Foreign direct investment is a key ingredient of successful economic growth and development in developing countries--partly because the very essence of economic development is the rapid and efficient transfer and cross-border adoption of"best practices."Foreign direct investment is especially...

Social impact investors, philanthropists, or corporations pursuing social responsibility try to demonstrate that they are indeed"doing good."This essay classifies the various types of measures that currently exist to capture social and environmental impact in a simple scheme. It argues that...

The author concludes that government, through the tax system, cannot really do better than private financial markets at funding infrastructure projects. All the financial advantages of sovereign finance are due purely to its coercive powers and are of no social value. Under government finance...

This paper provides an overview of approaches to the economic regulation of piped water supply and sewerage systems. The discussion emphasizes the particular importance that quality issues take on in water systems relative to any other infrastructure sector. Water quality is obviously important...

Privatization of infrastructure ventures in sectors such as energy, telecommunication, transport, and water has become popular over the last decade. Often- for good or bad reasons - private firms are given monopoly franchises under some type of long-term concession agreement, for...

Fundamentally, poverty reduction is about bringing growth processes to poor areas. Because poor areas can benefit from technical and organizational innovations made elsewhere in the world, it is possible today to create productive jobs faster and in greater quantity than ever before. The puzzle...

Driven by fiscal austerity and disenchantment with the performance of state-provided infrastructure services, many governments have turned to the private sector to build, operate, finance, or own infrastructure in power, gas, water, transport, and telecommunications sectors. Private capital...

The author discusses the risks of infrastructure projects and the costs of capital, rationales for government support of private infrastructure ventures, and approaches to managing government guarantees of private infrastructure investments. Among his recommendations: 1) the decision to grant a...

A wave of privatization is sweeping the globe, affecting about 100 countries and adding up to an average of more than $60 billion a year in business in the past decade. The challenge is to ensure that privatization yields clear benefits. Empirical studies suggest that ownership change by itself...