies human history. The role of the ruler is in the spotlight when forest land in an area is degraded. One of the areas that is experiencing a narrowing of forest land is Surakarta. From the colonial period to the New Order, Surakarta experienced a change in the face of the city, especially the loss of forests in the region. The purpose of this study is to reveal the influence of the rulers in Surakarta during the period 1900 to 1998 on forest loss in the Surakarta area. The historical method was used in the context of compiling this research because the temporal as the main discussion began in 1900 and ended in 1998. The researcher also focuses more on the environmental history approach so that this research can be used as criticism and suggestions for future policy makers. Developments designed by the authorities during the period 1900 to 1998 have sacrificed ecologically valuable assets, namely forests. The government's interest in the economic sector is believed to be the main factor in the loss of forest land in Surakarta. The city of Surakarta experienced modernization during the colonial period so that mobility in urban areas has increased. The government that has the power in development must open up new production areas to meet needs instead of economic interests. Even the autonomous rulers experienced changes in culture and traditions regarding forests because forest land was getting narrower. Forest degradation continued during the New Order era. The period of Suharto's rule made forest land in Surakarta increasingly invisible. The role of the first lady who is the son of the Surakarta area is the main factor at this time. Urban development has increased sharply with the provision of public facilities and infrastructure.

Information Provision to Breastfeeding Mothers in a Developing Country: The Potentials of Public Libraries

ABSTRACT This paper examined the involvement of public libraries in information provision to breastfeeding mothers in a developing country – Nigeria. It noted the importance of necessary and adequate information in the health care of both mother and child during the breastfeeding period. It further outlined the types of information needed by breastfeeding mothers and the role of public libraries in the provision of the various types of information. The paper identified the challenges inhibiting information provision for breastfeeding mothers to include negative attitude of breastfeeding mothers, digital divide, and poor state of libraries among others. It recommended the involvement of government and nongovernmental agencies in the provision of education and enlightenment programs for women in order to improve on their literacy levels and effect attitudinal changes toward their reception of formal healthcare information; it also recommended the intervention of government and donor agencies in the revitalization of public libraries and provision of necessary infrastructure for information provision especially in rural areas.

Accessibility, mobility, and spatial justice in Nairobi, Kenya

ABSTRACT A focus on motorized mobility has been subtracted from the advancement of the modes of mobility used by the majority in Nairobi, especially the most vulnerable, with a discernible outcome of injustices. This article explores mobility in relation to spatial justice through three accessibility dimensions—spatial, modal, and individual—that place significance on the comprehension and configuration of spatial justice in relation to mobility. Viewed from this perspective, the organization of space and the prioritization of the mobility needs of the most vulnerable present a notable way in which spatial justice unfolds and is understood. Through a spatial assessment of Nairobi’s urban growth and analysis of the existing modes of mobility, we find that the mono-centricity of Nairobi city contributes to challenges in accessibility to places of necessity. The city’s spatial layout where places of necessity cluster in the urban core, together with the spatial brokerage role of the central business district within the public transport network, speaks for greater attention to the reorganization of places of necessity. We argue that promoting transit-oriented development, investing in state-provided public transport and provision of safe non-motorized infrastructure are integral to advancing justice in relation to mobility and building an inclusive city for all.

COVID-19 Lockdown and a Surge in Women Unpaid Care Work in Nigeria: Corollary for Sustainable Development Goals

The actualization of gender equality is central to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This will be unachievable if no proactive measures are taken on the extent of women and girls’ involvement in unpaid care and domestic chores. Target 5.4 of the SDG delineated the need to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructures and social protection policies as well as the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate. An online google questionnaire was used to collect data on the enormity of unpaid care work particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown among women of reproductive age (15-49 years). Data were analysed using univariate and bivariate analytical methods. The results revealed that almost all women of reproductive age (97.6%) in Nigeria are engaged in the enormous task of unpaid care which they reported increased during the COVID-19 lockdown (93.8%) without any form of commensurate remuneration by the government. Cultural norms remained the most significant reason (93.8%) why women and girls are main players in unpaid care and domestic work. Policy to address unpaid care work and women and girls’ representation in decision-making processes is recommended.

Cash Waqf and The Development: A Case Study of Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk in Indonesia

This study offers an integrated analysis of the Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk application in Indonesia. The method employed is a review of the literature utilizing many data sources. Several significant ideas, like the sharing economy, Islamic financial innovation, and social impact bonds, have a significant link with the implementation of CWLS, according to the findings. Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk (CWLS) is a tool for placing waqf money (cash waqf) on Indonesia's sovereign Sukuk (SBSN), which was developed to support the social facilities development program. With the presence of CWLS, the private sector can actively contribute to the government's development of public facilities for widespread advantages. The primary advantage of CWLS is that its advantages can be enhanced through the provision of government-managed public infrastructure with solid governance and a low degree of risk. The Indonesian Waqf Board, Bank Indonesia, the Ministry of Finance, Islamic Financial Institutions, the Zakat Institutions, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Investors, and (Mauquf Alaih) Beneficiaries are involved in the management of CWLS. The study finds that CWLS may be able to aid the community in achieving more sustainable and equitable economic growth.

