ifdp · September 30, 1997

Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link between Public Capital and Productivity

Abstract

At a macroeconomic level, infrastructure and productivity are positively correlated in the United States and other countries. However, it remains unclear whether this correlation reflects causation, and if so, whether causation runs from infrastructure to productivity, or the reverse. This paper focuses on roads, and finds that vehicle-intensive industries benefit disproportionately from road-building: when road growth changes, productivity growth changes more in industries that are more vehicle intensive. These results suggest that causation runs from infrastructure to productivity. However, there is no evidence that at the margin, roads offer an above-average return; road-building in essence offered a one-time boost to the level of productivity in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, it appears that congestion significantly affects road-services at the margin, although congestion does not appear important before 1973.

BoardofGovernorsoftheFederalReserveSystem InternationalFinanceDiscussionPapers Number592 October1997 ROADSTOPROSPERITY? ASSESSINGTHELINKBETWEENPUBLICCAPITALANDPRODUCTIVITY JohnFernald NOTE: InternationalFinanceDiscussionPapersarepreliminarymaterialscirculatedtostimulate discussionandcriticalcomment. ReferencesinpublicationstoInternationalFinanceDiscussionPapers (otherthananacknowledgmentthatthewriterhashadaccesstounpublishedmaterial)shouldbecleared withtheauthor orauthors. RecentIFDPsareavailableontheWebat www.bog.frb.fed.us.

ROADSTOPROSPERITY? ASSESSINGTHELINKBETWEENPUBLICCAPITALANDPRODUCTIVITY JohnFernald* Abstract:Atamacroeconomiclevel,infrastructureandproductivityarepositivelycorrelatedintheUnited Statesandothercountries. However,itremainsunclearwhetherthiscorrelationreflectscausation,andif so,whethercausationrunsfrominfrastructuretoproductivity,orthereverse. Thispaperfocusesonroads, andfindsthatvehicle-intensiveindustriesbenefitdisproportionatelyfromroad-building:whenroadgrowth changes,productivitygrowthchangesmorein industriesthatare morevehicleintensive. Theseresults suggestthatcausationrunsfrominfrastructuretoproductivity.However,thereisnoevidencethatatthe margin,roadsofferanabove-averagereturn;road-buildinginessenceofferedaone-timeboosttothelevel ofproductivityinthe1950sand1960s.Finally,itappearsthatcongestionsignificantlyaffectsroad-services atthemargin,althoughcongestiondoesnotappearimportantbefore1973. *FernaldisaneconomistintheInternationalFinanceDivisionoftheFederalReserveBoard,andcanbe contacted at fernaldj@frb.gov. An earlier version of this paper, entitled “How Productive is Infrastructure?”,wasChapter2 ofmy 1993HarvardPh.D. thesis. I thankRobertBarre, SusantoBasu, DavidCutler,BradDeLong,AndyLevin,BenPolak,and,especially,CharlesHulten,DaleJorgenson,and GregMankiwforhelpfuldiscussionsandcomments.Ialsothankseveralanonymousrefereesandseminar participantsatanumberofuniversitiesandinstitutionswhoprovidedfeedback.Theviewsinthispaperare solelytheresponsibilityoftheauthorandshouldnotbe interpretedasreflectingtheviewsoftheBoardof Governorsof the FederalReserveSystemor of any otherpersonassociatedwiththe FederalReserve System.

Recent macroeconomicliterature documentsa strong correlationbetween infrastructureand productivityintheUnitedStatesandotherwesterneconomies.However,itremainsunclearhowtointerpret thiscorrelation. Someauthorsarguethatinfrastructureprovideshighlyvaluableservicesto theprivate sector,andthattheslowdowninpublicinvestmentaftertheearly1970sexplainsasubstantialportionofthe widelynotedproductivityslowdown,whichoccurredaroundthe sametime. Bycontrast,otherauthors arguethatpubliccapitalisendogenous,sothatcausationrunsfromproductivitytopublicinvestment,orthat thecorrelationiscompletelyspurious,reflectingamisspecificationoftrend.1 Thispaperexplorestheinterpretationofthiscorrelationbyfocusingonroads,thelargestcomponent ofpubliccapital. In 1994,thevalueoftheroadstockwas$1.2trillion,worthnearlyaquarterofprivate businessGDP. Indeed,inthe1950sand1960s,road-buildingaccountedforasubstantialfractionofcapital formationintheUnitedStates,withnetinvestmentexceedingaquarterofthevalueofnetnon-residential privateinvestment.AsshowninFigure1,roadgrowthslowedsubstantiallyaftertheearly 1970s,andin percapitatermsthestockhaschangedlittlesincethen. IaskhowchangesinroadsaffecttherelativeproductivityperformanceofU.S. industriesfrom1953 to 1989. Ifroadsareproductive,thenindustriesthatuseroadsintensivelyshouldbenefitmore. Thereare no direct measuresof industryroad-use. Butgiventhe complementarilybetweenroads and vehicles, vehicle-useprovidesanindirectmeasureofroad-intensity. Thebasicstylizedfactofthispaperisthatchangesinroadgrowthareassociatedwithlargerchanges inproductivitygrowthinindustriesthataremorevehicleintensive.First,theslowdowninproductivityafter 1973appearslargerinindustrieswithhighervehicleshares. Second,whenroadgrowthrises,productivity growthtendstoriserelativetotheaverageinvehicle-intensiveindustriesandfallinnon-vehicle-intensive industries. Thus, the data stronglysupportthe notionthat industrieswith alot of vehiclesbenefited disproportionatelyfromroad-building. Thisfindingsuggeststhattheaggregatecorrelationbetweenproductivityandinfrastructurereflects 1 Aschauer(1989,1990)documentsthecorrelationforaggregateU.S. data. Otherstudiesusing aggregate,regional,orindustrydatafortheUnitedStatesandreportinga largeproductiveroleforpublic capitalincludeMorrisonandSchwartz(1996),KocherlakotaandYi(1995),NadiriandMamuneas(1994), andMunnell(1990). Studiesusingcross-countrydataincludeBerndtandHansson(1992)andFordand Poret (1991). ScepticsincludeHoltz-Eakin(1994a),Hultenand Schwab(1991),and Aaron (1991). Gramlich(1994)surveystheinfrastructureliterature,withadditionalreferences.

causationfromchangesintheroadstockto changesinproductivity. For example,supposeroadsdonot contributetoproductivityatthemargin,butareendogenous:asaggregateproductivity(andhenceincome) rises,thegovernmentchoosestobuildmoreroads. Onewouldnotthenexpectanyparticularrelationship betweenanindustry’svehicle-intensityanditsrelativeproductivityperformancewhenroadgrowthchanges. Alternatively,supposethecorrelationisspurious,reflectingacommontrendslowdownintheearly 1970s. Thereisnoreasontoexpectalargerchangeintrendforindustriesthatusea lotofvehicles. Constructionoftheinterstatehighwaysystempeakedinthelate 1950sandearly 1960s,andwas largely completedby 1973. The results suggestthat this constructionboom substantiallyboosted productivity.In particular,thepointestimatesimplythatpublicinvestmentshadabove-averageratesof return,andcontributedabout1percentagepointmoretoproductivitygrowthbefore1973thanafter. Hence, publicinvestmentcan explaina substantialshareof the 1.3 percentage-pointslowdownin productivity growth. Theseresultsraisean importantpolicyquestion: Doespublicinvestmentoffera continuing,but neglected,route to prosperity? That is, by buildingroads, can we return to a path of renewedhigh productivitygrowth?Theindustrydatadonotsupportthisconclusion:atthemargin,wecannotrejectthat roadsnowofferanormal(orevenzero)rateofreturn. Thus,thedataseemmostconsistentwithastoryin whichthemassiveroad-buildingofthe1950sand1960sofferedaone-timeboosttothelevelofproductivity, ratherthanapathtocontinuingrapidgrowthinproductivity. Thisconclusion–thatroadswereexceptionallyproductivebefore 1973butare notexceptionally productiveatthemargin—isconsistentwithsimplenetworkarguments.2Inparticular,buildinganinterstate networkmightbeveryproductive;buildinga secondnetworkmaynot. Theconclusionisalsoconsistent withcost-benefitstudies. TheCongressionalBudgetOffice(1991),forexample,surveysthesestudiesand reportsanestimatedaveragerealreturntonewurbanhighwayconstructionof 10to20percent. Finally,Iexploretheempiricalimportanceofcongestion.TheempiricalliteraturecitedinFootnote 1generallyignorescongestion,andassumesthatpubliccapitalisapurenon-rivalpublicgood. Asaproxy for congestion,I useameasureofaggregateroaduse: totalmilesdrivenbytrucksandautos. Figure1 2 Hulten(1994)discussesthenetworknatureofinfrastructureatlength. 2

showsthatmiles-drivencontinuedtogrowsteadilyafter1973(thoughataslower,andmorevariable,rate thanbefore1973),sothattheaverageutilizationofroads(e.g., milesdrivenperunitoftheroadstock)also rosesteadily. Atanaggregatelevel,miles-drivenperhapsbettermeasurestotalroadservicesratherthan congestion,whichreducesroadservices. For anindividualproducer,however,totalmiles-drivenlargely reflectsroadusebyotherproducers,andhenceshouldreduceroadservices. Congestiondoesnotappearempiricallyimportantbefore1973,butbecomesempiricallyimportant thereafter.Theseresultsmakeintuitivesense. Whentheinterstatehighwaysystemwasfirstbuilt,adding an additionalcar to the systemmay notaffectthe servicesavailableto any otheruser. As the system becomesmorecongested,addingmorecars(andhenceincreasingtotalmilesdriven)reducestheservices availableto anyoneelse. Hence,congestionis inherentlylikelytobe a non-linearprocess. Theresults suggestthatcongestiononlybecameimportantaftertheinterstatesystemwascompleted. SectionI developsformallythegrowth-accountingimplicationsoftheideathatvehicle-intensive industriesuseroadsintensively. SectionII describesthedata,anddiscussesseveraleconometricissues. SectionIIIpresentsresults. SectionIVconcludes. I. Method The first subsectionconsiderstheproductiondecisionsof firms, and formalizesthe notionthat industriesthathavea lotof vehiclesuse roadsrelativelyintensively. Theresultingestimatingequation impliesthatwhenroadserviceschange,productivityshouldchangeby morein industriesthatare more vehicleintensive. Thesecondsubsectiondiscusseshowtomodeltheservicesofroads,takingaccountof thenetworknatureoftheroadstockandthepotentialimportanceofcongestion. i. Growthaccountingwithpubliccapital Foreachindustry,supposetheproductionofvalue-addedoutput~ dependsoninputsofnon-vehicle capitalKi,laborLi, andtransportservicesthatareproducedwithinthesectorTi. output alsodependson theHicks-NeutralstateoftechnologyUi. Transportservicesdependupontheflowofservicesprovidedby theaggregatestockofgovernmentroadsGas wellasthestockofvehiclesinthesector~.. Hence,omitting 3

timesubscriptsforsimplicity,eachsectoralproductionfunctiontakestheform3 Y, = UiF ‘(Ki,Li,T(Vi,G)). (1) Notethattheproductionfunction(1)treatspurchasedandproducedtransportdifferently. Value addednetsoutthecontributionofintermediategoodstoproduction.Soif, forexample,asectorpurchases truckingservices,thisrepresentsvalueaddedinthetruckingsector,notinthepurchasingsector. Supposeeachfirmisperfectlycompetitiveandhasconstantreturnstoscaletoprivatefactors,which itcanadjustinstantaneously.LetF~representsthederivativeoftheproductionfunctionFwithrespectto inputJ. Cost-minimizationthenimpliesthattheelasticityof outputwithrespectto J, F~/F, equalsthat input’ssharein revenue,s~i.Thesharestoprivateinputssumto one, sothereare no economicprofits. Althoughwecannotdirectlyobservetheelasticityofoutputwithrespecttoroadservices,wecanexpresse itrelativetotheelasticitywithrespecttovehicles,givenbythesharesVi: F~G F~G FVV —= —*— (2) = $j”s~j. F [ FVV)( F ) Theparameter@eiqualstherelativeoutputelasticitiesofroadsandvehicles,andisthekeyparameterlinking observedvehicle-intensitietsounobservedroaduse. Weexpectthat@iispositive,whichcapturesthenotion thatvehicle-intensivseectorsarealsorelativelyroad-intensive.Aslongas@iispositive(evenifnotconstant overtimeandindustries),theestimatingequationbelowholdsatleastapproximately. However, furtherassumptionson technologygreatlysimpli~ the formalderivation,and aid in interpretingtheresults. Bytheseparabilityassumptionin (l), @iequalstheratiooftheelasticitieswith respectto GandVinproducingtransport: Y . (#)i I (3) TVV NowsupposeallsectorshavethesameCobb-DouglastransportaggregateT,so @i=@.Therestof theproductionfimctionremainscompletelygeneral,sotheroadelasticitycanchangeovertimeaslongas it remainsproportionalto thevehicle-share. ThisCobb-Douglasassumptionon Tprovidesa first-order 3 Theappendixconsidersthecaseinwhichindustry-specificroadstocksdifferfromtheaggregate roadstock,arisingfromdifferencesinthe regionaldistributionofproductionacrossindustries. Footnote 7brieflydiscussestheappropriatenessoftheassumptionthatavalue-addedproductionfunctionexists. 4

approximationto the true productionfunction,and greatlysimplifiesthe problem. It is worth noting, however,thatformakinginferencesaboutthemarginalproductivityofroads,thesecond-ordereffectsmay be crucial. Wecan approximateamoregeneralfunctionalformbyallowingthecoefficient@tochange overtime.4 Solow’sproductivityresidual,dpi,measuresthe growthin theproductivityof privateinputsin production.Letdjrepresentthegrowthrateofinput~,dY/~.Takingthetotal(logarithmic)differentialof theproductionfunction(l), substitutinginputsharesforoutputelasticities,andrearranging,wefind: dpi dyi- sKi”dki- sLi*dli- svi”dvi q (4) = $“(sviodg) + dul. Observedproductivitygrowthdependson technologyshocksduiplusthe contributionof governmentprovidedroads. Theservicesofthese roadsenterasanexternaleffectrelatedtovehicleuse. Aggregateproductivityshocks,d~equal aweightedaverageofsectoral shocks: & = ~ widpi, (5) i wherethesectoralweightswiarethesharesofnominalvalueaddedinaggregatevalueadded.5Hence, @ = @#g + d;. (6) Publicinvestment,andhencethegrowthintheservicesoftheroadstockdg,may dependonthe growthinoutput,whichinturndependsonthegrowthinproductivityd~ In thiscase,ordinary-leastsquaresestimationofthegrowth-accountingequation(6)suffersfromsimultaneitybias. Ifpublicinvestmentdependsonaggregateincomeandhenceproductivity,bthensectoralproductivity shocksaffectroadgrowthby affectingtheaggregateshock. Giventhatcovarianceisa linearoperator, 4 UsingaCES productionfunction,for example,considerablycomplicatesthetheoreticaland econometricproblem. First, aggregationis difficultunlessallproducersare identical. Second,road growthvariesrelativelylittleafter1973(themeanis lpercen~the standarddeviation0.3percent),sothe U.S.dataprovidelittlevariationtopindown complicatedparameterizations.Allowingthecoefficientto changeapproximatesthiscomplicatedeffectina simpleway. 5 See,forexample,Jorgenson,Gollop,andFraumeni(1987,p66). b Asarefereepointedouq thismaynotbetherightmodelifindustriesarenotdistributedevenly acrossregions. Theappendixconsidersthisissueindetail. 5

equation(5)thenimpliesthatthecovariancebetweend~and dgjust equalstheweighted-averageofthe covariancebetweensectoralshocksduiandgovernmentcapitaldg. Thus,iftheaggregateregressionsuffers fromendogeneitybias,sodothesectoralregressions(4). Nowconsiderthefollowingregressiondecomposition: dui = ~i”d; + &i (7) Theresiduals&ifromequation(7)are,byconstruction,orthogonaltotheaggregateproductivityshocks,and hencetothegrowthrateofgovernmentcapital. Thefittedvalues~i-d; measuretheconditionalexpectation of the technologyshockin sectori, giventhe aggregateproductivityshock. The average “cyclicality parameter”fl.equalsone:ifthereisanaggregateproductivityshockof,say, 1percent,thenatypicalsector hasaproductivityshockof 1percent. Substitutingequations(6)and(7)intoequation(4)givesthefollowingestimatingequation: (8) Thisnon-linearregressionequation,whichI estimateinSectionIII, hasthekeyattributethatthe disturbanceterm is orthogonalto dg. Intuitively,the problemof endogeneityarises from an omitted variable,dti;bycombiningaggregateanddisaggregatedata,wecancontrolforthisomittedvariable. Sofar,Ihavesuppressedconstanttermsforsimplicity.Supposedui=Ci+dzi, withA definedby dzi=~jd; +&i.Defining~astheaverageconstant,and ~i=Ci- ~i~,theestimatingequation(8)becomes: d“i =&i+ () ”(Syi - ~i;v)dg + ~id~ + &i (9) Foranintuitiveinterpretation,supposeallindustriesareequallycyclical,sothefl.allequalone,and thatanytrendsarecommon.Thenrearrangingequation(9),wefind: dpi-d; = @-[Svi - $/] dg + Ci, (lo) Ifroadsareproductive,thenpositiveroadgrowthdgtendstomakestheidiosyncraticcomponentofsectoral productivitygrowth(dpi-d;) positiveinindustrieswithabove-averagevehicleintensities,andbelow-average in industrieswithbelow-averagevehicleintensities. In otherwords, changesin roadgrowthshouldbe 6

associatedwithlargerchangesinproductivitygrowthinvehicle-intensiveindustries. Ifroadsarenotproductive,thenchangesinroadgrowthshouldnotimplyanyparticularrelationship betweenvehicle-intensityand relativeproductivityperformance.Similarly,if the aggregatecorrelation betweenproductivityandpubliccapitalreflectscommontrends(e.g., shiftsinthe constantterms), it is unlikelythatchangesintrendaresystematicallylargerforindustriesthathavea lotofvehicles. Clearly, the formalderivationabovemakesseveralsimplifyingassumptionsthatmay nothold. Nevertheless,aslongasroadshavealargerproductiveeffectinsectorsthatarevehicleintensive,thebasic methodshouldbe fairlyrobustto misspecification.Misspecifications—arisinfgrom increasingreturns, aggregationeffects,factor-biasedtechnologicaclhange,orothersources—onlymattertotheextenttheyare systematicallycorrelatedwith vehicle-intensities. There is little reason to expectsuch a correlation. Moreover,anyresultingbias(whichcouldbeeitherpositiveornegative)islikelytobesmallrelativetothe directproductiveeffectofroadsinsectorsthatarevehicle-intensive.Misspecificationdoesaddanadditional sourceofidiosyncraticvariancetorelativeproductivityperformance,raisingstandarderrors.7 ii. Modelingroadservicesandcongestion Empirically,howshouldonemodeltheservicesofroads? TheempiricalliteraturecitedinFootnote 1generallyassumesthatthe servicesof publiccapitalare a pure, non-rivalpublicgood,withservices proportionalto the stockof capital. Two considerations—thenetworknatureof the road system,and 7Increasingreturns,for example,isprobablynota majorconcern,sincethetypicalsectorhas approximatelyconstantreturns,andthecorrelationbetweenthegrowthinroadsandaggregateinputsis -0.04. However,BasuandFernald(1997)findthatbecauseofindustryheterogeneity,aggregationaffects thecyclicalpropertiesofaggregateproductivity,andhasalargereffectonestimateswithvalueaddedthan grossoutput.TheBasu-Fernaldaggregationeffectsarevirtuallyuncorrelatedwithroadgrowth,and using gross outputgive resultsthatare virtuallyidenticalto thevalue-addedresultsreportedin SectionIII. Hence, abstractingfrom aggregationand the non-existenceof a value-addedproductionfimctionis probablyunimportanthere. As an additionalcheckfor misspecification,intheempiricalworkI addedproxiesfor energybiasedtechnicalchangeandvariablecapacityutilization.Inparticular,I addedanoil-pricedummytothe regressions(witha differenteffectby industry),whichmightmatterif technicalprogresswere more energy-biasedinvehicle-intensivesectors. Resultschangedlittle. I alsoaddedthechangeinhoursper workerasaproxyforunobservedchangesinlaborandcapitalutilization(seeBasuandKimball(1997)). Again,resultschangedlittle. 7

