The forgotten rationale for policy reform: The productivity of investment projects

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Isham, J; Kaufmann, D
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; The World Bank
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/003355399555972
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 149-184
• 关键词: economic-growth; performance; LDCs

摘要

Using economic rates of return from World Bank-funded investments, we investigate how country characteristics and policies that influence aggregate performance affect investment productivity. Controlling for other characteristics, countries with undistorted (distorted) macroeconomic, exchange rate, trade, and pricing policies have highly productive (unproductive) investments. No type of project-in tradable or nontradable sectors-can be insulated from poor policies, where returns on investments are about ten percentage points lower. Productivity increases when policies improve within a country. Projects are also affected, nonlinearly, by the size of the public investment program where policies are undistorted. The results offer new evidence on benefits fi om policy reform and challenge conventional cost-benefit analysis.