The Economics of Public Infrastructure Procurement in Developing Countries: Theory and Evidence

"Infrastructure is crucial for developing countries and needs enormous investment. Efficiency in its provision is all the more important at a time in which available resources are shrinking. In this brilliant book Estache and Iimi consistently bring together elements from many fields of economics and analyze a large amount of original data to provide guidance towards efficient infrastructure provision. They convincingly make the case that competitive, transparent public procurement is the best way ahead; and highlight the many subtle issues involved in designing effectively competitive procurements, a daunting task for such large projects and in countries with weak institutions and high risk of corruption. The book is a must-read for anyone who studies or works on these very important issues." Giancarlo Spagnolo, Professor of Economics, University of "Rome Tor Vergata" "Public provision of infrastructure will remain the dominant paradigm for many countries and many types of infrastructure services. As such, improving public procurement is central to our ability to cost-effectively provide services to the 1.5 billion individuals that still do not have access to electricity, and the many more who live without safe water or lack access to reliable transport infrastructure.
Effective public procurement is also at the heart of the growth agenda as developing countries are struggling to provide their growing economies with the infrastructure they need despite tight fiscal conditions. This book provides us with new insights on how to effectively and efficiently use scarce public resources. This extremely useful and insightful book offers policy-makers a wealth of suggestions to make their procurement systems smarter and an effective tool for development." Marianne Fay, Chief Economist, Sustainable Development Network, The World Bank