Infrastructure investment and social progress in Brazil

This paper draws a broad empirical diagnosis on the evolution of infrastructure coverage in Brazil and potencial social impacts. it focuses on the sectors of sewerage, water, electricity, urban transportation and communication technologies (ICTs). Most of the analysis departs from houshold surveys, bringing the population perspective into the picture. We analyze socio-economic determinants of infrastructure coverage, a social outcome in itself, as well as their possible indirect impacts on income generation, time cost of transportation, housing values and education. We also consider briefly direct consequences of increasing infrastructure coverage in the budget constraint through services costs and payments delays and direct utility effects through subjective data on the quality and importance attributed to different infrastructure sectors.