IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ecogov/v15y2014i2p131-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutions and public investment: an empirical analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Grigoli
  • Zachary Mills

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of institutional quality on the levels, volatility and quality of public investment. Our findings suggest an inverse relationship between public investment levels and institutional quality, supporting the idea that governments use public investment as a vehicle for rent seeking. We also find that lower quality of governance increases the volatility of public investment. Finally, we provide some tentative evidence of a positive relationship between institutional quality and the quality of infrastructure. Policymakers who aim to reduce infrastructure needs through capital spending should take measures to strengthen institutional capacity to manage public investments. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Grigoli & Zachary Mills, 2014. "Institutions and public investment: an empirical analysis," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 131-153, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:ecogov:v:15:y:2014:i:2:p:131-153
    DOI: 10.1007/s10101-013-0137-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10101-013-0137-y
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10101-013-0137-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephane Straub, 2011. "Infrastructure and Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Macro-level Literature," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 683-708.
    2. Rajaram, Anand & Le, Tuan Minh & Biletska, Nataliya & Brumby, Jim, 2010. "A diagnostic framework for assessing public investment management," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5397, The World Bank.
    3. Bonnie Wilson & Dennis Coates & Jac Heckelman, 2008. "Democracy and Volatility: Do Special-Interest Groups Matter?," Working Papers 2008-01, Saint Louis University, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2009.
    4. North, Douglass C. & Weingast, Barry R., 1989. "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 803-832, December.
    5. César Calderón & Enrique Moral‐Benito & Luis Servén, 2015. "Is infrastructure capital productive? A dynamic heterogeneous approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 177-198, March.
    6. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    7. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    8. Mr. Carlos A Leite & Jens Weidmann, 1999. "Does Mother Nature Corrupt? Natural Resources, Corruption, and Economic Growth," IMF Working Papers 1999/085, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Era Dabla-Norris & Jim Brumby & Annette Kyobe & Zac Mills & Chris Papageorgiou, 2012. "Investing in public investment: an index of public investment efficiency," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 235-266, September.
    10. Sophia Gollwitzer & Eteri Kvintradze & Mr. Tej Prakash & Luis-Felipe Zanna & Ms. Era Dabla-Norris & Mr. Richard I Allen & Irene Yackovlev & Victor Duarte Lledo, 2010. "Budget Institutions and Fiscal Performance in Low-Income Countries," IMF Working Papers 2010/080, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Ward Romp & Jakob De Haan, 2007. "Public Capital and Economic Growth: A Critical Survey," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(S1), pages 6-52, April.
    12. Mauro, Paolo, 1998. "Corruption and the composition of government expenditure," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 263-279, June.
    13. Chakraborty Shankha & Dabla-Norris Era, 2011. "The Quality of Public Investment," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-29, August.
    14. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    15. M. Emranul Haque & Richard Kneller, 2008. "Public Investment and Growth: The Role of Corruption," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 98, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    16. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    17. Sturm, Jan-Egbert, 2001. "Determinants of public capital spending in less-developed countries," CCSO Working Papers 200107, University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research.
    18. David Roodman, 2006. "How to Do xtabond2," North American Stata Users' Group Meetings 2006 8, Stata Users Group.
    19. Philip Keefer & Stephen Knack, 2007. "Boondoggles, Rent-Seeking, and Political Checks and Balances: Public Investment under Unaccountable Governments," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 566-572, August.
    20. repec:dgr:rugccs:200107 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Benoit Mandelbrot, 2015. "The Variation of Certain Speculative Prices," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Anastasios G Malliaris & William T Ziemba (ed.), THE WORLD SCIENTIFIC HANDBOOK OF FUTURES MARKETS, chapter 3, pages 39-78, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    22. Mr. Vito Tanzi & Mr. Hamid R Davoodi, 1997. "Corruption, Public Investment, and Growth," IMF Working Papers 1997/139, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andreas P. Kyriacou & Leonel Muinelo-Gallo & Oriol Roca-Sagalés, 2018. "The efficiency of transport infrastructure investment and the role of institutions: an empirical analysis," Working Papers. Collection B: Regional and sectoral economics 1802, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    2. Antonio Rojas Canela & Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, 2022. "A New Index for Public Investment Management," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, Enero - M.
    3. Alimi, R. Santos, 2018. "Growth effect of government expenditures in West African countries: A nonlinear framework," MPRA Paper 99108, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2019.
    4. Gabriel Natividad, 2022. "Decentralizing investment: Evidence from municipal organization after close elections," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 734-761, August.
    5. Honoré S. Houngbedji & Nassibou Bassongui, 2021. "Investissement Public et Investissement Privé en Afrique Subsaharienne: Rôle de la Qualité Institutionnelle," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(3), pages 466-478, September.
    6. Kyriacou, Andreas P. & Muinelo-Gallo, Leonel & Roca-Sagalés, Oriol, 2019. "The efficiency of transport infrastructure investment and the role of government quality: An empirical analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 93-102.
    7. Thanh Dinh Su & Canh Phuc Nguyen, 2021. "Twin balances, public governance and private investment: Quantile estimation for OECD countries," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 165, pages 85-93.
