Infrastructure Costs

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Brooks, Leah; Liscow, Zachary
• 署名单位: George Washington University; Yale University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20200398
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1-30
• 关键词: trade; roads; highways

摘要

Despite infrastructure's importance to the US economy, evidence on its cost trajectory over time is sparse. We document real spending per new mile over the history of the Interstate Highway System. We find that spending per mile increased more than threefold from the 1960s to the 1980s. This increase persists even conditional on pre-exist-ing observable geographic cost determinants. We then provide sug-gestive evidence on why. Input prices explain little of the increase. Statistically, changes in income and housing prices explain about half of the increase. We find suggestive evidence that the rise of cit-izen voice in government decision-making increased spending per mile.