Infrastructure and Economic Growth in East Asia

Straub, Stéphane; Vellutini, Charles; Warlters, Michael

Infrastructure and Economic Growth in East Asia

Autores

Straub, Stéphane

Vellutini, Charles

Warlters, Michael

Editor

World Bank, Washington, DC

Descripción

This paper examines whether infrastructure investment has contributed to East Asia's economic growth using both a growth accounting framework and cross-country regressions. For most of the variables used, both the growth accounting exercise and cross-country regressions fail to find a significant link between infrastructure, productivity and growth. These conclusions contrast strongly with previous studies finding positive and significant effect for all infrastructure variables in the context of a production function study. This leads us to conclude that results from studies using macro-level data should be considered with extreme caution. The Authors suggest that infrastructure investment may have had the primary function of relieving constraints and bottlenecks as they arose, as opposed to directly encouraging growth.

Palabras clave

ACCOUNTING, ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK, ADB, AGGREGATE OUTPUT, AGRICULTURE, AVERAGE GROWTH, AVERAGE GROWTH RATE, AVERAGE LEVEL, BENCHMARK, BOTTLENECKS, CAPITAL INVESTMENT, CENTRAL BANK, CONGESTION, COUNTRY REGRESSIONS, CROSS COUNTRY, DECONCENTRATION, DEFICITS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING REGIONS, DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS, DIMINISHING RETURNS, DISPOSABLE INCOME, DIVIDENDS, DOMESTIC MARKETS, DRIVING, DYNAMIC PANEL, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIC HISTORY, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, ECONOMIC RESEARCH, ECONOMICS, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, ELASTICITY, EMPIRICAL LITERATURE, EMPIRICAL RESULTS, ERROR TERM, EXOGENOUS VARIABLES, EXPLANATORY VARIABLES, EXPRESSWAYS, EXTERNALITIES, EXTERNALITY, FACTOR PRICES, FINANCIAL CRISIS, FINANCIAL DATA, FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT, FIXED EFFECTS, GDP, GDP PER CAPITA, GOVERNMENT REGULATION, GROSS FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION, GROWTH MODELS, GROWTH POTENTIAL, GROWTH RATE, GROWTH RATES, GROWTH REGRESSION, GROWTH REGRESSIONS, GROWTH THEORY, HIGH INCOME COUNTRIES, HIGHWAY, HIGHWAYS, HUMAN CAPITAL, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, INCOME GROUPS, INCREASING RETURNS, INCREASING RETURNS TO SCALE, INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES, INDUSTRIALIZATION, INFLATION, INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT, INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT, INFRASTRUCTURE POLICIES, INFRASTRUCTURES, INVENTORY, INVESTMENT BANK, INVESTMENT CLIMATE, LAGGED VALUE, LAGGED VALUES, LONG-RUN GROWTH, LONG-TERM GROWTH, LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES, MIDDLE EAST, MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES, NEGATIVE EFFECT, NEGATIVE IMPACT, NEOCLASSICAL GROWTH MODEL, NETWORK EXTERNALITIES, NORTH AFRICA, PACIFIC ISLANDS, PANEL REGRESSIONS, PER CAPITA GROWTH, POLICY ISSUES, POLICY RESEARCH, POOR COUNTRIES, POPULATION DENSITY, POSITIVE EFFECTS, POVERTY REDUCTION, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH, PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE, PUBLIC INVESTMENT, RAIL, RAIL NETWORK, RAIL ROUTE, RAILROAD, RAILWAYS, REDUCED FORM EQUATION, REDUCING POVERTY, REGIONAL INEQUALITY, RETURN ON INVESTMENT, ROAD, ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE, ROAD NETWORK, ROADS, ROUTE, RURAL POVERTY, RURAL ROADS, SANITATION, SAVINGS, SECONDARY SCHOOLING, SIGNIFICANT EFFECT, STOCKS, SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY, TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH, TRANSPORT, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TRUE, URBAN AREAS, URBANIZATION, VEHICLES