Why is infrastructure essential to economic development?

1. Why is infrastructure essential to economic development?

1. How would John Burrows’s life been different if he had access to the Internet? What if
farmers and retailers also had access to the Internet?

5. If nineteenth-century Americans had the benefit of modern technology as they expanded
westward, would Chicago, with its close access to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River
system, still have emerged as the business center of the Midwest?

5. Two features of developing nations are an absence of strong contract law and limited
transportation networks. How might these factors affect the vertical and horizontal
boundaries of firms within these nations?

5. Some firms seem to last forever. (For an extreme example go to www.hbc.com.) In some
industries, however, even the most effective firms may expect short lifetimes (lawn crews;
Thai restaurants). Size certainly has something to do with longevity, but are there other
factors involved? How does size help larger firms or imperil smaller ones? What other
factors besides size contribute to longevity?

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