congestion—haveimplicationsformodelingroadservices,andinterpretingtheresults.8 First,theroadsystemformsaspatiallyinterconnectednetwork. Foranetwork,theconventional perpetualinventorymethodof measuringcapitalstocksis generallynotappropriate. In particular,the internalcompositionofthestockmatters,sincethemarginalproductivityofanyonelinkdependsonthe capacityandconfigurationofallthelinksinthe network. Usingmeasuresofthe totalstockthusmayallow ustoestimatetheaveragemarginalproductofroads inthepast, buttheseestimatesmaynotbeappropriate forconsideringthemarginalproductofadditionalroadstoday. Moreover, as Hulten (1994)notes: “Once the basic links of a network are established,the opportunitiesforcomplementaryinvestmentsdiminishandtheconstructionofnewcapacitygraduallycomes to substitutefor existingcapacity.” In otherwords,buildingtheinterstatenetworkmayhavebeenvery productive,butbuildingasecondinterstatesystemmaynotbe. Allowingthecoefficientonroadstochange overtimeprovidesonesimplewaytocapturethisidea. Second,roadsaresubjecttocongestion.Congestionmaynotbeimportantwhenanetworkisfirst built,butitbecomesimportantasmorepeopleusethesystem. For example,addinga secondcarto an interstatehighwaydoesnot reducethe servicesreceivedby the first car. At rush hour in mostcities, however,additionalcarsslowtraffic,andreducetheservicesreceivedbyexistingdrivers. Asimplewaytomodelaveragecongestionistoexpressroadservicesas -&, G . (11) Ck whereRistheroadstockandCissomemeasureofroaduseandhencecongestion.BarroandSala-i-Martin (1995)suggestthatinmodelinglong-runeconomicgrowth,aggregateoutputorprivatecapitalmightproxy for congestionC. Mankiw(1992)modelsCastheaggregatevehiclestock. In theshortrun, however, capitalandvehicle-stockproxiesdonotaccountforvariationsintheutilizationofthesestocks,whilethe output-proxyhasthedisadvantagethattheregressionalreadyincludesaggregateproductivity(closelyrelated toaggregateoutput).Inmyempiricalresults,I insteadmodelcongestionCasafunctionofthetotalmiles drivenbytrucks,automobiles,andothermotorvehicles. 8 MuchofthediscussionbelowfollowsHulten(1994),whodiscussestheimplicationsofnetworksand congestionintermsofsimplemodelsofoptimalgrowth,anddiscussestheimplicationsoftheseissuesfor econometricmodeling. 8

Theparameterk measureshowquicklytheroadservicesreceivedbyanyindividualproducerfall asaggregatemiles-drivenrise. Ifroadsareapurepublicgood,k equalsO. BarroandSala-i-Martinand Mankiwsuggestthata particularlyattractivespecificationis ifk equals1, sothat G = R/C. Withthis specification,any individualproducerappearsto have increasingreturnsto privateand publicinputs, becauseheorshetakesroad-usebyothersasgiven. Ataneconomy-wideleve~however,thereareconstant returnstoscaleifmiles drivenincreaseproportionallywithotherinputs. Withcongestion,theestimatingequationbecomes: dpi=Fi+@{SU-~iFY)d~-K{~n-~i~v)dc + ~id~ + &i (12) where~equalsk~, anddr anddcarethegrowthratesofroadsandcongestion.Inotherwords,anincrease in roads disproportionatelyhelps vehicle-intensiveindustries, while an increase in congestion disproportionatelyharmstheseindustries. A convenientinterpretationof ~ isintermsoftheimpliedannualrateofreturn: thevalueofthe increasedannualflowofgoodsandservicescomingfromanextradollarofroads. Therateofreturnequals thesumoftherealvalueofthemarginalproductsacrosssectors. LetYbeaggregatevalueadded,andP betheaggregatepricedeflator. Itcanbeshownthat:9 3““4$) (13) The intuitionis straightforward. In a Cobb-Douglasproductionfunction,the rate of return equalsthe factor’soutputelasticity(i.e., itsshare)multipliedbytheratioofoutputtotheinput. Here,theproduct@“sV istheaggregateelasticityofroads. In 1989,theaveragevehicle-sharewas1.5percent(closetotheaverage of 1.6percentfortheentireperiodfrom 1953to 1989,showninTable1). Theratioofaggregatevalue- -addedintheprivatebusinesseconomytothevalueoftheroadstockwasabout4 in1989,soforanyestimate of @,weobtainanimpliedrateofreturnbymultiplyingby(0.01504),or about6percent. 9Thiscalculationassumesthatmilesdrivenandthevehiclesharearenotaffectedbythepolicychange in the stockof roads. Empirically,in annualdatathe elasticityof milesdrivenwithrespectto roads appearssmall. RegressingthelogofmilesdrivenonlogGDP, logfuelprices,andthelogoftheroad stockgivesaroadelasticityof0.04. Estimatedindifferences,thiselasticityis0.15. 9

II. Data and Econometric Issues IuseunpublisheddataprovidedbyDaleJorgensonandBarbaraFraumenioninputsandoutputsfor 29sectorsoftheU.S. economy,fortheyears1953-1989.Thesesectorsspantheprivatebusinesseconomy, excludingagricultureandmining.Thesedataseektoprovidemeasuresofoutputandinputsthatare, tothe extentpossible,consistentwiththeeconomictheoryofproduction,andallowJorgensonto allocateU.S. productivitygrowthto itssourcesatthelevelofindividualindustries.l” The data includegross output,and inputsof capital,labor, energy, and materials. Inputsare adjustedforchangesinthecompositionofthelabor forceandthecapitalstock. Forexample,laborinput weightshours-workedbydifferenttypesofworkersbyestimatesofrelativewages,andcapitalinputweights capital-stockbydifferenttypesofcapitalbyestimatesofrelativerentalrates. Iestimatesectoralproductivitygrowthfromequation(4)asaTornquistortranslogindex,replacing differentialswithlog-differences. LetIiequalatranslog indexofvehicles andothercapital. Thenthe Tornquistindexofvalue-addedproductivitygrowthZIpii,s . Api,= 1 Aql- siiAkit–sLiA[it–sMiAmit. (14) [ ][ 1 1-sMi All quantityvariablesare logsof their uppercasecounterparts,andq, is thelogof gross output. The weights—forexample,s~i—aretheaverageinputsharesinperiodstandt-1. Dividingbytheshareofvalue addedingrossoutput(l-s~i)convertsthisfromproductivitygrowthintermsofgrossoutputtoproductivity growthintermsofaDivisiaindexofvalueadded.11 Icalculatethevehicle-sharefollowingHallandJorgenson(1967)andHall(1990),multiplyingthe currentvalueofthestockofvehiclesbyanestimateoftheusercostofcapital. Iestimate theusercostas: 10I excludedataonthegovernmentsectorbecausecompleteinputdataarenotavailable;I exclude agricultureandminingbecausemanyof theirvehiclesarenot usedon publicroads. Thesedataare availablefrom1947onwards;alongersampleperiodispreferableeconometrically,butthequalityofthe earlydataisalsolowerthanthatofthelaterdata. Inanycase,themainconclusionsappeartoberelatively robustto usingan earlieror laterstartingdate. For a completedescriptionofthedata, seeJorgenson, Gollop,andFraumeni(1987). 11SeeJorgenson,Gollop,andFraumeni(1987),p52,orBasuandFernald(1995,1997). . 10

(1 - ITC~- ~d~) r~ = (P + ~s) s = trucks,autos. (15) (1 - T) ‘ pistherequiredrateofreturnoncapital,and6,isthedepreciationrateforthisasset. ITCistheinvestment taxcredit,~isthecorporatetaxrate,andd isthepresentvalueofdepreciationallowances. FollowingHall (1990),IassumethattherequiredreturnpequalsthedividendyieldontheS&P500. FollowingJorgenson andYun(1990),I takethedepreciationratetobe25.37percentfortrucksand33.33 percentfor autos. DaleJorgensonprovidedunpublisheddataon~,ITC,,andd,. Jorgensonalsoprovidedperpetualinventory estimatesofthecurrentvalueofthestockoftrucksandautosbyindustry. Usingdata ongrosspublicinvestmentin roads(fromtheU.S. CommerceDepartment1995), I followBoskin,Robinson,andHuber(1989)andassumethatroadsdepreciategeometricallyatarateof 1.98 percentper year. Usingtheperpetual-inventorymethod,I thenestimatetheconstant-dollarvalueofthe stockofroadsforeachyear. I assumethatroadinputinagivenyeardependsonthestockofroadsatthe beginningoftheyear. TheresultingstockestimatesgenerallyexceedtheBureauof EconomicAnalysis estimatesofthenetroadstockbyasmallamount,thoughthedifferentestimateshaveanegligibleeffecton theestimatesreportedinSectionIII. To measurecongestion,I useameasureofoverallroaduse:thetotalmilesdrivenbytrucksand autosineachyear. ThesedataarefromtheFederalHighwayAdministration(variousyears). Notethatitwillgenerallybethecasethattheconstructedregressiondisturbancesare correlated acrossequations. Itiseasytoshowthat Cov( 81,,Ejj = Cov(duit,duj~ - ~i~jVar(d;). (16) Thisisingeneralnon-zero.Hence,ifweestimatetheregressionsinequations(9)or(10)asasystem,there areefficiencygainstotakingaccountofthecross-equationcorrelationsamongthedisturbances. Onbotheconomicandeconometricgrounds,Iaggregatethe29industriesinvariouswaystoreduce thenumberofequationsIestimate.Econometricallye,quation(16)impliesthattheregressiondisturbances are generallycorrelatedacross equations. Estimatingthe model as a systemof seeminglyunrelated regressionsallowsforthesecontemporaneoucsorrelations.AnecessaryconditionforSURestimationisthat 11

