The Dynamic Macroeconomic Effects of Public Capital

This book analyzes the dynamic macroeconomic effects of public capital in industrialized countries. The theoretical analysis based on a dynamic general equilibrium model shows that the effects of public capital depend crucially on the way the government chooses to finance additional spending. This book analyzes the dynamic macroeconomic effects of public capital in industrialized countries. The issue of whether public capital is productive has received a great deal of recent attention. Yet, existing empirical analyses have been limited to a small set of countries. This book presents a new database that provides internationally comparable capital stock estimates for 22 OECD countries for the 1960-2001 period. Building on this database, the book estimates the dynamic effects of public capital using a variety of econometric methods. The results suggest that public capital is productive in OECD countries on average. The theoretical analysis based on a dynamic general equilibrium model shows that the effects of public capital depend crucially on the way the government chooses to finance additional spending.