Sustaining Economic Growth and the Infrastructure Investment System: Analysis for Underdeveloped Nations
Abstract
The idea of infrastructure investment brings a variety of economic considerations, development factors, and policy making. This dissertation analyzes the direct effects of investments in infrastructure on sustaining economic growth for underdeveloped countries. Numerous countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia are evaluated to see if increased trade with the potential and effects of infrastructure investments will increase GDP and sustain growth (Barro 1998, Romer 1998, UNCTAD 2002, Barro 2003, Paus 2005, the World Bank 2012, Carew 2014). Investments in a nation’s basic infrastructures such as road networks, communication systems, institutional infrastructures, and literacy directly affect a nation’s ability to be productive economically and sustain growth (Barro 1998, Lin 2002, Paus 2005, Todaro 2006, Dobbins 2007, Donaldson 2008, Carew 2014). Combined, these determinants explain how investments on infrastructure sustain economic growth. Although the premise is simple and accepted that investments increase growth; the aggregate of systematic investments is overlooked to sustain growth, until now.