Measures of the value of public investments are critical inputs into the policy process, and aggregate production and cost functions have become the dominant methods of evaluating these benefits. This paper examines the limitations of these approaches in light of applied production and spatial...

An estimation of components of public capital stock for 38 metropolitan areas from 1953 to 1981, using the perpetual inventory method. These series are used to estimate the effect of public capital stock on regional manufacturing production.

Spending on capital projects in Massachusetts has not contributed in any significant fashion to the state’s budget crisis. During the 1980s the state probably spent too little, rather than too much, on public infrastructure. The states nationwide are caught between the increased requirements...