Multilevel Assessment of Public Transportation Infrastructure : A Spatial Econometric Computable General Equilibrium Approach

Impact assessment of transportation investment policy is a challenging task as assessment outcome is sensitive to various attributes such as methodology, time period, scale and location of analysis. This study is conducted to evaluate regional impact of public transportation infrastructure in the US at multilevel geographic scales. The assessment is implemented using a spatial econometric computable general equilibrium (SECGE) approach which integrates spatial econometric techniques with computable general equilibrium models to control for spatial spillover effects. The results suggest that regional economic impacts of public transportation infrastructure vary substantially by mode as well as the scale and location of analysis. The different impact outcomes found in this study can be explained by a different investment strategy of public transportation at different geographic scales