Spatial Productivity Spillovers from Public Infrastructure: Evidence from State Highways

Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Amy Schwartz

No 5004, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Is public sector infrastructure a key determinant of productivity? Traditional, project-based analyses of benefits and costs typically do not find large rates of return. Proponents of infrastructure spending instead point to regression-based analyses of the links between private productivity and public infrastructure that imply large productivity effects from public spending. The disparity in estimated returns is often attributed to geographic spillovers in productivity benefits that are not captured by disaggregated analyses. We examine the degree to which state highways provide productivity benefits beyond the narrow confines of each state's borders. Despite the fact that state highways -- especially the interstate highway system -- are designed at least in part with interstate linkages in mind, we find no evidence of quantitatively important productivity spillovers.

JEL-codes: H54 H72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995-02
Note: PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (179)

Published as International Tax and Public Finance, vol. 2 (1995), pp. 459-468.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w5004.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Spatial productivity spillovers from public infrastructure: Evidence from state highways (1995)
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:5004

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w5004

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 (wpc@nber.org).