EMPLOYMENT IMPACT OF HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES IN KANSAS

The direct employment resulting from highway construction and maintenance activities in the state of Kansas is examined as well as the indirect and induced employment (by state industrial sector) resulting from those activities. Six types of highway improvements were selected for analysis: Resurfacing; Restoration, Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Minor Widening; New Bridges and Bridge Replacement; Major and Minor Bridge Rehabilitation; New Construction, Relocation, and Major Widening; and Safety/Traffic Operations/Traffic Systems Management, Environmentally Related, Physical Maintenance, and Traffic Services Projects. The objectives of the study are accomplished through the use of a 68-sector, survey-based, input-output model (Emerson, 1989) that was developed for the state of Kansas by the Economics Department at Kansas State University. The model is adapted to include six additional sectors corresponding to the six highway improvement types listed above. The input-output data for these six sectors is obtained from highway contractors who were awarded Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) contracts during the period July 1, 1991 to May 19, 1994. The major findings of the study are that: 1) The major supplying industries that are common to most of the six highway improvement types are Nonmetallic Mining, Petroleum and Coal Products, Cement and Concrete, Motor Freight, and Fabricated Metals; 2) The significance of imports (purchases from out-of-state suppliers) in the input structure varies by highway improvement type, ranging from 2.6 to 16%; 3) Output multipliers ranged from 2.32 to 2.72, and income multipliers varied between 1.71 and 3.03; 4) The economic impact of the contracts included in the study as measured by output is $2.2 billion and as measured by income is $428.8 million (Both the multipliers and the impact are underestimated since the investigators were unable to obtain input purchase data for highway work that was subcontracted.); and 5) The direct, indirect and induced employment per million dollars of output for the six highway improvement types ranged from 35.18 to 51.91 full time equivalent jobs.

• Record URL:
  http://dmsweb.ksdot.org/AppNetProd/docpop/docpop.aspx?clienttype=html&docid=9400675
• Corporate Authors:

  Kansas State University, Manhattan

  Department of Economics, 317 Waters Hall
  Manhattan, KS  United States  66506-4001

  Kansas Department of Transportation

  Docking State Office Building
  Topeka, KS  United States  66612
• Authors:
  • Babcock, M W
  • Emerson, M J
  • Prater, M
  • Russell, E R
• Publication Date: 1996-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 85 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic impacts; Employment; Highway maintenance; Highways; Improvements; Input output models; Jobs; Road construction
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00725546
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: K-TRAN: KSU-95-3, Final Report
• Contract Numbers: C-664
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 10 1996 12:00AM