Wider Economic Impacts in Transport Infrastructure Cost-Benefit Analysis - A Bridge Too Far?

Leo Dobes () and Joanne Leung

Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, 2015, vol. 22, issue 1, 75-98

Abstract: Proponents of transport infrastructure have in recent decades sought to augment the estimated benefit of major projects beyond conventional cost-benefit analysis. Improved transport links are claimed to increase Marshallian external economies of scale; to reduce transport costs experienced by imperfectly competitive industries, and so induce them to increase their output; and to increase supply of labour, in response to lower transport costs, and thereby increase GDP and tax receipts. Estimates of the value of these three additional effects have resulted in multipliers and 'uprate factors' that appear to be applied by some government agencies to transport sector benefits calculated using conventional CBA. However, empirical estimates of these effects are likely to be exaggerated.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p332753/pdf/argument02.pdf (application/pdf)

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:acb:agenda:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:75-98

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform from Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().