We study the determinants and productivity effects of regional transportation infrastructure investment in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. We estimate productivity effects with regional production functions for each country controlling for the potential endogeneity of public infrastructure investment. In analyzing the determinants of public infrastructure investment two broad categories are considered: First, the normative principles such as efficiency, equity, and redistribution; and second, political factors such as electoral competition and electoral rents. The evidence shows that road infrastructure positively contributes to regional production. As to the determinants, efficiency and redistribution are consistently found to be the dominant norms while equity considerations appear to be less important. However, we find remarkable differences across countries regarding the political determinants. Which political factors matter for infrastructure investment is related to the different political systems of the various countries.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by European Investment Bank, Economic and Financial Studies in its series EIB Papers with number
7/2008.
Find related papers by JEL classification: H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures O40 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General R10 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: