Public infrastructure and private sector profitability and productivity in Mexico

Anwar Shah

No 100, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper specifies a microeconomic model to estimate the impact of investment in public infrastructure on private industrial profitability. Empirical results based on time series data for 34 industries characterize the Mexican industrial structure as having involuntary unemployment, deficient product demand, declining productivity growth, increasing returns to scale, and short run excess capital capacity. Aggregate technological change over the period studied has been capital using and labor saving.Both labor and capital are underused in the short run. This disequilibrium has high efficiency costs that may be undermining Mexico's international competitiveness. Therefore, new capital investment in the public sector is not recommended at this time and should be undertaken only to rectify any identified constraints imposed by the inadequacy of infrastructure in the private employment of private factors.

Keywords: Economic Theory&Research; Environmental Economics&Policies; Banks&Banking Reform; Public Sector Economics&Finance; Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1988-09-30
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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