Infrastructure and economic development: proposal of an analytical model

Abstract This paper presents an analytical model to analyze the impact of public policy infrastructure on economic development. To do so, it uses two main variables: 1) the pattern of relationships between the public and private sectors, which is the degree of cooperation between the public and private sectors (embedded autonomy); 2) infrastructural policy, classified as horizontal when its guiding principle is the pursuit of efficiency and which are focused on the strengthening of comparative advantages, and vertical when its essence is building productive and technological capabilities, linked to the industry, and it is focused on the creation of competitive advantages. This combination gives rise to four ideal types, which correspond to expected results in public policy: Neo-utilitarian State, Autonomous State, Facilitating State and Developmental State. The result presents an analytical model that makes it possible to classify and satisfactorily evaluate infrastructure's public policy and its expected results in terms of economic development.