    8. Godwin Olasehinde-Williams & Oktay Özkan, 2022. "Is interest rate uncertainty a predictor of investment volatility? evidence from the wild bootstrap likelihood ratio approach," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 46(3), pages 507-521, July.
    9. Nazim Belhocine & La-Bhus Fah Jirasavetakul, 2020. "Lessons from Two Public Sector Reforms in Italy," IMF Working Papers 2020/040, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Su, Chi-Wei & Sun, Tiezhu & Ahmad, Shabbir & Mirza, Nawazish, 2021. "Does institutional quality and remittances inflow crowd-in private investment to avoid Dutch Disease? A case for emerging seven (E7) economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Mostafa Amir, Sabbih, 2017. "An Assessment of the Efficacy of Delivering the Annual Development Program in Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 84668, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Francisco Díez-Martín & Alicia Blanco-González & Giorgia Miotto, 2022. "The impact of state legitimacy on entrepreneurial activity," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 935-955, June.
    13. Chien-Chiang Lee & Godwin O Olasehinde-Williams & Ifedolapo Olabisi Olanipekun, 2022. "GDP volatility implication of tourism volatility in South Africa: A time-varying approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(2), pages 435-450, March.
    14. Asma Arif & Umaima Arif, 2023. "Institutional Approach to the Budget Deficit: An Empirical Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, May.
    15. Mindaugas Butkus & Alma Mačiulytė-Šniukienė & Kristina Matuzevičiūtė, 2020. "Mediating Effects of Cohesion Policy and Institutional Quality on Convergence between EU Regions: An Examination Based on a Conditional Beta-Convergence Model with a 3-Way Multiplicative Term," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-37, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grigoli, Francesco & Mills, Zachary, 2011. "Do high and volatile levels of public investment suggest misconduct ? the role of institutional quality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5735, The World Bank.
    2. Zergawu, Yitagesu Zewdu & Walle, Yabibal M. & Giménez-Gómez, José-Manuel, 2020. "The joint impact of infrastructure and institutions on economic growth," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 481-502, August.
    3. Era Dabla-Norris & Jim Brumby & Annette Kyobe & Zac Mills & Chris Papageorgiou, 2012. "Investing in public investment: an index of public investment efficiency," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 235-266, September.
    4. Morozumi, Atsuyoshi & Veiga, Francisco José, 2016. "Public spending and growth: The role of government accountability," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 148-171.
    5. Atsuyoshi Morozumi & Francisco José Veiga, 2014. "Public spending and growth: the role of institutions," NIPE Working Papers 11/2014, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    6. Mohanty, Biswajit & Bhanumurthy, N. R. & Dastidar, Ananya Ghosh, 2017. "What explains Regional Imbalances in Infrastructure?: Evidence from Indian States," Working Papers 17/197, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    7. Anisah Alfada, 2019. "Does Fiscal Decentralization Encourage Corruption in Local Governments? Evidence from Indonesia," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-14, July.
    8. Kose,Ayhan & Ohnsorge,Franziska Lieselotte & Ye,Lei Sandy & Islamaj,Ergys, 2017. "Weakness in investment growth : causes, implications and policy responses," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7990, The World Bank.
    9. Arminen, Heli & Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2019. "Corruption, climate and the energy-environment-growth nexus," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 621-634.
    10. Ouedraogo, Idrissa & Ngoa Tabi, Henri & Atangana Ondoa, Henri & Jiya, Alex Nester, 2022. "Institutional quality and human capital development in Africa," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(1).
    11. Liu, Can & Wang, Sen & Liu, Hao & Zhu, Wenqing, 2017. "Why did the 1980s' reform of collective forestland tenure in southern China fail?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 131-141.
    12. Grundmann, Rainer & Gries, Thomas, 2015. "Crucial for Modern Sector Development? The Role of Exports and Institutions in Developing Countries," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112962, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Cavallo, Eduardo & Daude, Christian, 2011. "Public investment in developing countries: A blessing or a curse?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 65-81, March.
    14. Mostafa Amir, Sabbih, 2017. "An Assessment of the Efficacy of Delivering the Annual Development Program in Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 84668, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Singh, Sunny Kumar & Bhattacharya, Kaushik, 2017. "Does easy availability of cash affect corruption? Evidence from a panel of countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 236-247.
    16. Larysa Tamilina & Natalya Tamilina, 2021. "Path-Break Versus Path-Drift: A Comparative Approach to Explain Variations in Institutional Effects on Economic Growth," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 66(2), pages 281-300, October.
    17. Saima Nawaz & M. Idrees Khawaja, 2016. "Fiscal Policy, Institutions And Growth: New Insights," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(05), pages 1251-1278, December.
    18. Andreas Freytag & Sebastian Voll, 2013. "Institutions and savings in developing and emerging economies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 475-509, December.
    19. KAFANDO, Namalguebzanga, 2014. "L'industrialisation de l'Afrique: l'importance des facteurs structurels et du régime de change [The industrialization of Africa: the importance of structural factors and exchange rate regime]," MPRA Paper 68736, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Liu, Can & Wang, Sen & Liu, Hao & Zhu, Wenqing, 2019. "Reprint of: Why did the 1980s' reform of collective forestland tenure in southern China fail?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 8-18.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public investment; Institutions; Governance; E22; H54;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ecogov:v:15:y:2014:i:2:p:131-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.