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In the past two decades, insights from behavioral sciences, particularly behavioral economics, have been widely applied in the design of social programs such as pensions, social security, and taxation. This paper provides a survey of the existing literature in economics on the application of behavioral insights to infrastructure sectors, focusing on water and energy. Various applications of behavioral insights in the literature are examined from the perspectives of the three main actors in the infrastructure sectors: policy makers, service providers, and consumers. Evidence is presented from the literature on how behavioral regularities, such as imperfect optimization, limited self-control, and nonstandard preferences, affect the strategies, decisions, and actions of policy makers, service providers, and consumers, often leading to suboptimal outcomes for service investment, delivery, access, and use. The paper also highlights how behavioral interventions such as anchoring, framing, nonpecuniary incentives, and altering the choice architecture can lead to improvements in performance, adoption, consumption, and other outcomes of interest in the infrastructure sectors.

Behavioral Economics --- Development Planning and Policy --- Energy --- Energy and Economic Development --- Infrastructure --- Infrastructure Economics --- Infrastructure Economics and Finance --- Publicly-Provided Goods --- Water --- Water Economics --- Water Resources --- Water Supply and Sanitation Economics

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This paper examines key aspects of the ongoing decentralization process in transition economies and identifies areas where the present systems can have potentially adverse impacts on both service delivery and macroeconomic performance. We discuss three critical principles of a sound and efficient decentralized fiscal system-and then show the contrasts between these and actual trends and policies in transition countries.

Budgeting --- Public Finance --- Macroeconomics --- Fiscal Policy --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General --- National Budget --- Budget Systems --- Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: General --- Publicly Provided Goods: General --- Public finance & taxation --- Budgeting & financial management --- Expenditure --- Fiscal federalism --- Revenue administration --- Budget planning and preparation --- Fiscal policy --- Public financial management (PFM) --- Expenditure assignments --- Expenditures, Public --- Revenue --- Budget --- Czech Republic

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Public procurement can be highly vulnerable to corruption. This paper outlines a methodology and results in assessing corruption risks in public procurement and their impact on relative prices, using large databases on government contracts and tenders. Our primary contribution is to analyze how price differential in public procurement contracts can be explained by corruption risk factor (aggregated in a synthetic corruption risk index). While there are intrinsic limitations to our study (price differentials can come from structural reasons, such as a limited number of potential suppliers) it still provides a guiding tool to assess where corruption risks would have the biggest budgetary impact. Such analysis helps inform mitigating policies owing to the granular data used.

Georgia --- Macroeconomics --- Economics: General --- Criminology --- Bureaucracy --- Administrative Processes in Public Organizations --- Corruption --- Publicly Provided Goods: General --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: Procurement --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Economics of specific sectors --- Corporate crime --- white-collar crime --- Crime --- Currency crises --- Informal sector --- Economics

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This paper discusses the strategic building blocks of pension reform. The early sections set out the simple economics of pensions and discuss a series of myths which have proved remarkably persistent. Subsequent sections draw together the conclusions for policy design from earlier theoretical discussion, set out the prerequisites which any pension reform must respect, and discuss the range of choices facing policymakers. The main conclusions are threefold: the key variable is effective government; from an economic perspective the difference between PAYG and funding is second order; and the range of potential choice over pension design is wide.

Labor --- Public Finance --- Demography --- Pension Funds --- Non-bank Financial Institutions --- Financial Instruments --- Institutional Investors --- Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government --- Publicly Provided Goods: General --- Social Security and Public Pensions --- Economics of the Elderly --- Economics of the Handicapped --- Non-labor Market Discrimination --- Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits --- Private Pensions --- Retirement --- Retirement Policies --- National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: General --- Pensions --- Population & demography --- Labour --- income economics --- Public finance & taxation --- Pension spending --- Aging --- Expenditure --- Population and demographics --- Population aging --- Expenditures, Public --- United Kingdom

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This paper highlights the macro and microeconomic challenges associated with success of the effort to mobilize 0.7 percent of GNP for official development assistance (ODA). To promote achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, enhanced ODA must be as productive as possible. In weighing the distribution of enhanced ODA among countries, the paper emphasizes the need to limit potentially adverse “real transfer effects.” It recommends a multi-pronged approach to ODA that includes, inter alia, in addition to direct bilateral transfers, enhanced use of trust funds and the financing of global public goods.

Budgeting --- Exports and Imports --- Foreign Exchange --- Macroeconomics --- Poverty and Homelessness --- Foreign Aid --- Publicly Provided Goods: General --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: General --- International Investment --- Long-term Capital Movements --- National Budget --- Budget Systems --- Poverty & precarity --- Currency --- Foreign exchange --- International economics --- Budgeting & financial management --- Personal income --- Poverty --- Real exchange rates --- Absorptive capacity --- Extra-budgetary funds --- National accounts --- Balance of payments --- Public financial management (PFM) --- Income --- Capital movements --- Budget --- China, People's Republic of