The Korean Economic Review
The Effect of Public Capital on the Productivity – An Analysis on the U.S. Highway Stock
Daechang Kang (Korea Institute for International Economic Policy)Year 2010Vol. 26No. 1
Abstract
This paper estimates the elasticities of highway stock and maintenance spending by the growth accounting method. In addition, the continuous effects of highway stock and maintenance spending were examined. Highway stock has a positive, substantially large, and continuous effect on the privateproductivity, while maintenance spending, as a factor enhancing the effectiveness of highway stock, has an insignificant and negligibly small positive effect. Therefore, the productivity boost effect from road service comes mainly from the amount of highway stock rather than the effectiveness through maintenance spending.