ABSTRACT
Infrastructure investment levels across diverse political economies and national income environments represent a sort of bellwether for how well public and private sector interests align. Infrastructure has long been recognized as an essential driver of economic growth and development. In low- and middle-income countries, the demand for basic infrastructure investments in water, sanitation, energy, transport, and telecom is pervasive, if not always prioritized by governments or by the private sector. International advocacy around strengthening how well infrastructure projects—particularly in the Global South—translate into a recognizable and bankable asset class has exploded into numerous efforts from a diverse, but single-minded group of stakeholders. Nonetheless, even with the advent of infrastructure funds, institutional investors predominantly invest in higher income countries. Two directions of research—one aspirational and the other cautionary—provide much of those missing details in the wider narrative about the deepening financialization of infrastructure. The introduction of investments in infrastructure spaces, historically ignored by governments and investors alike, raises concerns.
