Efficient Provision And Funding Of Congestible Infrastructure. The Case Of The Transportation Infrastructure

The paper contributes to the research on the efficient provision and funding of congestible transportation infrastructures which are used in the production process of firms, and for which an exclusion of additional firms is possible. The obtained results are a clear call to implement user charges as an additional policy instrument in an international tax competition setting in order to maintain efficiency when non-cooperative regions provide the infrastructure facilities (second-best optimum). Should user charges be waived, however, the provision of an optimal capacity of the facility according to the Samuelsoncondition, and the efficient utilisation of the facility by firms according to the derived condition for an optimal number of uses of the congested facility cannot be expected. The examination of the reactions of a region’s capital endowment and the firms’ utilisation of the facilities allows the derivation of optimal infrastructure policies for the provision and funding of congestible transport infrastructures.