Venice Summer Institute 2013: The Economics of Infrastructure Provisioning: The (Changing) Role of the State

Within the next decade several physical key infrastructures (e.g., telecommunications, transport, energy, water supply, and urban infrastructure) need to be modernised or newly built to sustain and enhance economic development and societal living conditions. Rolling-out new or modernizing and maintaining legacy infrastructure involves substantial investments.

Hitherto financing and provisioning infrastructure has been organised in many different ways from being managed by fully private to fully public institutions. In the light of large fiscal deficits in the EU and the US and the instability of financial markets, most governments are forced to implement severe austerity measures which leave little scope for necessary infrastructure investments which in turn are essential for economic development and growth.