Public-Sector Capital and the Productivity Puzzle

Douglas Holtz-Eakin

No 4122, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A number of studies have suggested a quantitatively important relationship between public-sector capital accumulation and private sector productivity, with the most compelling evidence derived from analyses of state-level data. Estimates herein of production functions that use standard techniques to control for unobserved, state-specific characteristics, however, reveal essentially no role for public-sector capital in affecting private sector productivity. Only estimates of state production functions that do not include such controls find substantial productivity impacts. This result reconciles existing econometric estimates with the findings of Hulten and Schwab based on growth accounting techniques, as such techniques effectively control for state-specific effects. Region-level estimates are essentially identical to those from state data, suggesting no quantitatively important spillover effects across states.

Date: 1992-07
Note: PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

Published as Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 76, No. 1, 1994, pp. 12-21.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w4122.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:nbr:nberwo:4122

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w4122

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().