PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Recent attention given to the serious deterioration of the U.S. national public infrastructure (PI) raises the question of whether public capital significantly affects economic development. Local policymakers and researchers concerned with regional issues have claimed for years that PI investment is one of the primary means to implement a strategy of regional growth. The purpose of this paper is to summarize previous work that has examined the effect of PI on various types of economic activity at the state and local levels. Section I defines PI and discusses various ways to measure it that are useful for analytical purposes. Section II examines the effects of PI on regional growth through theoretical and empirical frameworks. Section III raises the issue of whether the observed effect of PI on regional growth results from its effect on productivity or from its effect on factors of production. Section IV examines the effect of PI on household location decisions. Lastly, the causation of public and private investment is discussed in Section V. The paper concludes with an overall assessment of the relationship between PI and regional growth.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00130281
• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

  P.O. Box 6387
  Cleveland, OH  United States  44101
• Authors:
  • Eberts, R W
• Publication Date: 1990

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 15-27
• Serial:
  • Economic Review
  • Volume: 26
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
  • ISSN: 0013-0281

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic development; Economic growth; Factors of production; Financial capital; Infrastructure; Policy making; Productivity; Regional development
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00789440
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 8 2000 12:00AM