Latin America's macroeconomic crisis of the 1980s and '90s forced a severe fiscal adjustment across the region. More often than not, however, fiscal stability was achieved at the cost of a drastic compression of public infrastructure spending, which in some countries amounted to half or more of...

There is a long-standing literature that shows that fiscal adjustment is often implemented through cuts in public investment, including infrastructure (Roubini and Sachs, 1989; Hicks, 1991; De Haan et al. 1996). In this respect, the present paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution...

Public investment and infrastructure spending are often singled out for drastic cuts at times of fiscal retrenchment. Fiscal austerity in Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s was characterized by a sharp contraction in infrastructure spending. In 5 of the 9 major Latin American countries,...