The paradox of intelligent infrastructures

The paradox of intelligent infrastructures

Martha García-Murillo

Jorge Andrés Vélez Ospina

Resumen:

There is significant debate [[verify this]] among scholars and policymakers about the size and role of government in acountry. In the last few years, due to the economic crisis international organizations are forcing governments to cut theirexpenses in order to balance their budgets. There are nonetheless some government expenses that are indispensable to anational economy. In this paper we argue that many nations have move beyond the satisfaction of basic infrastructureprovision and need to move to the development of intelligent infrastructures through the use of ICTs. We believe that theimpact that these technologies can have on the overall wellbeing of a nation are now significantly higher than investment inother infrastructures. This study is a statistical analysis of a panel of approximately 170 countries for a period of 5 years todetermine how government expenses affect infrastructures, the type of infrastructures that have the most impact on the wellbeingof a nation —“beyond GDP”— and how ICTs and infrastructures can further contribute to that well-being.