A recent but rapidly growing empirical literature focuses on the relationship between public and private capital. But for the most part, it ignores the heterogeneity of public investment. In many countries, especially in the developing world, public investment includes not only basic...

If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even if it has access to credit, the household will achieve lower returns than an educated household. If, as is common, the...

The authors evaluate the effect of various community level infrastructure rehabilitation projects undertaken in rural Georgia on household well-being. Their analysis is based on combining household and community level survey data. The authors'empirical approach uses the panel structure of the...

The relevance of transport costs has increased as liberalization continues to reduce artificial barriers to trade. Countries need to adopt policies to get closer to global markets. Can improvements in infrastructure and regulation reduce transport costs? Is it worthwhile to implement policies...

focuses on two objectives in his study: (1) to establish a baseline measurement of the level and geographic distribution of social capital in Argentina, and (2) to identify its empirical determinants. The study's survey questionnaire provides individual-level data on the population's...

This paper assesses the effect of institutional quality on research and development (R&D) expenditures in developing countries. The paper finds that the risk of expropriation and the rule of law are correlated with R&D expenditures. Since both institutional variables increase as institutional...

Japan remains the world's largest national donor of aid funds. But the Japanese government, facing prolonged economic stagnation and mounting public sector debt, is under increasing public pressure to reduce aid budgets and to use official development assistance in more explicit pursuit of...

World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World (report no. 17300) argued that institutions-the rules of the game that govern production and exchange-shape a country's prospects for sustained market-led growth. The author provides an institutional framework for service delivery, an...

The most striking fact about the economic geography of the world is the uneven spatial distribution of economic activity, including the coexistence of economic development and underdevelopment. High-income regions are almost entirely concentrated in a few temperate zones, half of the world's GDP...

In seeking funding, a firm's main choice is between external and internal financing. And, says the author, the evidence suggests that the stock market plays only a limited role providing finance for both U.S. and Indian firms. The author finds that internal finance plays less of a role for...