Scaling-Up Poverty Reduction Potential of Infrastructure Projects:Lessons from the Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

This paper investigates how infrastructure investment can be scaled-up to contribute to poverty reduction. While the contribution of infrastructure to augmenting an economy’s productive capacity is well known, its impact on poverty reduction, being largely indirect, is difficult to establish empirically. The literature suggests that many factors influence this impact, and that there are big variations in impact within and between countries. Further, it is found that the impact of infrastructure interventions on poverty depends on the broad socioeconomic environment.