thenumberof observationsexceedthe numberof equations,or elsethe estimatedcovariancematrixis alwayssingular. With37years ofdata, thisnecessaryconditionfor non-singularityissatisfied,butthe resultingestimatespotentiallysufferfrom smallsampleproblems. In essence,the covariancematrixis poorlyestimated,butfeasibleGLSneverthelessinvertsitinestimatingcoefficientsandstandarderrors. The resultingestimatesarenotreliable. In addition,thereisaneconomicrationaleforcombiningindustries. Investmentsinroadshavea clear regionalor geographicalcomponent. Thelessaggregatedare the industrieswe choose,themore regionaleachindustryislikelytobe. Asdiscussedintheappendix,thecorrectmeasureofanindustry’s roadstockshouldthenbesomeappropriately-weightedmeasureofregionalstocks. Thismisspecification potentiallyleadstobiasifindustriesarenotdistributedequallyacrossregions,andiftherearesystematic differencesin growthratesof roadsacrossregions. Thisbiasalsodependsheavilyon thedeviationof vehicle-intensitiesfromtheaverage. Theappendixalsopresentssomesimplesimulations,usingregional dataonpubliccapitalgrowthfrom1971through1987,suggestingthatthebiascanbesizeable. Mymainindustrygroupingseekstominimizethebiasbygroupingindustriestoensurethatvehicleintensitiesare sufficientlydifferentfromtheaverage,andthatproductionisrelativelyevenlydistributed acrossregions. Theappendix describesthenineindustryaggregatesthatresult. Notealsothathaving vehicle-intensitiesthatdiffersubstantiallyfromtheaverageincreasesthevariationoftheright-hand-side regressorinequations(9)and(10),andhenceimprovestheprecisionofestimatesof~. Forcomparability,andtoensurethattheresultsarenotdrivenbymychoiceofaggregates,I also presentresultsforthreefictional groupings. First,Iuse(approximate)one-digitSICcodes,comprising non-durablesmanufacturing,durablesmanufacturing,construction,transportation,communications,public utilities,trade,finance-insurance-reaelstate,andservices. Second,Iusethe21 manufacturingindustries. Third,Iusetheeightnon-manufacturing,non-farming,andnon-miningindustries. III. Results Table 1liststhe29industriesthatconstitutetheprivatebusinesseconomy(excludingminingand agriculture)inthe Jorgenson-Fraumenidata. Column(1)showsaverageannualvalue-addedproductivity 12

growth from 1953to 1989;column(4)showsthechangeafter 1973.12Theindustriesare listedby the averageshareofvalueaddedgoingtovehicles,showninColumn(5). Fortheprivateeconomyasawhole, thenext-to-lastlineshowsthatproductivitygrowthwas 1.6percentperyearfrom 1953to 1989,thenfell to0.3 percentfrom 1973to 1989. Theaggregatevehicleshareaveraged1.6percent. Thegrowthinroadsaveraged4percentperyearbefore1973,butonly1percentafterthat. Suppose roadsareproductive,andthatthisslowdowninroadgrowthexplainsasubstantialportionoftheslowdown inproductivitygrowth. Sinceslowerroadgrowthshouldprimarilyaffectsectorsthatusea lotofroads, thesesectorsshouldhavehadagreaterslowdowninproductivitygrowth. Figure 2 graphsthe changein sectoralproductivitygrowthafter 1973versus averagesectoral vehicle-intensityu,singthedataincolumns(3)and(5)ofTable1,excludingtheobviousproductivityoutlier ofpetroleumproducts.13Theestimatedslope(showninthefigure)is-0.63,withat-statisticof2.30. Thus, thesimplecross-sectionaelvidenceinthefigureisconsistentwiththenotionthatsectorswithgreatervehicleintensitiestendedtoexperiencelargerproductivityslowdownsafter1973. The negativecorrelation(thoughnotalwaysitsstatisticalsignificance)isrelativelyrobustto the presenceofoutliers. For example,inFigure2, whichexcludespetroleumproducts,thecorrelationwas -0.41; includingpetroleumproductsreducesthecorrelationto -0,29 (significantataboutthe 85percent level).Excludingthetwo vehicle-shareoutliers(transportationandgasutilities)reducesthecorrelation further,to-0.24(significantataboutthe80percentlevel). However,excludingallindustrieswithaboveaveragevehicleintensitiesrestoresthecorrelationto-0.43,significantatthe95percentlevel. Althoughthecorrelationisalwaysnegative,theinfluenceofoutlierssuggeststhatchangesinroad 121973isthetraditionaldatingoftheproductivityslowdown,thoughsomedateitearlierandsome later. Later,forconvenienceIallowcoefficientstochangein 1973,aswell;itdoesnotappearthatusing otherproposedbreakdatessubstantivelychangesthepictureorthecoefficientestimates. 13Theextraordinaryproductivityperformanceofpetroleumandcoalproductsreflectsenormous annualvariabilityofannualvalue-addedproductivitygrowth,whichhasastandarddeviationof36percent peryear. Severalyearsofabnormalpositiveproductivityperformanceinthe 1980ssubstantiallyincrease thepost-1973mean. Theenormousstandarddeviation,inturn, largelyreflectstheveryhighmaterials share,whichaverages90percentofgrossoutput;value-addedisonlyIOpercentofgrossoutput. Hence, smallproductivitychangesingrossoutputtranslateintoenormousproductivitychangesinvalueadded. Fortunately,noneofthesubstantiveresultsbelowaresensitiveto including,ornotincluding,petroleum products—ortodoingtheestimationwithvalue-addedratherthangrossoutput. 13

stocksare nottheonlyimportantfeatureofthepost-1973environment. In fact,thedominantfeatureof Figure2 isthewidedispersionofproductivityperformanceafter 1973. Asdocumentedinthefinallineof Table1,thestandarddeviationofproductivitygrowthacrossindustriesincreasedfrom1.3percentbefore 1973(column2)tonearly3percentafter1973(column3).14(Evenexcludingpetroleumandcoalproducts, the standarddeviationnearlydoubles)Somesectorshavedoneextraordinarilywell, suchas petroleum products, industrialmachinery,and textiles. Other sectorshave doneextraordinarilypoorly, such as utilities,chemicals,andprinting. Hence,thoughslowerpublicinvestmentmayexplainsomeoftheslowdowninproductivitygrowth intheeconomy,itdoesnotexplainwhythevarianceofproductivitygrowthacrosssectorsincreasedafter 1973. Aschauer(1989)andothershavesuggestedthatthedeclineinpublicinvestmentisthemaincause ofthechangeinproductivityperformanceafter1973;bycontrast,thecross-industryvarianceofpost-1973 performanceevidentin Figure2 indicatesthatwhilepublicinvestmentmay explainsomeof the mean slowdown,itcannotexplainallofthechangesinproductivitymoments. Thisconclusionmatchesintuition that a wide range of influences-such as environmental regulation, oil price shocks, and microcomputers—affectetdheeconomyafter1973,withdifferenteffectsondifferentindustries. The rest of thissectionexploresthe productivityof roadsmore formally,usingthe estimating equationfromSectionI. Thisequationuseswithin-industryvariationto explorehowvariationsinroad growthisassociatedwithvariationsintherelativeproductivityperformanceofdifferentindustries.Table 2presentsthebasicresultsforfoursetsofindustries. Thefirstset,discussedintheAppendix,comprises nine“aggregate”industries,wheretheaggregatesarechosentominimizeanybiascomingfromdifferences inthe relevantmeasureofroadsacrossindustries. Thesecondsetare one-digitSICindustries. Thethird setarethe21manufacturingindustries,andthefourthsetarethe7non-manufacturingindustries. Theodd columnscontainthebasicregressions,whichassumethattheparameter@isconstantovertime. Theeven columnsallowthecoefficientonroadsto changeafter1973;thechangeinthecoefficientisshowninthe secondrowofthetable. 14Thisincreasedvariabilityshowsup intheunderlyingannualdata,aswell. Theannualstandard deviationinproductivitygrowthratesacrosssectorswas4to6percentbefore1973,and8to 15percent from 1973to 1985. 14

Consideringthe odd columnsfirst, the parameter @is alwayslarge and significant. That is, variationsinroadgrowthareassociatedwithvariationsintherelativeproductivityperformanceofdifferent industries. Forexample,inbothcolumns(1)and(3), @isabout22,withat-statisticofaround6.5. Thisfindingthat@islargeandsignificantisrobusttoindustrygroupings.Theestimatedcoefficient islargestinmanufacturing(column5), andsmallestinnon-manufacturing.Notethatthisdoesnotimply thatroadscontributedmoretoproductivityperformanceinmanufacturingthannon-manufacturingindustries. Rather,itimpliestheopposite,sincemanufacturingindustriesgenerallyhavealowvehicleintensity.Hence, whenroadgrowthincreasedinthe1950sand1960s,productivitygrowthinmanufacturingdeclinedrelative totheaverage. Oneconcern,raisedwhilediscussingFigure2,isthatresultsmaybe sensitivetooutliers.Therefore, therobustnessofresultstousingfourdifferentindustrygroupingsisreassuring. Notethattheestimating equationexplicitlyattemptstoaccountforreversecausationfromaggregateproductivityshockstoroads; the robustnessto different groupingssuggeststhat results are probably not driven by some other, unaccounted-for“endogeneity”concern. Forexample,governmentroadbuildingmightrespondprimarily toshockstohigh-vehicleindustries;thelargeestimateformanufacturingindustries(whichtendtohavefew vehicles)suggestthatthisisnota problem. Alternatively,perhapsroadbuildingrespondsespeciallyto manufacturingshocks,sincemanufacturinghasahighprofile;however,thecoefficientremainsstatistically significantin non-manufacturing.(Moreover,sincemanufacturinghas few vehicles,endogeneityfrom manufacturingproductivityshocksto roadswouldbiasedthe coefficientdown, whereasin the datathe coefficientisverylargeandpositive. Anadditionalconcernisthatresultsmightbedrivenbyoneortwoindustries. Notethatthefirst twogroupings(especiallytheaggregatedgrouping)tendtominimizetheseindividualoutliersbycombining industries. Nevertheless,Iexplored the sensitivityofresults to including,or not including,various industries.Forthebaselineaggregatedgrouping,Idroppedeach oftheninegroupsinturn,toensurethat no individualgroupingwasdrivingtheresults. Theestimateof @alwaysremainslargeandstatistically significant. For example,addingor excludingpetroleumproductsand tobacco—twoindustriesoften consideredsuspect—haslittle effect on the estimateof @in the aggregatedindustrygrouping, or in 15

