Structural deficits and infrastructure investment in the u.s. economy: an emerging policy and management crisis in capital expenditures

This article examines the impact and magnitude of underinvestment in the public infrastructure of the economy of the United States, and points to its implications for deficit reduction and economic growth. It becomes evident that the lack of both a complete inventory of infrastructure investment needs and a coherent future investment strategy at the federal level have led to a situation where the volume of public works investment in the United States has fallen critically short of what may be considered an optimum level. Recognizing the limitations of capital budgeting, a management perspective is taken in which increased planning and policy development at the national level emerge as necessities in achieving the type of results required to enhance economic growth and responsibly reduce the national deficit.     

A look inside an emerging nuclear supplier. Advocacy coalitions and change in Argentine foreign nuclear policy

What light can foreign policy analysis (FPA) shed on how and when the balance of power between domestic coalitions in foreign nuclear policymaking changes and how these different balances directly affect policy outcomes? Drawing on interviews with scientists, technologists and career diplomats, this comprehensive examination of Argentine nuclear exports policy as public policy aims to depict when and how policies varied between 1976 and 2004, due to shifts in the balance amongst advocacy coalitions, albeit of incentives and constraints placed by international and institutional nuclear environments. The article provides a better account of how Argentine nuclear foreign policy changed under the influence of four competitive and contrasting advocacy coalitions: the pro-import substitution and protectionist coalition, the pro-technological autonomy and South-South trade coalition, the pro-business and commercial openness coalition and the antinuclear and pro-environment coalition.     

The Political Economy of Institutions,Stability and Investment: A Simultaneous Equation Approach in an Emerging Economy. The Case of South Africa

The modern theory of investment identifies the importance of uncertainty to investment. A number of empirical studies have tested the theory on South African time series, employing political instability measures as proxies for uncertainty. This paper verifies that political instability measures are required in the formulation of the investment function for South Africa. It also establishes that there are distinct institutional factors that influence the uncertainty variable such as property rights and crime levels. We find that rising income and property rights lower political instability, and that rising crime levels are positively related to political instability. The inference is that political instability in South Africa may not represent uncertainty directly, since it is systematically related to a set of determinants. Instead, uncertainty would have to be understood as being related to a broader institutional nexus that in concert may generate uncertainty for investors. The paper highlights the significance of getting institutions right to ensure that uncertainty is kept to a minimum by providing a predictable long-term environment. Stability at a systemic level appears crucial if investment rates are to rise in South Africa and this paper demonstrates that stability in turn is driven by a sound institutional environment that has multiple dimensions.