Disentangling the Myth of the Fragile Foundation: The Effects of Public Infrastructure Investment and Finance on State Infrastructure Quality
Advisor Information
John Bartle
Location
UNO Criss Library, Room 249
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
6-3-2015 9:00 AM
End Date
6-3-2015 9:15 AM
Abstract
The 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure continues to give the nation’s critical infrastructure an overall poor grade of D+ (American Society of Civil Engineering, 2013). Although there have been many government and media reports discussing the aging and decaying American public infrastructure systems, very few studies have empirically examined the relationship between public infrastructure finance and public infrastructure quality. Drawing from public service production theory, this research builds a public highway infrastructure production model, and then comprehensively and systematically investigates the effects of state highway infrastructure finance on state infrastructure quality and the overall highway infrastructure performance. The research develops core indicators for measuring state highway performance including road quality, bridge conditions, road congestion, and traffic fatalities. A composite infrastructure performance index is constructed to measure the overall performance of state highway systems. This study uses a long panel data set consisting of 48 US states from 1995 to 2009. Panel fixed effect estimation is employed. This research contributes to the fields of capital budgeting and infrastructure finance in three key ways: to expand the theoretical understanding of the determinants of public infrastructure performance, to explore how infrastructure finance and investment practices matter for public infrastructure performance, and to offer practical policy suggestions for improving American public infrastructure performance and condition.
Disentangling the Myth of the Fragile Foundation: The Effects of Public Infrastructure Investment and Finance on State Infrastructure Quality
UNO Criss Library, Room 249
The 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure continues to give the nation’s critical infrastructure an overall poor grade of D+ (American Society of Civil Engineering, 2013). Although there have been many government and media reports discussing the aging and decaying American public infrastructure systems, very few studies have empirically examined the relationship between public infrastructure finance and public infrastructure quality. Drawing from public service production theory, this research builds a public highway infrastructure production model, and then comprehensively and systematically investigates the effects of state highway infrastructure finance on state infrastructure quality and the overall highway infrastructure performance. The research develops core indicators for measuring state highway performance including road quality, bridge conditions, road congestion, and traffic fatalities. A composite infrastructure performance index is constructed to measure the overall performance of state highway systems. This study uses a long panel data set consisting of 48 US states from 1995 to 2009. Panel fixed effect estimation is employed. This research contributes to the fields of capital budgeting and infrastructure finance in three key ways: to expand the theoretical understanding of the determinants of public infrastructure performance, to explore how infrastructure finance and investment practices matter for public infrastructure performance, and to offer practical policy suggestions for improving American public infrastructure performance and condition.