11 - Accelerators and Systemic Bottlenecks

Summary

This chapter identifies accelerators and bottlenecks by estimating indirect budgetary effects at a systemic level (i.e., with the help of a network of interdependencies). First, we provide algorithms for the detection of bottlenecks and accelerators. We identify an accelerator by performing counterfactual expenditure increments on a particular policy issue while leaving the remaining ones with their original budgets. Then, a policy can be conceived as a systemic bottleneck when the removal of funding indirectly hinders the performance of other policy issues. Second, with Mexican data on 76 SDG targets, we identify 20 systemic bottlenecks and 33 accelerators. Third, we find that there does not exist a significant correlation between clogging/acceleration potential and naïve conjectures to promote development systemically (budget sizes and network centrality).