Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity
Summary. Rapid scaling-up of public investment in low-income countries reduces project success rates when absorptive capacity—skills, institutions, and management capability—is limited. Analysis of World Bank projects across 80 countries from 1970 to 2007 shows projects implemented during investment scaling periods perform worse, though the effect is modest, particularly in poor and capital-scarce nations.
Cite this article
Presbitero, A.. (2016). Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity. Journal of Development Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005
Presbitero, Andrea. “Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity.” Journal of Development Economics, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005.
Presbitero, Andrea. 2016. “Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity.” Journal of Development Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005.
@article{presbitero-2016-too-much-too-fast-public,
title = {Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity},
author = {Andrea Presbitero},
journal = {Journal of Development Economics},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005}
}
TY - JOUR TI - Too much and too fast? Public investment scaling-up and absorptive capacity AU - Andrea Presbitero JO - Journal of Development Economics PY - 2016 DO - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005 ER -
Details
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.12.005
- Countries
- Italy, United States
- Regions
- Europe, North America
- Categories
- policy, funding, general-innovation
- Added
- 2026-04-28