Contribution to Productivity or Pork Barrel? The Two Faces of Infrastructure Investment

Arbeitspapier

This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France's regions over 1985-92 suggest that electoral concerns and in°uence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the cross-regional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. By contrast, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 458

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General ; Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
• Thema: Growth ; Infrastructure ; Political Economy ; Lobbying ; France ; Verkehrsinfrastrukturpolitik ; Public Choice ; Verkehrsinvestition ; Produktivität ; Regionales Wachstum ; Interessenpolitik ; Schätzung ; Frankreich

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Cadot, Olivier ; Röller, Lars-Hendrik ; Stephan, Andreas
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (wo): Berlin
• (wann): 2004

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/18310
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:41 MEZ