For Immediate Release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 30, 2013) – The critical importance of infrastructure in global cities – including new strategies in its development, financing, and maintenance – is examined in the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s latest publication, Infrastructure and Land Policies.
The volume addresses energy (electricity and natural gas), telecommunications (telephone and Internet), transportation (airports, railways, roads, seaports, and waterways), and water supply and sanitation (drinking water, irrigation, and wastewater treatment).
More than 50 percent of the global population resides in urban areas where land policy and infrastructure interactions facilitate economic opportunities, affect the quality of life, and influence patterns of urban development.
While infrastructure is as old as cities, technological changes and public policies on taxation and regulation produce new issues worthy of analysis, ranging from megaprojects and greenhouse gas emissions to involuntary resettlement.
Infrastructure and Land Policies, edited by Gregory K. Ingram and Karin L. Brandt, is based on the seventh annual Land Policy Conference at the Lincoln Institute held in 2012, where economists, social scientists, urban planners, and engineers convened to discuss how infrastructure issues impact low-, middle-, and high-income countries.
For urban areas, the challenges of balancing economic growth with infrastructure development, funding, and maintenance are reflected in debates about finance, regulation, and location and about the sustainable levels of infrastructure services.
Infrastructure services have technical and economic features such as economies of scale, externalities, and spillovers from users to nonusers that make many of these services difficult to provide as a normal private good. Because of these attributes, much infrastructure is provided either by public entities or privately with regulatory oversight. Infrastructure also delivers economic and poverty-alleviation benefits when it responds to demand and is provided efficiently.
Recent research is finding that inadequate infrastructure is associated with income inequality. This is likely linked to the delivery of infrastructure services to households, such as direct health benefits, improved access to education, and enhanced economic opportunities.
Because so much infrastructure is energy intensive, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative impacts need to address services such as electric power and transport. Bringing the management of infrastructure up to levels of good practice has a large economic payoff, and performance levels vary dramatically between and within countries. A necessary, but so far unmet, challenge is to convey to policy makers and voters that large economic returns can be derived from improving infrastructure performance and maintenance.
Contents
Preface, Gregory K. Ingram and Karin L. Brandt
Infrastructure, Land, and Development
1. Global Infrastructure: Ongoing Realities and Emerging Challenges, Gregory K. Ingram and Karin L. Brandt
2. Infrastructure and Urban Development: Evidence from Chinese Cities, Yan Song; Commentary, David Levinson
3. Mobile Telephony and Socioeconomic Dynamics in Africa, Mirjam de Bruijn; Commentary, Anthony M. Townsend
Finance, Regulation, and Taxation
1. Economic Regulation of Utility Infrastructure, Janice A. Beecher; Commentary, Timothy J. Brennan
2. The Unit Approach to the Taxation of Railroad and Public Utility Property, Gary C. Cornia, David J. Crapo, and Lawrence C. Walters / Commentary, J. Fred Giertz
3. The Location Effects of Alternative Road-Pricing Policies, Alex Anas; Commentary, Don Pickrell
The Challenges of Large Projects
1 Chicago and Its Skyway: Lessons from an Urban Megaproject, Louise Nelson Dyble; Commentary, Richard G. Little
2. Assessing the Infrastructure Impact of Mega-Events in Emerging Economies, Victor A. Matheso; Commentary, David E. Luberoff
3. Involuntary Resettlement in Infrastructure Projects: A Development Perspective, Robert Picciotto; Commentary, Dolores Koenig
Improving Sustainability and Efficiency
1. Sustainable Infrastructure for Urban Growth, Katherine Sierra
2. Understanding Urban Infrastructure-Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Key Mitigation Strategies, Anu Ramaswami; Commentary, W. Ross Morrow
3. Strengthening Urban Industry: The Importance of Infrastructure and Location, Nancey Green Leigh; Commentary, Alain Bertaud
4. What Is the Value of Infrastructure Maintenance? A Survey, Felix Rioja; Commentary, Waheed Uddin
5. How and Why Does the Quality of Service Delivery Vary Across Countries?, George R. G. Clarke; Commentary, Ahmed Abdel Aziz
About the Editors
Gregory K. Ingram is president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and cochair of the Department of International Studies.
Karin L. Brandtis the former research analyst and project administrator of interdepartmental programs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Infrastructure and Land Policies
Edited by Gregory K. Ingram and Karin L. Brandt
2013 / 456 pages / Paper / $30.00 /ISBN: 978-1-55844-251-1
eBook / $12.99 / 978-1-55844-252-8
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Lincoln Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.
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