AN OVERVIEW OF EQUAL DOMESTIC WORKS BETWEEN SPOUSE TO INCREAS GENDER EQUALITY AS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Background: Marriage is a new chapter in life with the aim of forming a happy and eternal family. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, realizing this goal is increasingly difficult. This is related to problems that occur in the domestic sphere, such as a declining family economy and fights that trigger violence and even divorce. Basically, the problems that occur are also motivated by the form of the traditional family role division format in which the husband as the head of the family plays a public role to provide for his family and the wife only plays a domestic role as a housewife. Meanwhile, one of the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals is gender equality as in the target (5.1) to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, and (5.5) ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making. Method: This study uses a systematic literature review method by collecting various relevant previous studies to be identified, reviewed, evaluated, and interpreted. Result: The results of this study indicate that in Indonesia there are still many socio-cultural influences on gender roles where men (husbands) do masculine tasks and women (wives) do feminine tasks. Therefore, there are still families who apply the traditional form of family role division. However, there are also families who have implemented equal roles in their families that are not fixed by gender. Conclusion: Therefore, it is necessary to apply a pattern of partnership relationships in the family and the role of the government to realize the target (5.4) to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate. Keywords: Domestic Works; Spouse; Gender Equality; SDGs 2030; Indonesia.

Government, trade and comparative advantage, revisited

AbstractThis study conducts a detailed analysis of the production possibility frontier (PPF) in an economy with two goods, each produced using labour and a specific factor as inputs, and public infrastructure, which has positive externalities on the production of each good. We show that if the elasticity of a specific factor input into production is sufficiently small, the PPF has a concave–convex–concave shape. Although our model is similar to the one developed in 1992 by Richard H. Clarida and Ronald Findlay, this possibility was overlooked in their analysis and it can generate trade patterns that are against the law of comparative advantage. Nevertheless, trade is always gainful and, as in the existing studies, trade openness increases the provision of public infrastructure in a country exporting goods whose productivity is highly dependent on infrastructure. We also examine the relationship between factor endowments and comparative advantage.

Public infrastructure provision and ethnic favouritism: Evidence from South Africa

AbstractDoes coethnicity with the President affect public infrastructure provision in South Africa? Using municipal‐level data for 52 district municipalities from 1996 to 2016, we find that municipalities coethnic with the President are associated with higher water infrastructure provision relative to non‐coethnic municipalities. Taking into account various political considerations, results show that ethnic favouritism occurs due to ethnic altruism. Our findings remain robust to different specifications of coethnicity thresholds and are applicable to electricity infrastructure provision. Results suggest that in order to minimise ethnic favouritism, politically independent institutions should oversee the allocation of funding and provision of infrastructure.

Experimenting for long-term transformation. Key insidhts into 20 years of German pilot scheme for innovative rural public service and infrastructure provision

In a context of highly heterogeneous development prospects for rural areas in the German Federal Republic, maintaining public services and infrastructure in peripheral locations is facing major challenges. Since the 1990s, a number of nationwide and publicly-funded pilot schemes have experimented with innovative approaches for the long-term transformation of the way public services and infrastructure are provided in the countryside. Nevertheless, the continuity of these approaches often turns out to be problematic. This paper analyses a series of pilot schemes as instruments for territorial development and presents new findings at multiple levels for enhancing their performance.

Employment Implications of Economic Liberalization: ARDL Based Evidence from Pakistan

The current study attempts to investigate whether economic liberalization influences employment in Pakistan or not. Despite the traditional analysis, our study has employed the multiple indicators of economic liberalization (trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, and remittances) and checked the effect of each indicator on the employment level. Time series annual data for the period 1980 to 2018 has been used for empirical analysis. After checking for the stationarity of data, the study proceeds with the ARDL approach. The empirical results of the study have proved that employment is sensitive to each indicator of economic liberalization. All indicators of economic liberalization are positively and significantly affecting the employment level in Pakistan's economy in the long run as well as in the short run. The provision of public infrastructure also promotes employment levels in Pakistan. The government should take policy measures for promoting free trade, encouraging foreign inflows, exchange rate regulation, and liberalizing markets. Keywords: Employment, Trade Openness, Remittances, Foreign Flows, Public Investment