Publication: Spending on Public Infrastructure :
A Practitioner's Guide
Loading...
Published
2011-12-01
ISSN
Date
2012-03-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper provides a methodological tool to support the collection and preparation of standardized, comprehensive data regarding public spending on infrastructure services that can be rigorously compared across countries. Infrastructure is defined to cover six sectors: irrigation, energy (primarily power), transport, communication, wastewater management, and water supply. The guide is designed to provide a much richer and more complete measurement of infrastructure spending than the limited highly aggregated data currently available through the IMF Government Financial Statistics. Originally developed for Africa, the methodology is relevant and readily applicable to any developing country. With the aim of being as comprehensive as possible, the methodology covers central and sub-national government expenditures, non-budgetary vehicles (such as road funds), state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and public-private partnerships (PPPs). While the methodology focuses on collecting quantitative data on the level and composition of spending, this is complemented with qualitative data that provides the institutional context. Importantly, the methodology allows for cross-classification of infrastructure spending by purpose (power, roads, etc) and by function (operational versus capital spending). This guide provides practical guidance -- including concepts, definitions, and classifications -- for each of the three stages of work, namely: (i) pre-field, (ii) field, and (iii) back office.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia; Sarkodie, Afua. 2011. Spending on Public Infrastructure :
A Practitioner's Guide. Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5905. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3672 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication The Economic Value of Weather Forecasts: A Quantitative Systematic Literature Review(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-10)This study systematically reviews the literature that quantifies the economic benefits of weather observations and forecasts in four weather-dependent economic sectors: agriculture, energy, transport, and disaster-risk management. The review covers 175 peer-reviewed journal articles and 15 policy reports. Findings show that the literature is concentrated in high-income countries and most studies use theoretical models, followed by observational and then experimental research designs. Forecast horizons studied, meteorological variables and services, and monetization techniques vary markedly by sector. Estimated benefits even within specific subsectors span several orders of magnitude and broad uncertainty ranges. An econometric meta-analysis suggests that theoretical studies and studies in richer countries tend to report significantly larger values. Barriers that hinder value realization are identified on both the provider and user sides, with inadequate relevance, weak dissemination, and limited ability to act recurring across sectors. Policy reports rely heavily on back-of-the-envelope or recursive benefit-transfer estimates, rather than on the methods and results of the peer-reviewed literature, revealing a science-to-policy gap. These findings suggest substantial socioeconomic potential of hydrometeorological services around the world, but also knowledge gaps that require more valuation studies focusing on low- and middle-income countries, addressing provider- and user-side barriers and employing rigorous empirical valuation methods to complement and validate theoretical models.Publication The State of Global Services Trade Policies: Evidence from Recent Data(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-28)The economic environment for services trade has changed dramatically over the past 15 years, driven by rapid technological progress that has expanded the possibilities for exchanging services. How has trade policy responded to these changes? How do policy stances in a wide range of service sectors compare across economies? With its unprecedented global coverage, the Services Trade Policy Database and the associated Services Trade Restrictions Index, developed jointly by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, help address these questions. This paper makes three principal contributions. First, it offers an in-depth discussion of the current state of services trade policies and their differences across 134 economies and 34 services subsectors. Second, the paper reveals how recent (2016–22) changes in policy stances have seen progressive liberalization by lower-income economies but stabilization or even slight policy reversals in high-income economies. This dynamic differs fundamentally from the trend that unfolded after the Great Recession over 2008–16. Third, the paper shows the implications of policy changes over the past six years on services trade costs, and it showcases how the Services Trade Policy Database’s regulatory information can inform trade negotiations, regulatory analysis, and policy making. Alongside these contributions, the paper documents updates to the Services Trade Policy Database’s economy and sector coverage and explains the latest methodological improvements made to the World Bank–World Trade Organization Services Trade Restrictions Index.Publication It’s Not (Just) the Tariffs: Rethinking Non-Tariff Measures in a Fragmented Global Economy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-22)As tariffs have declined, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have become central to trade policy, especially in high-income countries and regulated sectors like food and green technologies. Although NTMs may serve legitimate goals, they could also sort countries and firms into or out of markets based on compliance capacity and differences in product mix. Documenting recent advances in the estimation of ad valorem equivalents (AVEs), this paper uncovers new patterns of use and exposure of NTMs. High-income countries rely more heavily on NTMs relative to tariffs, while low- and middle-income countries face steeper AVEs on their exports. Firm-level evidence shows that NTMs disproportionately affect smaller firms, leading to market exit and concentration. Poorly designed NTMs can harm productivity and welfare, while coordinated, capacity-aware use can deliver inclusive outcomes. Policy design, transparency, and diagnostics must evolve to reflect the growing role—and risks—of NTMs in a fragmented global trade landscape.Publication The Marshall Plan: Then and Now(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-14)This paper is a product of the Development Policy Team, Development Economics. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp.Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication More Fiscal Resources for Infrastructure? Evidence from East Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06)This paper evaluates the extent of fiscal resource availability for infrastructure in four East African countries and explores the main options for its expansion. A number of major channels will be examined. The first is the extent to which expenditure is well allocated across sectors, sub-sectors, expense categories, jurisdictions and geographic areas. The second is the extent to which there is scope for improving efficiency by enhancing the operational performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs), restoring adequate levels of maintenance, or improving the selection and implementation of investment projects. The third is the extent to which user charges are applied and set at levels consistent with cost recovery. The fourth is the extent to which private sector participation has been fully exploited as a vehicle for raising investment finance. While it is difficult to evaluate these things very precisely, a number of proxy indicators are used to shed light on the matter.Publication People's Democratic Republic of Algeria - Public Expenditure Review : Assuring High Quality Public Investment, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2007-08)The fiscal space generated by a prolonged oil windfall has enabled Algeria to embark on a massive public investment program for 2005- 09, Programme Complementaire de Soutien a la Croissance (PCSC). Taking advantage of the current macroeconomic and fiscal opportunity, the country could institutionalize high-quality public expenditure that would contribute social benefit far into the future. This Public Expenditure Review (PER) is an exercise to help the Government toward that end. The objectives of this PER are to assist the government in the following: evaluate fiscal sustainability in light of the country's fiscal push that PCSC represents; set high technical standards for public investment management; draw lessons from the on-going budget modernization reform in order to support the overall implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of projects; support the preparation of a medium-term expenditure framework and improve the efficiency and cost-benefit of investments in four key sectors, transport and public works, water, education, and health.Publication Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya : A Public Expenditure Review, Volume 1. Synthesis(Washington, DC, 2009-09-30)Libya's 2008-12 development programs is the biggest and most ambitious Public Investment Program (PIP) ever. Public expenditure has also been pro-poor. Past outcomes show that Libyan authorities have worked on their macroeconomic and social fundamentals, so as to have a solid base to sustain its steady progress toward building a market-based economy and reintegrating into the world economy. Making optimal use of a sizable public expenditure, and especially public investment, is an essential component of achieving this strategy. The reports built upon the framework of fiscal management in oil-dependent economies, which features three parts. The first deals with collecting and saving oil revenues, leading to one stream of a large literature exploring both fiscal sustainability and the pros and cons of alternative models of an oil stabilization fund. The second deals with development spending, leading to a second stream of a large literature assessing standards in public investment and the many effects of sizable public investment programs. The third deals with financing current spending, such as wages, subsidies, or social programs, addressing the ongoing civil service reform and the Wealth Distribution Program (WDP).Publication Romania : Public Expenditure and Institutional Review : Main Report(World Bank, 2010-02-17)The government has embarked upon a comprehensive and difficult medium term program for reforming the public sector aimed at rebalancing the relation between revenue and spending and enhancing the efficiency and efficacy of service delivery. The Romanian economy has been hit hard by the global economic downturn. Latest estimates suggest that real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may have contracted by around 7 percent in 2009, before modestly recovering in 2010. The severe decline in output has had a significant adverse effect on consolidated budget revenues, which fell substantially below the initial target in 2009. To prevent a further deterioration of the already large fiscal deficit, the shortfall in revenue has led to adjustments in spending. Consolidation of expenditure needs however continue in order to put public finances on a sustainable trajectory over the medium term. The report is structured in two volumes. The first volume synthesizes the menu of options suggested to reduce the short term gap between budget expenditure and revenues. It also highlights the key challenges and recommendations for improving efficiency and efficacy of spending in the sectors investigated. Volume two consists of the background analyses, with individual chapters dedicated to the fiscal framework; public pay; pensions; education; health; and agriculture. The report makes the case that, in the current crisis environment and consistent with experience worldwide, the gap between expenditure and revenue should be done primarily by reducing the level of current spending.Publication PRSPs and Budgets(A Synthesis of Five Case Studies, 2005-01-18)This paper synthesizes the findings from a series of case studies on the interaction between the PRSP process and the budget. The five studies, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Tanzania and Vietnam aim to assess the extent to which public finance management and budget allocations reflect the principles and content of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper PRSP, hence providing insights into progress in PRS implementation. The cases also shed light on whether the PRSP process itself has fostered more accountable, efficient and pro-poor budget processes and allocations as of 2003.The PRSP process, with its focus on data and information for evidence-based policy-making, open and participatory policy-making processes, poverty results and country-led donor coordination, alignment and harmonization has the potential to significantly improve the pro-poor focus and general accountability of budgeting processes.The cases confront a number of methodological challenges. First, in some countries and sectors, lack of appropriate data constrained the extent to which the research questions could be fully answered. Second, the PRSP remains a relatively recent innovation in all the countries studied and we recognize that many of our findings are preliminary, and require additional confirmation over time. Third, any assessment of the value added of the PRSP approach needs to be cognizant of the initial conditions in country, both to avoid ascribing successes to the PRSP which pre-date its existence, and to temper expectations about what the approach can deliver in a relatively short space of time given the starting point of each country. To address this last challenge, the case studies explicitly acknowledge the pre-existing situation in-country and try to assess the value added of the PRSP process.The four countries studied have a number of common features.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, all five countries share a high-level political commitment to addressing poverty, although the extent to which this commitment permeates throughout government agencies varies from country to country.The five countries, however, also display many distinctive features. Bolivia and Cambodia, for example, both suffer from high degrees of political fragmentation, which in Bolivia has manifested itself as civil unrest on a number of occasions in the last two years. Burkina Faso, Tanzania, and Vietnam, on the other hand, benefit from more stable political systems and an inherited commitment to pro-poor policies from socialist governments.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23)Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.