Economic infrastructure in Latin America: a persistent challenge for progress towards sustainable development

According to the specialized literature, demand for infrastructure investment correlates in the long run with economic growth and demographic processes (the structure and dynamic of the population). More specifically, economic growth, and particularly per capita income growth, is the variable recognized as the main determinant of infrastructure demand growth. Other factors that may affect the demand for investment include the structure of economic activity, geopolitical factors, security, financing sources and technology. Although it is possible to establish a relationship between infrastructure development and per capita GDP growth or economic and demographic growth, the direction of causality is hard to determine, and a number of studies have suggested that it can work both ways in the short or medium term.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development