Considerations on advantages and drawbacks of an infrastructure-oriented development strategy

Tamás Fleischer

No 39, IWE Working Papers from Institute for World Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

Abstract: The starting point of our paper dealing with advantages and drawbacks of infrastructure- oriented development strategy is that one should not base economic policy on the assumption that the best hoped political strategy will undoubtedly prevail. From among the five possible scenarios evaluated with the three positive ones similar infrastructural networks are attached: all of them can be characterised that they try to ease the centralisation of the networks and promote internal, regional development with a kind of restructuration. In the same time just the scenarios to be avoided would be promoted by reinforcing the existing, hierarchic, centralised infrastructure network structures. In such a situation the paper express a definite standpoint: it is not enough to be for infrastructure orientation in general, since while constructing networks contributing to restructuration have an urgent need, the development of other and opposite kind of structure-preserving networks would be explicitely harmful. Our differentiation gained from political scenarios is in line with the experience to be gained from the analysis of the state and development tendencies of existing large European structures - gas, transport and electricity networks. Distributive networks able to secure sufficient local privison are a sufficient basis for the crosspoint effects of larger, magistral networks to have positive impact on the area. On the other hand in underdeveloped, ill-provided regions magistral networks easily can produce enclave-like, Third World type effect raising rather torsion in than promoting development and thereby rather coserving instead of liquidating backwardness. Only a cautiously and selectively initiated infrastructure oriented economic policy taking all the above mentioned facts into account might serve as a development alternative for the country.

Keywords: infrastructure networks; economic development; Hungary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 1994-09
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