manufacturing.Droppinggasutilitiesandtransportation(twooutliersfromFigure2)haslittleeffectonthe aggregated,one-digit,ornon-manufacturingresults. Thecoefficient@hasseveraleconomicinterpretations.First,wecanconvert@toanimpliedCobb- Douglascoefficientbymultiplyingbytheaveragevehicle-share,whichis 1.6percent. Hence, @equalto 22correspondstoaCobb-Douglascoefficientonroadsofabout0.35. Thisislarge,butintheballparkof other estimatesin this literature,obtainedwith very differentidentifyingassumptions. (For example, Aschauer1989,uses totalaggregatepubliccapitaland reportsa coefficientof 0.3; redoinghis simple aggregateCobb-Douglasregressionusingroadsalonegivesanalmostidenticalcoefficient). Second,we canaskhowmuchof a productivityslowdownthisestimateimplies. Averageroad growthwas4 percentperyearbefore 1973,butonly1percentafter. Thegrowth-accountingequation5 l impliesthatroadscontribute~ FVdgtogrowth;anestimateof @of22 impliesthatroadscontributeabout 1.4percentperyearbefore1973,andabout0.4percentafter. This1percentreductioninthecontribution ofroadstogrowthcompareswithatotalslowdowninproductivityof 1.3percent,showninthenext-to-last row of Table 1, column(4). Hence, the estimateimpliesthatwhileroadscannotexplainthe sizeable dispersionin industryperformanceafter 1973,theymaybe ableto explaina substantialfractionof the slowdowninmeanproductivitygrowth.15 Third,wecanaskhowtheestimaterelatestotheslopeofFigure2, whichrelatestheproductivity slowdowntovehicleintensity. Sincethegrowthin roadsfellby3 percentagepointsafter 1973,theslope shouldbe-@(O.03). @equalto22implies a slopeof-O.66, closetothe actualslopeof-O.63. Thus,the estimatesinTable1areconsistentwiththevisualdatainFigure2. Fourth,wecanconverttheestimateintoa rateofreturn. AsdiscussedinSectionIii, supposethe estimatesreflectthecurrentmarginalrelationships.Thentherateofreturnis @“~v(Y/R),or @l6percent. The estimate in column (l), for example, implies a rate of return of more than 130 percent per year—buildinganextradollar’sworthofroadsaddsmorethanadollartoGDPeveryyear. Toreducethe 15Inprinciple,roadscould“accountfor”morethan100percentoftheslowdown,ifotherfactors, suchascomputers,raisedproductivityafter 1973. 16

rateofreturntoamorereasonablelevelofperhapsone-tenthaslargelGrequiresaten-foldreductioninthe output-roadratioY/R. Hence,atthecurrentlevelofoutput,wewouldrequire10timesasmanyroads,or nearly$12trillion. Suchhighratesofreturnseemimplausibleatthemargin;equivalently,itseemsimplausiblethatthe optimalroadstockistentimesitscurrentlevel. Amuchmoreplausibleinterpretation,consistentwiththe suggestionsofHulten(1994),isthatbuildingonenetworkmayhaveaveryhighrateofreturn;butbuilding asecondnetworkmayhaveaverylowmarginalreturn. Forexample,theinterstatehighwaysystemmay havebeenextraordinarilyproductive.Butbuildingasecondinterstatehighwaysystem(letaloneninemore highwaysystems!)maynothavealargeeffectatthemargin. Toexplorethispossibility,theevencolumnsofTable2allowthecoefficienttochangeafter 1973, roughlywhentheinterstatehighwaysystemwascompleted. g5Trjepresentsthechangeinthecoefficient, sothemarginalcoefficientequalsthesumofthetwoparameters.Inallcases,thepointestimateisnegative, suggestingthatthemarginalcontributionofbuildingroadsislowerthantheaveragecontribution.Forthe aggregatedindustriesand for non-manufacturing,the pointestimatesimplythat the marginaleffectof buildingadditionalroads is negative. More accurately,for all groups, we can reject that roads are unproductiveinthepre-1973period(inthefirstrow);forallgroupsotherthanmanufacturing,wecannot rejectthatthemarginalproductivityofroadstoGDPiszero. Since the standarderrors on the post-73changein coefficientare very large, the resultsare suggestiveratherthandefinitive.Forexample,thepointestimateonthemarginaleffectofroads—thesum of@and@Tj—haasnenormousstandarderror,generallyontheorderof 15. Evenwhere~zjissignificant, asincolumn(2),theresultsarenotnecessarilyrobusttochangesinspecification(seeTable3below,for example).Econometricallyt,heproblemresultsfromthelackofvariabilityinroadgrowthinthepost-1973 period;thestandarddeviationofroadgrowthis0.9 percentbefore1973,and0.3 percentafter. Thislack of variationinthe right-hand-sideregressorreducestheinformationin thedata, and increasesstandard 16Forexample,supposetherealinterestrateisabout4percent,andthedepreciationrateofroads about2percent. Alsosupposethatthemarginalexcessburdenoftaxationis2 (atthehighendofcurrent estimates,discussed,forexample,byJorgensonandYun1990andMorrisonandSchwartz1996). Then anoptimizinggovernmentwouldsetthemarginalreturnonroadsequaltotwicetheHall-Jorgensoncost-ofcapitalof6percent. 17

errors. Thus,whilethedatastronglyrejectthepropositionthatroadsofferedanormalreturninthepre- 1973period,thedatadonotspeakstronglytothemarginaleffectofroads. However,asdiscussedinSectionIii, therearestrongapriorireasonstoexpectthatanetworkmay offerlargeone-timebenefits,butaddingasecondidenticalnetworkwillnot. Also,therearestronggrounds to be skepticalof enormous,unexploitedmarginalratesofreturnin excessof 100percent. Thus, an appropriateinterpretationofthepost-1973resultsisthatthedataareconsistentwiththesepriors—thereis noevidencethatroadsofferanabnormalreturnatthemargin. Giventhattheaggregatedindustrygroupingsareleastlikelytobesubjecttobias,Ihenceforthfocus onthatsetofindustries. Table3 addstotalmilesdrivenasa proxyforcongestion,andalsoexploresthe possibilitythatthecongestioncoefficientmaychangeovertime. Forexample,theinterstatehighwaysystem by itsverynatureisa lumpyinvestment,andwhenfirstbuilt,addinganadditionalcartothesystemmay havehadlittleeffectontheservicesavailabletoanyotheruser. Asthesystembecomesmorecongested, addingmorecars (andhencemoremilesdriven)reducestheservicesavailableto anyoneelse. Hence, congestionisinherentlylikelytobeanon-linearprocess;thechangeincoefficientprovidesaverycrude approximationtothisnonlinearity. Thefirsttwocolumnsassumethatcongestionisastablelinearfunctionofthetotalmilesdrivenby allusers. Thecoefficient capturingtheeffectofcongestion,isinsignificant.Addingcongestionhasa K, relativelysmalleffectontheroad-coefficient@,althoughitdoesreducethesizeandsignificanceof @T3. Therestofthecolumnsallowthecongestioncoefficienttochangeafter1973;~r3showsthechange inthecoefficient.Inallcases,thepre-1973coefficientisinsignificant,andoftenthewrongsigntoproxy forcongestion;butthecoefficientgenerallyrisesbyastatisticallysignificant(exceptinColumn4)amount after1973. Theestimatesimplythatafter 1973,anincreaseintotalmiles-drivensignificantlyreducesthe servicesofroadsto anyindividualproducer. Columns(4)and(5)allowthecoefficientonbothroadsandmilesdriventochangeafter1973. The pointestimatesuggeststhatroadsare lessproductiveatthemargin;butthestandarderror remainsvery large, sotheestimateisextremelyimprecise. Thecoefficientoncongestionagainrises1973,thoughthe t-statisticfallsfrom2.2 inColumn(3)to 1.2inColumn(4);multicollinearityappearstobeaproblemwith 18

disentanglingthepost-1973effects. Finally,thefifthcolumndropsthetwoleastsignificantcoefficients fromthefourthcolumn,keepingthetwo “robust”coefficients:@and~,q. Theestimateagainimplietshat roadsarehighlyproductive,andthatcongestionisimportantafter 1973. TosummarizetheresultsofTables2 and3, thedatastronglyrejectthenullhypothesisthatroads didnot,onaverage,affectrelativeindustryproductivityperformance;before1973,inparticular,thedata indicatethat roadscontributedsubstantiallytoproductivitygrowth. However,thedatadonotrejectthenull hypothesisthatroadsoffera “normal”(orevenzero)returnatthemargin. Finally,usingtotalmilesdriven asameasureofcongestion,theresultssuggestthatcongestionbecameimportantonlyafter 1973,afterthe interstatesystemwascompleted.Theseresultsareconsistentwithsimplestoriesofnetworks,suchasthose discussedbyHulten(1994). Giventheseresults,itseemsreasonabletoconsideraspecificationinwhichthehighwaysystemwas notsubjecttocongestionbefore1973;after1973,whencongestionbecameimportant,theservicesofroads taketheformofequation(11),inwhichroadsandmiles-drivenhavecoefficientsthatareequalinmagnitude. The regressionsinTable3, for example,do notrejectthisspecification(largely,ofcourse,becausethe estimatesofthemarginalcoefficientonroadsaresoimprecise). Econometrically,makingthisidenti~ing assumptionofcoefficient-equalityhastheadvantagethatmiles-drivenvarymuchmorethanroad-growth does. Hence,wecanusethevariationinmiles-driventohelppindown themarginaleffect. Notethatthis specificationimpliesthatifroadsandroad-useincreaseproportionatelyt,hereisnoincreaseinthe“services” ofroads. Table4showstheseresults. Asbefore,roadsappearstronglyproductivebefore1973. After1973, theproductivityofroadsisstatistically-significantslymaller,andwecannotrejectthatroadshaveanormal (orevenzero)return. Asa finalspecificationtest,thesecondcolumnaddsapost-1973dummyforeach industry,allowingan industry-specificchangein trend growth. Thistrend-breakshouldcaptureother influencesinthepost-1973periodthatmayaffectproductivity.Itwillonlymatteriftheindustry-specific changeintrendiscorrelatedwithvehicle-intensitiesi;fthechangeintrendiscommontoallindustries,for example,resultswillbeunaffected.Thereisnoreasontoexpectacorrelationbetweenthetrend-shiftand vehicle-intensitys,onotsurprisingly,theresultsarequalitativelyunaffected. Thestandarderror on @p,~.73 19

