The Economics and Politics of State and Local Infrastructure Investment

9511125英曼和豪特 对公共基础设施的投资已成为重要的政策关切之一。 拟议的研究议程涉及的两个核心问题是： 1)我们是否面临公共基础设施危机？ 2)如果是这样，政府采取什么行动，包括激励措施， 鼓励适当类型和水平的支出， 公共基础设施？ 首先，为了解决危机问题，研究人员确定了公共基础设施投资的好处。 公共结构投资是否增加了受影响地区个人和企业的收入？ 研究人员预计，公共基础设施投资的积极利益将累积到大城市地区，而农村地区则会产生负面利益。 由于这些可能的抵消效应，鼓励基础设施投资的统一政府政策将对整个国家的生产率和收入产生零影响。 如果他们的预测得到证实，政府需要认真制定政策，区分大城市和农村地区。 通过考虑公共结构基础设施对住房价格和当地劳动力市场的影响，研究了公共结构基础设施对单个家庭的好处。 其次，研究人员将研究联邦税收和赠款政策对州和地方公共基础设施支出的影响。 他们提出的研究认识到，州和地方一级的民选机构官员会进行投票交易或愿意支持另一位官员的计划，以换取对自己喜欢的计划的支持。 对州和地方公共基础设施决策的分析捕捉到了这种行为，希望能更好地设计联邦项目。

9511125 Inman and Haughwout Investment in public infrastructure has become one of significant policy concern. The two central questions addressed by the proposed research agenda are: 1) Do we have a public infrastructure crisis? 2) If so, what government actions, including incentives, can best encourage appropriate types and levels of expenditures on public infrastructure? First, to address the crisis question, the researchers identify the benefits of public infrastructure investment. Does public structure investment increase the income of individuals and businesses in the impacted area or not? The researchers expect that positive benefits from public infrastructure investment will accrue to large urban areas and negative benefits to rural areas. As a result of these possible offsetting effects, uniform government policies to encourage infrastructure investment will have zero impact on productivity and income for the country as a whole. If their predictions are confirmed, government policies need to be carefully formulated to differentiate between large urban and rural areas. The benefits of public structure infrastructure on individual households are examined, by considering the impact of such investment on housing prices and local labor markets. Second, the researchers will look at the effect of federal tax and grants policies on state and local public infrastructure expenditures. Their proposed research recognizes that elected-body officials at the state and local level will vote-trade or be willing to favor another official's program in return for support of their own favored program. An analysis of state and local public infrastructure decisions capturing such behavior will hopefully allow for better design of federal programs.