This paper is an annual publication issued by the Microeconomic Analysis service of the National Bank of Belgium. The Flemish maritime ports (Antwerp, Ghent, Ostend, Zeebrugge), the Autonomous Port of Liège and the port of Brussels play a major role in their respective regional economies and in...

One of the most important decisions that governments face is how to allocate the public resources necessary for development, given each country’s budget constraints. According to the literature on the links between wealth and institutional performance, highly kleptocratic countries are...

A report by UNICEF’s Division of Policy and Practice, creates a platform for showcasing results of its upstream policy analysis and advocacy and highlighting new thinking on social policy areas. This first edition features eight cases that are illustrative of the wide-ranging impact of...

We study a model in which asymmetric regions compete for capital with both public investments and taxes. Public investments are chosen in the first stage, and then source income taxes are set in the second stage. Public investments increase the productivity of capital and they also serve to...

Social investing, by both the political left and right, frequently ends up hurting the very people--particularly the economically disadvantaged--that it is supposed to help.

Economic growth and its determinants are very important issues for economic practice and literature. This study shows the effect of public investments on economic growth for a sample of European countries and aims at providing solution for improving the allocation of public funds for...

How should an equity-motivated policy-maker allocate public capital (infrastructure) across regions. Should it aim at reducing interregional differences in per capita output, or at maximizing total output? Such a normative question is examined in a model where the policy-maker is exclusively...

Properly spending the budget on public investments is the main issue of public authorities. The investment projects sustained by the state are very important for the entire socio-economic life. This is the reason that put the selection process of the solution under question marks and suspicions....