In the last decade or so, growth has come to occupy an increasingly important place among the interests of macroeconomists, displacing to some extent their previous preoccupation with the business cycle. This change is largely due to two factors. The first one is the realisation that, in terms...

The EIB finances a large number of projects in support of EU policies including social and economic cohesion, that is to reduce regional disparities in income. Since 1995, the EIB Evaluation Department has looked at over 100 projects where the Bank has been involved, normally along the lines of...

Many observers suspect economic growth to be inextricably associated with inequality: growth alone need not bring about unalloyed, uncontroversial increases in economic well-being because rising average income levels might come together with increasing disparities between rich and poor....

The financial crises of the 1990s have created the perception that one of the fundamental reasons for the occurrence of such crises is to be found in the fact that exchange rates were pegged for too long. These pegged exchange rates inevitably invited speculative attacks in the foreign exchange...

Public-private partnerships have emerged as an alternative to traditional public procurement in financing and providing infrastructure services. This paper considers public-private partnerships as another form of public sector intervention in the economy. It analyses the microeconomic pros and...

This paper critically assesses the implications of contract design and risk transfer on the provision of public services under public-private partnerships (PPPs). Two results stand out. First, the alleged strength of PPPs in delivering infrastructure projects on budget more often than...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are long-term partnerships between the public and private sectors that usually involve the private sector undertaking investment projects that traditionally have been executed (or at least financed) and owned by the public sector. This paper considers...

Considering industrial policy from the perspective of other economic policies, this paper seeks to identify the sources and consequences of conflicts between industrial, competition, trade, and fiscal policies. The goals of industrial policy, even when economically justified in isolation, are in...

Highlighting the revival of industrial-policy thinking in an era of globalisation and disenchantment with free trade, this paper reviews alternative and, in part, competing theoretical foundations of industrial policy: neoclassical foundations, structuralist approaches, and pragmatic approaches...

This paper focuses on the systems-of-innovation (SI) approach and its policy implications. It introduces the topic by briefly reviewing the emergence, development, and diffusion of this approach and, then, spells out the constituents, activities, and boundaries of the SI approach. On this basis,...