The regional allocation of infrastructure investment: The role of equity, efficiency and political factors

This paper analyses the main determinants of the regional allocation of infrastructure investment. The estimated investment equation is derived from a general specification of the government's objective function (Berhman and Craig, Am. Econom. Rev. 77 (1987) 315), which accounts both for the equity-efficiency trade-off and for deviations from this rule that arise because of political factors. The reaction of investment to changes in the regional output provides information about the strength of the equity-efficiency trade-off. The main political factor considered is a measurement of the electoral productivity of funds invested in each region. The equation is estimated from panel data on investment and the capital stock of transportation infrastructure (i.e., roads, rails, ports and airports) for the Spanish departments (NUTS3) during the period 1987-1996. We use a dynamic specification of the equation that allows for slow adjustment and which is estimated by GMM methods (Arellano and Bond, Rev. Econom. Stud. 58 (1991) 277). The results suggest that efficiency criteria play only a limited role in the geographical distribution of government infrastructure investment. Specific regional infrastructure needs and political factors both appear to be factors that do explain the regional allocation of infrastructure investment.