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Political economy of infrastructure investment: Evidence from the economic stimulus airport grants

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  • Bilotkach, Volodymyr

Abstract

We study impact of the political factors behind allocation of airport infrastructure grants under the American Recovery and Reconstruction Act (ARRA) of 2009. We find that – controlling for other factors – airports located in the districts with the larger Obama-McCain vote differential in November 2008 election received larger ARRA grants. At the same time, the district level election results are poor predictors of whether an airport will receive the grant. Senators' party affiliation and representatives' membership in the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure also appear as factors explaining allocation of the ARRA grants to the airports, especially in the State level analysis.

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  • Bilotkach, Volodymyr, 2018. "Political economy of infrastructure investment: Evidence from the economic stimulus airport grants," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 27-35.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecotra:v:13:y:2018:i:c:p:27-35
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecotra.2017.12.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Jessi Troyan & Joshua Hall, 2019. "The Political Economy of Abandoned Mine Land Fund Disbursements," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Christopher L. Atkinson, 2020. "The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program: Who Benefits?," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 789-805, December.
    3. Mauro Caetano & Evandro José Silva & Diogo José Vieira & Cláudio Jorge Pinto Alves & Carlos Müller, 2022. "Criteria prioritization for investment policies in General Aviation aerodromes," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(6), pages 211-233, December.
    4. Mizutani, Fumitoshi, 2024. "Empirical analysis of the factors behind rail infrastructure investment," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 244-254.
    5. Bottasso, Anna & Conti, Maurizio & Costacurta de Sa Porto, Paulo & Ferrari, Claudio & Tei, Alessio, 2021. "Roads to growth: The Brazilian way," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Tatiana REMENCOVÁ & Alena NOVÁK SEDLÁČKOVÁ, 2021. "Position Of Central European Regional Airports," Transport Problems, Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Transport, vol. 16(3), pages 163-172, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; Airport infrastructure investment; Airport Improvement Program;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

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