The infrastructure issue is a complex issue that has a lot to do with income inequality, in fact where the greater/better the infrastructure equipment, the lower the income inequality will be.
Every infrastructural improvement has always had a marginal impact that is proportionally greater, in terms of maximum and better access to productive opportunities, for the poorest strata of the population.
But how do you measure an infrastructural equipment? Most of the empirical works on the topic use a single infrastructural measure, in some cases of stock (such as the coverage of the telephone network), in other cases of flow (such as the amount of investments).
If, on the one hand, the use of a single measure allows us to grasp the main figure of the relationship between equipment and inequality, on the other, however, it risks reducing the richness and complexity of this relationship.
In fact, the infrastructural equipment can (and, where possible, must) be measured along countless dimensions, such as, for example, the quantity and quality of the supply of transport, education and culture, healthcare, technological infrastructure (IT), energy, etc.
Each of these dimensions has a specific impact on income inequality and is assessed on the basis of a general indicator which in turn includes 10 sub-indicators which measure the specific dimensions of the infrastructure equipment.
Seven measures dedicated to economic infrastructures: road network, railway network, ports, airports, telephony and telematic networks, banking and various service networks, energy-environmental systems and networks and 3 measures that evaluate social infrastructures: structures for education, cultural and recreational facilities, health facilities.
From an evaluation point of view, it is important to remember that the infrastructure category we are talking about constitutes in turn an evaluation category with regard to innovative economies.
According to WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, which every year draws up the ranking of the best performing innovative economies through the Global Innovation Index, the infrastructure category is one of the areas of assessment; the others are: Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Market Sophistication Level, Business Sophistication Level, Technological Knowledge and Results, Creative Results.
Italy, which placed 28th in the 2022 general ranking, is in 26th place in the category ranking dedicated to infrastructure.
In its role as facilitator of infrastructure development policies through loans and guarantees, CDP stands alongside large and medium-sized enterprises to help them be protagonists in improving the innovative performance of our economy.
On the CDP website it is therefore possible to consult the new infrastructure section dedicated to companies for the country’s infrastructure growth, designed to explore the range of tools that CDP makes available to increase the efficient development of energy, transport and telecommunications networks, together with the possibilities offered for the construction of more modern schools and hospitals and the improvement of the quality of urban public services.
Let’s find out how CDP, shareholder of important Italian infrastructure companies and partner of the European Commission: promotes and finances the major Italian infrastructure projects, accompanying companies on internationalization paths in OECD countries, supporting medium-long term investment plans with an offer of specific financial solutions for each individual intervention, even in a pool with the banking system; undertaking to carry out eco-sustainable projects and redevelopment of social infrastructures.
Insights.
BePink MashUp – CDP Enterprise Solutions & GINI Index.