risessubstantially,butthecoefficientremainsstatisticallysignificant.(InotherspecificationsinTables2 and 3, addingindustry-specificpost-73dummiesmakesit more difficultto identifypost-73coefficient changes,givenmulticollinearity-thecorrelationbetweenroadgrowthandthepost-73dummyis0.85, for example. However,noneofthequalitativeconclusionsareaffected.) ThespecificationinTable4hassomeaprioriplausibility.Hence,thoughthedatadonotpindown the marginalparameterwithprecision,theseresultsagainprovidefurthersupportfor the interpretation above:roadshadanabove-normalreturnbefore1973,butprobablydonothaveanabove-normalreturn today;moreover,congestionnowreducestheproductiveservicesofroads. IV. Conclusion Industrydatafrom1953to 1989stronglysupporttheviewthatvehicle-intensiveindustriesbenefited disproportionatelyfromroad-building. First, theslowdowninproductivityafter 1973appearslargerin industrieswithhighervehicleshares. Second,whenroadgrowthrises,productivitygrowthtendstorise relativeto theaverageinvehicle-intensiveindustriesand fallinnon-vehicle-intensiveindustries. These resultssuggestthatthe aggregatecorrelationbetweenproductivityandpubliccapitalprimarilyreflects causationfrompubliccapitaltoproductivity,andthatpublicinvestmentmayaccountforasubstantialshare oftheslowdowninproductivitygrowthafter 1973. However, the industrydatado not supporttheviewthatroadsoffer an abnormalreturn at the margin,orthatreturningroadgrowthtopre-1973levelswouldraiseproductivitygrowthtopre-1973levels. In essence,theevidencesuggeststhatthemassiveroad-buildingof the 1950sand 1960s–whichlargely reflected constructionof the interstatehighwaynetwork—offereda one-timeincreasein the level of productivity,ratherthanacontinuingpathtoprosperity. Thesefindingsshedlightonotherresultsintherecentempiricalliteratureoninfrastructure.Results varywidely,dependingondataset,sampleperiodandspecification,Aschauer(1989)estimatesanaggregate Cobb-Douglasproductionfunctioninlevels,andfindsthatpubliccapitalappearsabnormallyproductive. Aaron(1991)pointsoutthatAschauer’sresultsarenotrobusttoestimatinginfirstdifferences,suggesting that perhaps Aschauer’sresults reflect a misspecificationof trend. However, the sensitivityto first- 20

differencinglargelyreflectsadramaticincreaseinstandarderrors—theaggregatedatadonothavesufficient informationtodifferentiatethetwointerpretations.TheindustryresultsinthispapersuggestthatAschauer’s simpleaggregateregressionappropriatelycapturesthehighproductivityofpubliccapitalinthepre-1973 period. Usingregionaldataonpubliccapitalalsoincreasesdatavariation(therebyimprovingprecision). Studiesusingthesedata,whichareonlyavailableafter1970,tendtofindlittleevidencethatpubliccapital hasan importantproductiveeffect. Munnell(1990)usesstatedata,andfindsthatpubliccapitalappears highlyproductive.However,Holtz-Eakin(1994)overturnsherresultswhenheincludesstate-specificfixed effects:thepoint estimatesarenegative,thoughnotsignificantlyso. Sincefixedeffectsseempreferable, he concludesthatthesedataoffer no evidencethatpubliccapitalhas a non-normal(or evennon-zero) productiveeffect. Similarly,HultenandSchwab(1991)usemanufacturinggross-outputdataon census regions,andfindnoevidencethatproductivitygrewfasterinregionswithrapidgrowthinpubliccapital. Theresultsinthispapersuggestthattheregionalfindingsmayreflectthesampleperiod:regionaldataare onlyavailablefortheperiodwhenI findnoevidencethatroadshaveanabove-normalreturn. Morerecently,MorrisonandSchwartz(1996)usestatemanufacturingdatafrom1970to 1987,and suggestthatpubliccapitalmayhavearateofreturnof20to 30percentinthemanufacturingsectoralone. Sincenon-manufacturing(roughly80percentoftheeconomy)benefitsfrompubliccapitalaswell,these resultssuggestthatpubliccapitalisfarunderprovided. Thereareseveralinterpretationsofthedifferencesbetweentheirresultsandmine. First,Morrison andSchwartzplacefewrestrictionsonhowgovernmentcapitalenterstheproductionfunction;government capitalmayprovideindirect“externalities”thatImiss,orperhapsmakepossibleotherCaballero-Lyonsstyle externalities(thoughthereisnotmuchevidencefortheseexternalitiesingross-outputdata;seeBasuand Femald1995). SinceIexplicitlyfocusonthedirecteffects,myresultsarelikelytounderstatethereturns topubliccapitalifexternalitiesareimportant.Second,however, MorrisonandSchwartzdonotcontrolfor endogeneityofpubliccapital,otherinputs,or evenoutput(allofwhichareexplanatoryvariablesintheir 21

flexiblecostfunction).17Sincestateswithhighproductivityshocksmaytendtoinvestmoreinpubliccapital, theMorrisonandSchwartzresultscouldreflecttheendogeneityofpubliccapital,andhencebe(presumably) biasedupwards. I explicitlyaccountfor theendogeneityofpubliccapital,andhencemay obtainmore reliableresults. Inanycase,itremainsunclearwhyMorrisonandSchwartzgetdifferentresultsfromotherregional studies,whoalsohavenocontrolsforendogeneity.MorrisonandSchwartzattributethedifferencestousing a flexiblefictional form, which allowsa second-orderapproximationto the cost function;but the differencesinresultsappealtobedrivenbythefirst-ordereffects,notthesecond-ordereffects. Finally, my resultshave implicationsfor interpretingthe productivityslowdown. A common presumptionisthatpre-1970slevelsofgrowthwerenormal. An alternativeinterpretationsuggeststhat perhapsitwastheimmediatepost-wardecadesthatwereunusual,witha “returntonormal”aftertheearly 1970s(e.g., Wolff1996) Myresultssupportthisinterpretation:road-buildingaccountsforasubstantial share of theproductivityslowdownby raisingpre-1973productivitygrowth,butcannotofferthe same benefitsatthemargin. Yetanotherinterpretationoftheproductivityslowdownsuggeststhatperhapstheslowdownreflects mismeasurement;Griliches(1994),for example,arguesthat an increasingproportionof the economy consistsofsectorswhereoutputispoorlymeasured. Computersmayalsomakequality-improvementasnd product-differentiatioenasier,andconventionasltatisticsmaymissthesebenefits. Theresultsinthispaper suggestthat roads contributedmuch less to productivityafter 1973than before, and from a growthaccountingperspective,canexplain a significantshareoftheproductivityslowdown. Theseresultsthus pointinthedirectionofarealslowdown. However,itmaybe that“true”productivitygrowth(afteraccountingformismeasurement)didnot slow,sincecomputer-driventechnologicalimovationsincreased.Thecomputerparadox(Solow: “Wesee computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics”) may reflect the coincidenceof the 17Theysuggestthatusinglaggedvaluesasinstruments,orusingtheHall-Rameyinstruments,has littleeffectonresultsotherthanraisingstandarderrors. Giventhatpublicandprivatecapitalarehighly autocorrelated,andgiventhattheHall-Rameyinstrumentshavenoexplanatorypowerforcapital,these attemptsmaynotresolvetheissueofendogeneity. 22

microcomputerrevolutionwiththereducedcontributionofroads. Inotherwords,evenifwefullymeasured thesubstantiatlechnologicablenefitsofcomputers,productivitystatisticsmightshownoimprovement.More generally, history may often displayunusualinfluences-road networks, computers,mass-production techniques,steamengines—thaatffectproductivityfordecades. Underthisinterpretation,roadsmayhave raisedproductivitybefore1973,justascomputersraise“true”(thoughperhapsunobserved)productivity today. 23

Appendix: The Bias from an Uneven Distribution of Industries Ifindustriesarenotdistributedevenlyacrossspace,thentheaggregateroadstockdoesnotcorrectly measureindustry-specificroad input. Instead,the appropriatemeasureshouldprobablybe aweighted average of regionalroad growth rates, weightedby the importanceof each region in the industry’s production.Thisappendixconsidersthepotentialbiasthatresultsfromincorrectlyusingtheaggregateroad stock. FollowingthederivationinSectionI, supposethatineachlocation,anindustrycanproducewith theproductiontechnologyfromequation(l), andthattheindustryhasthesamevehicleshare,su, inall regions. Aggregatingindustryproductivityoverregions,wefind: dpi=@”SVidg+i dui, (17) where~giisthegrowth inthe industry-specific inputofgovernmentroads. dgfiinturn, isdefinedby: dgi= ~j wU*dgJ, (18) whered~”isthegrowthinroadsinregionj, andWtiistheshareofindustryi’sproductioninregionj. Wecanrewriteequation(17)as dpi=@*svi*dg+ @*svi*(dg-i dg) + dti, (19) wheredgisthegrowthinthenational,oraggregate,roadstock. Assumingthatpubliccapitalisdistributed inproportiontoproduction,18thenationalroadstockdgequals: dg = ~j wJdgJ, (20) whereti’istheshareofnationalproductioninregionj. Comparing(18)and(20),(dgi-dg)iszeroifroads growatthesamerateinallregions,or ifindustriesproduceequallyacrossregions,sothatWteiqualsW“. Aggregatingoverindustries,aggregateproductivityd~is: d; = @F;~g + @[~iwlsvi(dgi - dg)] + d;. (21) Suppose,for simplicity,thattheindustrycyclicalityparameters,~.,equalunityforalli. Wecan thenwritethedifferencebetweenindustryandaggregateproductivityas: 18Thisassumptionsimplifiesnotationand interpretation. In practice,of course,government capitalisaggregated usingthe distributionof thatcapital,notthedistribution of production. If these distributionsdiffer,thenallstudiesusingtheaggregatestockofgovernmentcapitalaremisspecified.This misspecificationmattersonlyifthedifferencebetweenthetwomeasuresarecorrelatedwiththeaggregate stockofgovernmentcapital. 24

