Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program

Andrew Leigh; Christine Neill

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2011.05.037

Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program

Andrew Leigh^*, Christine Neill

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

35 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

We examine the effect of a federally-funded local infrastructure spending program on local unemployment rates. To address the likely funding endogeneity problem, we exploit variation in spending due to pork-barreling, and find that higher government expenditure on roads substantially reduces local unemployment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	150-153
Number of pages	4
Journal	Economics Letters
Volume	113
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2011.05.037
Publication status	Published - Nov 2011

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10.1016/j.econlet.2011.05.037

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title = "Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program",

abstract = "We examine the effect of a federally-funded local infrastructure spending program on local unemployment rates. To address the likely funding endogeneity problem, we exploit variation in spending due to pork-barreling, and find that higher government expenditure on roads substantially reduces local unemployment.",

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Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program

Abstract

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