Suchergebnisse

Исследования влияния инфраструктуры на экономический рост и развитие стран получили широкое распространение. Однако большинство авторов проблему определения четкого понятия исследуемого объекта и его критериев опускают. В статье представлены различные подходы в определении понятия «инфраструктура», критерии и характеристики инфраструктуры, отличающие ее от других капитальных активов, рассмотрены такие виды инфраструктуры, как личная, институциональная, материальная, производственная, социальная и др. Дано авторское определение инфраструктуры.

SUMMARYClimate change and escalating degradation of ecosystem services place the need for greening economic growth on the international policy agenda. To make growth greener and more inclusive, it is crucial to change the institutions and incentive structures in national sector reforms and to involve poor and vulnerable groups in decision making. The article analyses the role that strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of sector reforms can play in greening growth in developing countries and discusses implications for public administrations. We suggest that SEA can contribute to greening growth if it draws attention to environmental priorities when the sector reform agenda is set, fosters policy learning processes through repeated and sustained stakeholder interaction and facilitates access to information and empowerment of environmental constituencies. The empirical basis for the article is drawn from a recent World Bank pilot programme involving SEAs of different sector reforms (mining, forestry, urban planning, infrastructure) in Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia) and Asia (China, Bangladesh and Pakistan). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tools and concepts of optimization are widespread in decision‐making, design, and planning. There is a moral imperative to "do our best." Optimization underlies theories in physics and biology, and economic theories often presume that economic agents are optimizers. We argue that in decisions under uncertainty, what should be optimized is robustness rather than performance. We discuss the equity premium puzzle from financial economics, and explain that the puzzle can be resolved by using the strategy of satisficing rather than optimizing. We discuss design of critical technological infrastructure, showing that satisficing of performance requirements—rather than optimizing them—is a preferable design concept. We explore the need for disaster recovery capability and its methodological dilemma. The disparate domains—economics and engineering—illuminate different aspects of the challenge of uncertainty and of the significance of robust‐satisficing.