IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v113y2011i2p150-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program

Author

Listed:
  • Leigh, Andrew
  • Neill, Christine

Abstract

We examine the effect of a federally-funded local infrastructure spending program on local unemployment rates. To address the likely funding endogeneity problem, we exploit variation in spending due to pork-barreling, and find that higher government expenditure on roads substantially reduces local unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Leigh, Andrew & Neill, Christine, 2011. "Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 150-153.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:113:y:2011:i:2:p:150-153
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2011.05.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517651100214X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2011.05.037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Milligan & Michael Smart, 2005. "Regional Grants as Pork Barrel Politics," CESifo Working Paper Series 1453, CESifo.
    2. Levitt, Steven D & Poterba, James M, 1999. "Congressional Distributive Politics and State Economic Performance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 99(1-2), pages 185-216, April.
    3. Andrew Leigh, 2008. "Bringing home the bacon: an empirical analysis of the extent and effects of pork-barreling in Australian politics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 279-299, October.
    4. Peter Kenyon, 1997. "Infrastructure Spending and Unemployment: Government Responsibility for Growth and Jobs," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 30(4), pages 421-432, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Zhuo & He, Zhiguo & Liu, Chun, 2020. "The financing of local government in China: Stimulus loan wanes and shadow banking waxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 42-71.
    2. Sylvain Leduc & Daniel Wilson, 2013. "Roads to Prosperity or Bridges to Nowhere? Theory and Evidence on the Impact of Public Infrastructure Investment," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 89-142.
    3. Piotr Ciżkowicz & Michał Kowalczuk & Andrzej Rzońca, 2016. "Heterogeneous determinants of local unemployment in Poland," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 487-519, October.
    4. Corey Young, 2023. "Employment and Income Effects of Investments Made Using the Act 13 Unconventional Natural Gas Impact Fee in Pennsylvania," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-11, May.
    5. Sylvain Leduc & Daniel J. Wilson, 2012. "Should transportation spending be included in a stimulus program? a review of the literature," Working Paper Series 2012-15, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    6. Alizadeh, Tooran & Farid, Reza, 2017. "Political economy of telecommunication infrastructure: An investigation of the National Broadband Network early rollout and pork barrel politics in Australia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 242-252.
    7. Darrouzet-Nardi, Amelia & Masters, William, 2015. "Nutrition smoothing: Can access to towns and cities protect children against poor health conditions at birth?," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211558, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Candra Fajri Ananda, 2017. "Does Government Quality Spending can reduce Poverty? A Case in East Java Province," GATR Journals gjbssr458, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    9. Thomas Habanabakize & Paul-Francois Muzindutsi, 2017. "Analysis of Government Expenditure and Sectoral Employment in the Post-apartheid South Africa: Application of ARDL Model," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 9(2), pages 224-233.
    10. Kang, Jihye & Kim, Soyoung, 2022. "Government spending news and surprise shocks: It’s the timing and persistence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Kanazawa, Nobuyuki, 2021. "Public investment multipliers: Evidence from stock returns of the road pavement industry in Japan," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Monica Nagpal & Michael A. Kortt & Brian Dollery, 2013. "Bang for the Buck? An Evaluation of the Roads to Recovery Program," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 239-248, June.
    13. Habanabakize Thomas & Muzindutsi Paul-Francois, 2018. "Analysis of the Keynesian Theory of Employment and Sectoral Job Creation: The Case of the South African Manufacturing Sector," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 123-143, June.
    14. Appel Mahmud & Donghong Ding & Ataullah Kiani & Md. Morshadul Hasan, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Programs and Community Perceptions of Societal Progress in Bangladesh: A Multimethod Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    15. Paulo Reis Mourao, 2013. "Pork-Barrel versus Irrelevance Effects in Portuguese Public Spending," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(4), pages 649-666, August.
    16. Dan Chen & Pengcheng Xiang & Fuyuan Jia & Jian Zhang & Zhaowen Liu, 2020. "An Indicator System for Evaluating Operation and Maintenance Management of Mega Infrastructure Projects in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Mahalia Jackman, 2014. "A Note on the Labor Market Effects of Remittances in Latin American and Caribbean Countries: Do Thresholds Exist?," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(1), pages 52-67, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Valentino Larcinese & James M. Snyder, Jr. & Cecilia Testa, 2006. "Testing Models Of Distributive Politicsusing Exit Polls To Measure Voterpreferences And Partisanship," STICERD - Political Economy and Public Policy Paper Series 19, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    2. Muraközy, Balázs & Telegdy, Álmos, 2016. "Political incentives and state subsidy allocation: Evidence from Hungarian municipalities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 324-344.
    3. Jie Zhang, 2021. "More political representation, more economic development? Evidence from Turkey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 275-299, June.
    4. Guccio, Calogero & Mazza, Isidoro, 2014. "On the political determinants of the allocation of funds to heritage authorities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 18-38.
    5. Zsófia Papp, 2019. "Votes, money can buy. The conditional effect of EU Structural Funds on government MPs’ electoral performance," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(4), pages 543-561, December.
    6. Peter Spáč, 2021. "Pork barrel politics and electoral returns at the local level," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(3), pages 479-501, September.
    7. Giorgio Brosio, 2017. "Equalization transfers and convergence between federal and unitary systems: A contribution to their historical analysis," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(3), pages 21-66.
    8. Tran, Hien Thu, 2019. "Institutional quality and market selection in the transition to market economy," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1-1.
    9. Momi Dahan & Itamar Yakir, 2022. "Revealed political favoritism: evidence from the allocation of state lottery grants in Israel," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 387-406, March.
    10. Davide Luca, 2022. "National elections, sub-national growth: the politics of Turkey’s provincial economic dynamics under AKP rule [Shift-share designs: theory and inference]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 829-851.
    11. Spáč Peter, 2016. "For the Game, for the Loyal Partisans: Distribution of Sport Grants in Slovakia," Central European Journal of Public Policy, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 12-21, May.
    12. Fowler, Anthony & Hall, Andrew B., 2015. "Congressional seniority and pork: A pig fat myth?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 42-56.
    13. Petra Ens, 2009. "Tax competition and equalization: the impact of voluntary cooperation on the efficiency goal," Working Papers 2009/16, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    14. repec:onb:oenbwp:y::i:169:b:1 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Luca, Davide, 2016. "Votes and Regional Economic Growth: Evidence from Turkey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 477-495.
    16. Brian Knight, 2008. "Legislative Representation, Bargaining Power and The Distribution of Federal Funds: Evidence From The Us Congress," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(532), pages 1785-1803, October.
    17. Karolina Kaiser & Emmanuelle Taugourdeau, 2013. "The timing of elections in federations: a disciplining device against soft budget constraints?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 197-215, March.
    18. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2020. "Public investment and the fiscal common pool problem on municipal mergers in Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 124-135.
    19. Batzilis, Dimitris, 2020. "The political determinants of government spending allocation and growth," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 213-220.
    20. Leonardo Bonilla-Mejía & Iván Higuera-Mendieta, 2017. "Political Alignment in the Time of Weak Parties: Electoral Advantages and Subnational Transfers in Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 15746, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    21. DeBacker, Jason, 2011. "The price of pork: The seniority trap in the U.S. House," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 63-78.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiscal policy; Unemployment; Partisanship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:113:y:2011:i:2:p:150-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.