Journal of Infrastructure Development

This study uses annual data from 1984 to 2019 for the Côte d’Ivoire to estimate the effects of public infrastructure spending, institutions, institutional shocks and their multiplicative effect on economic growth. We construct three institutional indices and interaction variables to estimate linear and nonlinear AutoRegressive Distributed lag models (ARDL). The results reveal symmetric effects of institutional shocks to democracy and regulation and conflict prevention and asymmetric effects of institutional shocks to investment promotion and the economy. The institutional index for the conflict prevention dimension is favourable to economic growth, while the other institutional dimensions remain insignificant. The institutional index of democracy and regulation amplifies the positive effects of public spending on infrastructure on per capita income in the long term. The institutional indices of investment and economic promotion and conflict prevention reduce the positive effect of public infrastructure spending on per capita income. Public debt and domestic savings have effects on per capita income.

These results imply that improving institutions, particularly those promoting investment and the economy, is crucial to amplifying the benefits of public infrastructure investment in Côte d’Ivoire.

Considering the growing importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, consumption of energy, and environmental sustainability in the context of globalisation, it is imperative to comprehend how these factors are related to one another and to make implications about the most effective ways to protect the environment. In this regards, present study aims to examine how ICT infrastructure and energy consumption affects environmental sustainability in Asian Emerging Economies spanning 1990–2022 by employing different advanced panel econometric techniques. The findings reveal that ICT infrastructure deteriorates environmental sustainability by exacerbating CO₂ discharge in long run, while in short run, it lowers CO₂ discharge. But energy consumption impairs environmental sustainability by exacerbating CO₂ discharge both in short run and long run. The study highlights a causal link between ICT infrastructure and energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, urging policymakers to prioritise clean energy, high-quality ICT, and innovation.

Does infrastructure development help African countries boost their currently weak industrial structure to meet with pressing needs of their growing population? Answering this question which is also the ambition of SDG 9 requires taking into account rising global uncertainty which provokes a ‘wait-and-see’ behaviour in production and consumption expenditures. To this end, the new World Uncertainty Index and data on 43 African countries from 2003 to 2018 are used. The two-step system generalised method of moments modelling framework was recruited for regression analysis. Results show that while infrastructure development boost industrialisation in Africa, global economic policy uncertainty and risk of uncertainty undermine these benefits after a given uncertainty threshold. The positive net effects were apparent up to respective global uncertainty and uncertainty volatility thresholds where these effects are nullified. When disaggregated proxies of infrastructure are used, similar results are obtained with transport and electricity. Practical policy implications are discussed.

JEL Codes: C23, D8, H54, O14, O55