Increasing the Efficiency of Public Infrastructure Delivery: Evidence-based Potential Efficiency Gains in Public Infrastructure Spending in Latin America and the Caribbean

Serebrisky, Tomás; Suárez-Alemán, Ancor; Pastor, Cinthya; Wohlhueter, Andreas

doi:10.18235/0000846

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Africa spent $45 billion on rebuilding and rehabilitation in the mid-1990s because of not investing $12 billion in periodic maintenance of roads during the 1980s (de Richecour and Heggie, 1995). In addition, in the case of Peru, evidence shows that the country spent seven times more bringing deteriorated roads back into operation than it would have spent for the regular maintenance of the roads between 1992 and 2005 (Serebrisky et al, 2017). Hence, to eliminate fiscal rule limitations, it is suggested to classify maintenance as an investment expenditure instead of current expenditure.…”

Section: Focusing On Operations and Maintenancementioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the efficiency of infrastructure projects to improve access to finance

Bisbey

Nourzad

Chu

et al. 2020

J Infrastruct Policy Dev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While there has been much discussion about the large infrastructure needs in Asia and the Pacific, less attention has been paid to public expenditure efficiency in infrastructure services delivery. New constructions are not the only solution, especially when governments have limited capital to invest. Globally, new infrastructure projects face delays and cost overruns, leading to an inefficient use of public resources. The root causes include the lack of transparency in project selection, the lack of project preparation, the silo approach by public entities in assessing feasibility studies, and the lack of public sector capacity to fully develop a bankable pipeline of projects. To tackle these issues, governments need a smarter investment approach and to do so, enhancing public service efficiency is very crucial. The paper suggests a “whole life cycle” (WLC) approach as the main strategic solution for the discussed issues and challenges. We expand the definition of WLC to include the entire life cycle of the infrastructure asset from need identification to its disposal. The stages comprise planning, preparation, procurement, design, construction, operation and maintenance, and disposal. This is because we believe any efficient or inefficient decision throughout such a wide life cycle influences the quality of public services. Hence, in this holistic approach, infrastructure life cycle consists of four phases: planning, preparation, procurement, and implementation. Governments could enhance public efficiency and thus improve access to finance throughout the WLC by several solutions. These are (i) preparing infrastructure master plan and pipelines and long-term budgeting during the planning phase; (ii) establishing framework and guidelines and improving governance during preparation phase; (iii) promoting standardization, transparency, open government, and contractual consistency during the procurement phase; and finally (iv) continued role of government and total asset management during the implementation phase. In addition to these phase-specific means, key WLC solutions include proper use of technology, capacity building, and private participation in general and public-private partnership (PPP) in particular.

show abstract

Section: Focusing On Operations and Maintenancementioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the efficiency of infrastructure projects to improve access to finance

Bisbey

Nourzad

Chu

et al. 2020

J Infrastruct Policy Dev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is explained by sector specificities. The World Economic Forum's survey on perceptions of infrastructure reveals that the quality of infrastructure in LAC is lagging, particularly compared with the developed world (Serebrisky et al, 2017). 4 When it comes to infrastructure endowment, despite low levels of investment, access to infrastructure services improved greatly in LAC between 2000 and 2015.…”

Section: How Does Latin America and The Caribbean Compare With Other ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even worse, the quality gap with Sub-Saharan Africa is shrinking: Africa's quality indicators may soon match or even surpass those of LAC (Serebrisky et al, 2015). Lack of physical assets, inadequate maintenance, and poor provision of infrastructure services explain the perception that infrastructure services in the region are of low quality (Serebrisky et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Benchmarking economic infrastructure efficiency: How does the Latin America and Caribbean region compare?

2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Some recent studies have focused on the task of how to close the infrastructure gaps relying less on increasing the aggregate level of investment and more on a more efficient allocation of resources (Serebrisky et. al., 2017; Suárez-Alemán, Serebrisky & Perelman, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Index for Public Investment Management

Canela

Moreno‐Brid

2021

REMEF

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of this article is to improve the most widely used indicator of quality in public investment management (the PIMI). The methodology was to use an alternative algorithm to build a new version of the PIMI and calculate it for sixteen Latin American countries. The result is a New PIMI that appears better than the original one, as it has a positive correlation with an objective indicator of the efficiency of public investment, which is not achieved by the original PIMI. We recommend the use of the New PIMI, proposed here, as a control variable in studies on aggregated public investment and its impacts on economic growth and social welfare. One limitation of the New PIMI is that it reflects the quality of public investment management at the aggregate level and based on de jure criteria, thus not capturing key differences that occur at a more disaggregated or informal level. Even so, the relevance, originality and replicability of the New PIMI make it a significant contribution to knowledge in this field.

show abstract

Increasing the Efficiency of Public Infrastructure Delivery: Evidence-based Potential Efficiency Gains in Public Infrastructure Spending in Latin America and the Caribbean

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Enhancing the efficiency of infrastructure projects to improve access to finance

Enhancing the efficiency of infrastructure projects to improve access to finance

Benchmarking economic infrastructure efficiency: How does the Latin America and Caribbean region compare?

A New Index for Public Investment Management

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About