Valuing Public Goods More Generally: The Case of Infrastructure

David Albouy and Arash Farahani
Additional contact information
David Albouy: University of Illinois
Arash Farahani: University of Illinois

No 17-272, Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Abstract: We examine the relationship between local public goods, prices, wages, and population in an equilibrium inter-city model. Non-traded production, federal taxes, and imperfect mobility all affect how public goods (or “amenities” more broadly) should be valued from data. Reinterpreting the estimated effects of public infrastructure on prices and wages in Haughwout (2002), we find infrastructure over twice as valuable with our more general model. New estimates based on more years, cities, and data-sets indicate stronger wage and positive population effects of infrastructure. These imply higher values of infrastructure to firms, and also to households if moving costs are substantial.

Keywords: Infrastructure; public goods; capitalization; valuation; nontraded goods; federal taxation; imperfect mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H2 H4 H54 J3 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pub and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?art ... ext=up_workingpapers (application/pdf)
This material is copyrighted. Permission is required to reproduce any or all parts.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upj:weupjo:17-272

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research 300 S. Westnedge Ave. Kalamazoo, MI 49007 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().