1. Public Investment in the Pandemic—Europe at a Glance

Abstract

His main expertise is in international political economy (IPE), in particular the problem of uneven deveolopment and the new challenges posed by rising countries to the current global governance scheme.Andrea Brasili is a Senior Economist at the EIB (Luxembourg) where his research interests are both micro (firm level) data analysis and macroeconomic developments, in particular those related to fiscal policy. He received his PhD in Public Economics from the University of Pavia (Italy). Before joining the EIB, he worked in the private sector (in Italian banks and asset management companies) as a research economist, still collaborating with academia.

10. COVID-19 and the Corporate Digital Divide

“…This view has also been used in the past to advocate in favour of cohesion policy as a tool for reducing the damage from decreasing capital expenditure in some countries. Brasili et al (2021) in this handbook show clearly that most, if not all, of fiscal consolidation comes in the form of reduced capital expenditure and that this was particularly the case for Southern European member states of the EU during and after the Great Recession. The argument is that cohesion policy could have slowed this trend, although there is little evidence of that happening.…”

Benchmarking Infrastructure Using Public Investment Efficiency Frontiers

“…This trend predates the Covid-19 pandemic, which most likely exacerbated the decline in public investment in emerging market and low-income countries, as governments focused on an urgently needed sanitary response and other spending measures needed to protect vulnerable households and firms. Meanwhile, in advanced economies such as European Union countries, public investment is expected to rise in the years following pandemic restrictions, as recovery packages include sizeable resources for infrastructure (Brasili et al, 2022).…”