dpi - d; = (#)”(Svi - Fv)odg+ @[svi(dgi-dg) -xi wisvi(dgi- dg)] + &i, (22) where q is the idiosyncraticcomponentof industryproductivitygrowth. q maybe correlatedwiththe industry-specificdgi>butaslongastheindustryisrelativelysmall,Cishouldbe nearlyuncorrelatedwith aggregateroadgrowth. Supposeweattempttoestimatethelinearregressioninequation(22),butomittheterminbrackets. If thevehiclesharesareconstantovertime,thentheplimoftheratiooftheestimatedtotrueregression coefficientis: )[ Cov(dg,dgi-dg) eov(dg, ~~ ‘~s~k~dgk-dg~~ 1 — ‘Vi” Var(dg) - Var(dg) 1 (23) ‘Vi –‘V 1 Supposeindustryweightsare(relatively)constantovertime. Thenthisplimratioequals: )[( 4 ( 1 Cov(dg,dgi) CoV(dgd,g~) )1 plimL @ .1 + – ‘Vi “ Var(dg) – svi – x kw~svk Var(dg) - x kwksvk ‘Vi –‘V ) Withsomealgebraicmanipulation,andnotingthat~k ~ksvkequa9lsSV,wefind: 1 6 ‘V~~i‘~kwksk~k plim 1 = — (25) @ i ‘Vi –‘V (asymptotic)coefficient froma regressionofdgiondg:Cov(dg,dgi)lvar(dg). where ~ is the Byassumingthataggregatedgisappropriatewhenitisnot,regression(22)inessencesuffersfrom omittedvariablebias,withthebiasgivenbyequation(25). Equivalently,theregressiondisturbanceterm maybe correlatedwithgovernmentcapital. Thebiasdependsonboththe misspecificationof industry productivity,andthemisspecificationofaggregateproductivity. Thesemisspecificationsdependonhow wells#g proxiesfors~gi, whichinturndependsonthe K. Thereisnobiasiftheindustry-specificroad stocksarenotsystematicallydifferentfromtheaggregateroadstocks,sincethe ~ thenequal1. In otherwords, industryroad growthmatchesaggregateroad growthif there are no systematic differencesin regionalgrowthrates of roads, or if industriesare distributedevenlyacrossregions.Of course,anunequalregionaldistributionof industriescancontributeto unequalregionalroadgrowth,if regionalroadgrowthrespondsmorestronglytoproductivitygrowthofindustriesinthatregion. 25

To get a sensefor the potentialmagnitudeof thisbias, I performedsomesimplesimulations. MorrisonandSchwartz(1996,Table2)providegrowthinpubliccapitalforfourregionsofthecountryfrom 1971to 1987.19Inallregions,thegrowthratefell,butitfellmuchfasterthanaverageintheeast,andmuch slowerthanaverageinthesouth;regionalu’s, estimatedfrom 1971through1987,are0.77inthesouth, 0.84inthenorth,1.06inthewest,and1.71intheeast.Supposetherearefourindustries,eachproducing inaseparateregion,andeachofwhichisthesamesize(usingtheactualregionaldistributionofproduction for 1977,fromBEAdata,givesvirtuallyidenticalresults),andthattheaveragevehicleshareis 1.5percent. Thetableshowstheindustrybiases,forseveralcombinationsofindustryvehicleintensities. Vehicleshares(South,North,East,andWest) plim(@/@) (Dercent) (South,North,East,andWest) I (1.4, 1.4, 1.8 1.4) I (5.5, 4.6,4.4, 3.0) I I (1.6, 1.6, 1.2, 1.6) I (-2.8, -1.9,-1.6, 0.0) I I (1.0, 1.0,3,0, 1.0) I (2.1, 2,0,2.0, 1.8) I I (1.9, 1.9,0.3, 1.9) I (0.3, 0.6,0.7, 1.1) I Thebiascanbeverylarge,eventhoughthecorrelationsbetweentheregionalgrowthratesandthe aggregategrowthrateisgenerallyabove0.9. Inseveralcases,notonlyisthebiasnegative(aratiolessthan one),buttheactualsignoftheestimatedcoefficientisreversed.Thesignisambiguous,sinceitdependson thesignof(SW-SVT).hemagnitudeofthebiasalsodependsheavilyon (SW-SVT).hebiastendstobepositive ifindustrieswithabove-average~ alsohaveabove-averagevehicleshares;also,thebiasislargerinthefirst tworows,wherethedeviationsofvehicleintensitiesfromtheaveragearerelativelysmall,thaninthesecond tworows,wherethedeviationsofvehicleintensitiesarelarger. 19Thesedata, originallyfromMunnell(1990),are for allgovernmentcapital,notjust roads. Holtz-Eakin(1994a)describesestimatesofregionalroadstocks,butprovidesinsufficientdetailforthese simulations.However,regionalroadgrowthwasprobablysimilartothegrowthinallgovernmentcapital. In anycase,thesimulationsreportedhereare meantonlyto be suggestive,sinceestimatesof regional publiccapitalarenotavailableforthefill sampleperiod,andprobablysuffersubstantialmeasurement error. Theestimatesinvolveallocatingnationalcapitalstocksto regions,basedonvariousproxiesfor regionalexpenditure. For example,Holtz-Eakinestimatesbenchmarkstatecapitalstocksfor 1960by allocatingthenationalcapitalstockbasedonthestates’sharesoftotalcurrentgovernmentexpenditures in 1960. Errors inthisbenchmarkwouldsignificantlyaffectestimatesof industry-specificgovernment capitalstocks. 26

Inpractice,ofcourse,industryroadstocks varylessthaninthisexample,sinceindustriesarenot completelysegmentedbyregion. Therefore,Iestimatedindustry-specificgovernmentcapitalstocks,using BEA data on the regionaldistributionof productionin 1977,for the four regionsfor whichI have governmentcapitaldata. Ithenassessthemagnitudeofthebiasfromequation(25). AlthoughIdonothave thedatatoestimateindustry-specificgovernmentcapitalfortheentiresampleperiod,thisexercisegivesme ametrictoassesswhetherIcansafelyignoretheregionaldistributionofindustries. From1971to 1987,thecorrelationofgrowthratesforindustryandaggregategovernmentcapital isalwaysaboveO.99. Insertingthesamplevariancesandcovariancesintothebiasequation(25)foreach of the27privateindustries(allprivateindustries,excludingagriculture,mining,tobacco,andpetroleum refining),themedianbiasratiois0.88;theinterquartilerangeis0.82to 1.01. Forthenineone-digitSIC industries,themedianbiaswas1.04. Forbothgroupings,thereweretwoparticularoutliers:Trade(8.2), andServices(-0.95). Thecauseofthesubstantialbiasratioisthatthesetwoindustrieshavevehicle-shares thatareparticularlyclosetc~theaggregatevehicleshare,andhence,asequation(25)shows,thebiasratio caneasilybeverylarge. Wecannotestimatethebiasratiofortheentiresample,sinceregionalpubliccapitalisnotavailable earlier. Assumingthatintheearlierperiod,theregionalvariationinpubliccapitalgrowthrateswassimilar tothevariationinthelaterperiod,theappropriateinterpretationoftheseresultswouldseemtobethatat theone-andtwo-digitdata,thereissufficientregionalvariationintheindustriestoallowforabias(positive ornegative)ontheorderof 10percent,thoughforsomeindividualindustriesitmaybemuchlarger. Nevertheless,theresultssuggestthatbyjudiciousaggregation,wecanreducebothbias(byensuring anadequatedistributionofregionalproduction)andstandarderrors(byincreasingthedeviationofvehicle sharesfromtheaverage,henceincreasingthevariationintheright-hand-sideregressor). Iaggregatedindustriesinordertoensureanappropriatedistributionfor(SW-SV2)0. Inandofitself, thisaggregationoverheterogeneousindustriestendstosmoothregionaldifferencesinindustrylocation,and 20Notethatchoosingthe“optimal”industryaggregatesforthisproblemwouldbeverydifficult. Forexample,wecouldnotsimplyseektominimizetheregionaldifferencesinindustrydistribution,since thatwouldnotensurethatthevehiclesharesdifferby enoughfromtheaggregateto allowpreciseand unbiasedestimates.Moreimportantly,thebiasratioforanindustrydependsonthecovarianceofindustry andaggregategovernmentcapitalgrowthforeveryotherindustry. 27

hencereducethepotentialbias. I followedaninformallexicographicordering,seekingfirsttomaximize the minimumabsolutevalueof the deviationfromtheaverageshare;andthenseekingto minimizethe variationinthedeviation. Theninegroupings,aggregatedusingTornquistindices,areasfollows:21 Grouping Industries 1 ElectricandGasUtilities,Services 2 Construction,Stone-Clay-Glass,Communications 3 Transport,Trade,Lumber 4 Autos,IndustrialMachinery,FIRE 5 Furniture,Leather,PrimaryMetals 6 Paper,Food,ElectronicEquipment 7 Apparel,Printing,Misc.Manufacturing 8 Textiles,Rubber,FabricatedMetals 9 Chemicals,OtherTransportEquipment,Instruments Toassesstheequalityofthespatialdistribution,Iperformthesamesimulationasabove,calculating industrygovernmentcapitalgrowth from 1971to 1987,and then insertingthe samplevariancesand covariancesintothebiasratioformula(25). For myfinalgroupingintonineaggregates,themedianbias ratiowas0.97, andnone ofthegroupswasfarfromunity. Theindustryaggregatesdonot,ofcourse,haveanynaturaleconomicinterpretationinthewaythat, say, one-digitSIC groupingswould. With perfect competitionand constantreturns, however, this aggregationdoesnotleadto anybiasesinmyestimatingequation,sinceproductivityresidualsaggregate cleanlyundertheseconditions.AsdiscussedinSectionI, deviationsfromperfectcompetitionandconstant returnsareunlikelytohaveamajoreffectontheestimates. 21IalsoexperimentedwithincludingatenthgroupingofPetroleumProductsandTobacco. The argumentforincludingthemistohaveasmuchdataaspossible;theargumentforexcludingthemisthat theyareunusuallyvolatile,andareoftenconsideredsuspect. Iexcludedthemtoensurethatthesesuspect industriesdodriveresults. However,resultsarenotmuchaffectedinanycase. 28

