Transportation Infrastructure in the US / Gilles Duranton, Geetika Nagpal, Matthew Turner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Duranton, Gilles.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Nagpal, Geetika.

Turner, Matthew.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27254.

NBER working paper series no. w27254

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Support for massive investments in transportation infrastructure, possibly with a change in the share of spending on transit, seems widespread. Such proposals are often motivated by the belief that our infrastructure is crumbling, that infrastructure causes economic growth, that current funding regimes disadvantage rural drivers at the expense of urban public transit, or that capacity expansions will reduce congestion. In fact, most US transportation infrastructure is not deteriorating and the existing scientific literature does not show that infrastructure creates growth or reduces congestion. However, current annual expenditure on public transit buses exceeds that on interstate construction and maintenance. A careful examination of how funding is allocated across modes is suggested by the evidence. Massive new expenditures are not.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2020.