Rising Incomes and Inequality of Access to Infrastructure among Latin American Households

Fay, Marianne ; Straub, Stephane

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: infrastructure;    household consumption;    inequality;    access to services;    water;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7987
RP-ID  :  WPS7987

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper documents access to servicesand ownership of infrastructure-related durables in thewater, energy, telecom, and transport areas, based onharmonized household survey data covering 1.6 millionhouseholds in 14 Latin American countries during 1992 to2012. The paper provides a systematic disaggregation ofaccess and ownership rates at different levels of income andover time, and econometrically derives the countryinfrastructure premium, a measure of how much a householdbenefits from simply being located in a given country. Theresults show extensive inequality of access, withincountries across the income distribution, but also acrosscountries for households at similar levels of income. Forwater and electricity, for example, up to two-thirds of thevariability in individual percentile access toinfrastructure services and consumption of related assetscan be explained by country residence only. In addition, fewcountry fundamentals appear to be significant in explainingthis variability, pointing to policy differences as animportant determinant. The paper derives the incomeelasticity of infrastructure access for the full set ofindicators, and uses these to estimate the time that wouldbe needed to close the remaining gap for households atdifferent levels of the income distribution under a"business as usual" hypothesis. Under thatscenario, universal access appears to be decades away formany countries in the region. The last part discusses thepolicy challenges, arguing that in a context in which publicbudgets face strong constraints and significant increases inprivate investment are unlikely to be forthcoming, a largepart of the solution lies in refocused investmentstrategies, better demand management, and improved publicspending efficiency.