The Economics of Infrastructure Investment

This project seeks to expand the research community studying the economic effects of infrastructure investment. Collaboratively, the team of researchers convened as the “NBER Study Group on Infrastructure Economics” will consider the financing of projects, the political economy of project selection and design, and the labor market, productivity, and other consequences of these projects once completed. In addition to supporting research on these issues, the project will draw together recent Ph.Ds. who are interested in infrastructure research, and convene a group of policy and corporate experts with experience on infrastructure issues. The goal is to spark research activity on this topic by fostering research that examines different aspects of infrastructure spending. The results of the study will inform the ongoing debate about the economic impact of infrastructure investment on the U.S. economy, on the consequences of different financial models for infrastructure support, and on infrastructure spending as a macroeconomic stabilizer.