BIBLIOGRAPHY Aschauer,DavidAlan(1989). “IsPublicExpenditureProductive?”JournalofMonetaryEconomics23: 177-200. Aschauer,DavidAlan (1990). “Whyis InfrastructureImportant?”in Munnell,Aliciacd., ZsZ7zerea Shor$allinPublicCapitalInvestment?FederalReserveBankofBostonConferenceSeriesNo. 34. Barre,RobertJ. andXavierSala-i-Martin(1995). EconomicGrowth,chapter4. McGraw-Hill,Inc., New York. Basu,SusantoandJohnFernald(1995a). “AreApparentProductiveSpilloversaFigmentofSpecification Error?” JournalofMonetaryEconomics36:165-188. Basu,SusantoandJohnFernald(1997). “ReturnstoScaleinU.S.Production:EstimatesandImplications”. JournalofPoliticalEconomy,April. Basu,SusantoandMilesKimball(1997). “CyclicalProductivitywithUnobservedInputVariation.”NBER WorkingPaper5915. Berndt,ErnstR. andBengtHansson(1992). “MeasuringtheContributionofPublicInfrastructureCapital inSweden.” ScandinavianJournalofEconomics,94, Supplement,151-168. Boskin,Michael,MarcRobinson,andAlanHuber(1989). “GovernmentSaving,CapitalFormation,and WealthintheUnitedStates,1947-85.” inLipseyandTice,TheMeasurementofSaving,Investment, andWealth. CongressionaBl udgetOffice(1991).HowFederalSpendingfor In@astructuraendOtherInvestmentsAffects theEconomy. FederalHighwayAdministration.HighwayStatistics,variousyears. Ford,RobertandPierrePoret(1991). “InfrastructureandPrivate-SectorProductivity.” OECDWorking Paper91,January. Gramlich,EdwardM. (1994). “InfrastructureInvestment:A ReviewEssay.” Journalof Economic Literature,XXXII:1176-1196. Hall, Robert(1990). “InvariancePropertiesof Solow’sProductivityResidual.” inPeterDiamond,cd., Growth/Productivity/UnemploymenEt:ssaysto CelebrateBobSolow’sBirthday. MIT Press. Hall, Robertand DaleJorgenson(1967). “TaxPolicyand InvestmentBehavior.”AmericanEconomic Review57:3,June,391-414. Holtz-Eakin,Douglas(1994a). “Public-SectoCr apitalandtheProductivityPuzzle.” ReviewofEconomics andStatistics7.6:12ff. Holtz-Eakin,Douglas(1994b). “State-SpecificEstimatesofStateandLocalGovernmentCapital.” Regional Scienceand UrbanEconomics23:185-209. 29

Hulten, Charlesand Frank C. Wykoff(1981). “TheMeasurementof EconomicDepreciation,” in C. Huken,cd., Depreciation,In.ation, andtheTaxationofIncome@omCapital. Hulten,CharlesandRobertM Schwab(1991). “PublicCapitalFormationandtheGrowthof Regional ManufacturingIndustries.” NationalTaxJournal,44(4),Part 1:121-34. Hulten, Charles (1994). “OptimalGrowth with InfrastructureCapital:Theory and Implicationsfor EmpiricalModeling.” Manuscript,UniversityofMaryland. Jorgenson,DaleandFrankM. GollopandBarbaraM. Fraumeni(1987). Productivityand U.S.Economic Growth. HarvardUniversityPress,Cambridge,MA. Jorgenson,DaleandKun-YungYun(1990). TaxReformandtheCostofCapital. Kocherlakota,NarayanaandKei-MuYi(1996). “ASimpletimeSeriesTestofEndogenousvs. Exogenous GrowthModels:AnApplicationtotheUnitedStates.” ReviewofEconomicsandStatistics. Mankiw,N.Gregory(1992). “TheOptimalUnderprovisionofPublicGoods.”Mimeo,HarvardUniversity. Morrison,CatherineJ. andAmyEllenSchwartz(1996).“StateInfrastructureandProductivePerformance”. AmericanEconomicReview(December). Munnell,Aliciaed.(1990). “HowDoesPublicInfrastructureAffectRegionalEconomicPerformance?”in Munnell,cd., Is l%erea Shortfallin PublicCapitalInvestment?FederalReserveBankof Boston ConferenceSeriesNo. 34. Nadiri, M. IshaqandTheofanisP. Mamuneas(1994). “TheEffectsof PublicInfrastructureandR&D Capital on the Cost Structureand Performanceof U.S. ManufacturingIndustries.” Review of EconomicsandStatistics76(1):22-37. Small,Kemeth, CliffordWinston,andCarolEvans(1989). RoadWork. Brookings:Washington,DC. U.S. DepartmentofCommerce,BureauofEconomicAnalysis(1993).FzkedReproducibleTangibleWealth inthe UnitedStates,1929-1989.USGovernmentPrintingOffice,Washington,DC. U.S. DepartmentofCommerce,BureauofEconomicAnalysis(1995). “WealthDataDiskettes.” Wolff, EdwardN (1996).’’TheProductivitySlowdown:TheCulpritat Last? Follow-UponHultenand Wolff.” AmericanEconomicReview(December)86:1239-1252. 30

Table1 Value-AddedProductivityGrowthandVehicleSharesbyIndustry,1953-1989 Average TFP TFP Change Average Industry TFP Growth Growth Vehicle Growth 1953-73 1973-89 Share (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Transportation 1.8 2.5 1.0 -1.4 5.5 GasUtilities -0.7 1.7 -4.2 -5.9 4.8 Stone,clay,glass 0.9 1.1 0.9 -0.2 2.8 Communications 2.8 2.7 3.0 0.3 2.6 Construction 0.6 1.3 -0.7 -2.0 2.2 ElectricUtil 2.2 3.7 0.0 -3.7 2.2 Lumber&wood 1.5 1.0 1.5 0.6 1.7 Trade 1.3 1.9 0.3 -1.5 1.7 Services 0.2 0.7 -0.5 -1.2 1.5 Food&kindredproducts 2.5 3.1 1.3 -1.8 1.3 F.I.R.E. 0.4 0.6 0.0 -0.7 1.1 Petroleumproducts 5.6 -1.2 11.6 12.8 1.0 Paperproducts 1.0 1.8 0.4 -1.4 0.9 Chemicals 3.0 4.9 0.7 -4.2 0.7 Primarymetals -0.8 -0.1 -1.5 -1.4 0.6 Furnitureandfixtures 1.6 1.4 1.8 0.5 0.6 Printing&publishing -0.1 1.0 -1.6 -2.6 0.6 Tobaccoproducts -0.2 1.5 -1.3 -2.8 0.5 Fabricatedmetals 1.1 1.3 1.2 -0.1 0.5 Electronicequipment 3.3 3.1 3.7 0.6 0.5 Motorvehicles 1.7 2.8 0.5 -2.4 0.4 Misc.manufacturing 3.0 3.1 2.6 -0.6 0.4 Instrumentsandrelated 2.2 2.4 1.9 -0.4 0.4 Apparel&textile 3.8 3.3 4.8 1.5 0.3 Industrialmachinery 2.3 1.0 4.7 3.7 0.3 Othertransport.equip. 1.3 1.1 1.5 0.4 0.3 Textilemillproducts 3.7 2.7 4.1 1.4 0.3 Rubber&plastics 1.7 2.6 0.6 -2.1 0.2 Leatherproducts 1.0 0.0 2.8 2.8 0.2 EconomyAverage 1.0 1.6 0.3 -1.3 1.6 Std.Deviation 1.4 1.3 2.8 3.2 1.3 31

Table2 BasicResults Aggregated One-Digit Manufacturing Non- Industries Industries Industries Manufacturing Industries (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) 4 22.1 17.4 22.9 19.3 36.0 35.1 15.8 11.7 (3.3) (4.0) (3.6) (4.3) (2.7 (4.0) (4.1) (4.6) -25.3 -14.7 -11,5 -19.3 473 (11.2) (10.0) (9.5) (10.4) Note: Estimatesof equation(9) from 1953-1989 (with standarddeviationsin parentheses). @is the coefficientonroads,and@Tijsthechange coefficientafter 1973. Thefourindustry describedinthetext. 32

Table3 IncludingCongestionVariables (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) 4 23.5 14.6 14.1 17.4 13.7 18.1 (4.0) (4,6) (5.5) (4.2) (5.5) (4.0) -12.7 -9,3 -6.9 @73 (11.4) (14.4) (14.5) K 2.7 -3.8 -5,2 -5.0 (4.3) (4.1) (5.1) (5.2) 10.1 5.7 8.5 7.6 K73 (4.5) (4.6) (5.6) (3.8) Note:Standarddeviationsinparentheses.@isthecoefficientonroads,and@Tijsthechangeinthecoeffient after1973. Kisthecoefficientoncongestion,and~qisthechangeinthecongestioncoefficientafter 1973 (apositivenumbersignifiesanincreaseincongestion).

Table4 UsingRoadsbefore1973,Roads/Milesafter1973 (1) (2) o 17.1 18.7 Post73 (3.1) (7.4) 5.3 6.0 oPost73 (4.5) (5.0) IncludesPost-73Industry No Yes Dummies? Note:Standarddeviationsinparentheses. 34

Figure1 RoadsandMiles-Driven(PerCapita) 4000 10000 Miles 9000 3500 ---/ 8000 7000 3000 6000 2500 5000 4000 2000 3000 1500 2000 +-Roads P.C.+ MilesP.C. 35

Figure2 ChangeinTotalFactorProductivityafter1973v.VehicleShare 0.0400 l 0.0300 . 0.0200 0.0100 l lm l l l l -0.0300 l -0.0400 l -0.0500 -0.0600 0.0000 0.0100 0.0200 0.0300 0.0400 0.0500 0.0600 VehicleShare paneltable his

Cite this document
APA
John G. Fernald (1997). Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link between Public Capital and Productivity (IFDP 1997-592). Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, International Finance Discussion Papers. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/ifdp_1997-592
BibTeX
@techreport{wtfs_ifdp_1997_592,
  author = {John G. Fernald},
  title = {Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link between Public Capital and Productivity},
  type = {International Finance Discussion Papers},
  number = {1997-592},
  institution = {Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System},
  year = {1997},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/ifdp_1997-592},
  abstract = {At a macroeconomic level, infrastructure and productivity are positively correlated in the United States and other countries. However, it remains unclear whether this correlation reflects causation, and if so, whether causation runs from infrastructure to productivity, or the reverse. This paper focuses on roads, and finds that vehicle-intensive industries benefit disproportionately from road-building: when road growth changes, productivity growth changes more in industries that are more vehicle intensive. These results suggest that causation runs from infrastructure to productivity. However, there is no evidence that at the margin, roads offer an above-average return; road-building in essence offered a one-time boost to the level of productivity in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, it appears that congestion significantly affects road-services at the margin, although congestion does not appear important before 1973.},
}