Public Capital Maintenance, Decentralization and U.s. Productivity Growth

Data published by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office show that over the last fifty years expenditures for infrastructure�s operations and maintenance (O&M) have roughly equalled those for new capital. We use this dataset to investigate the productive impact of public infrastructure spending taking into account its composition for each government level. We find that a rise (fall) in infrastructure expenditures by states and localities (the federal government) would enhance future productivity growth and that the rise in state and local spending should mainly come from additional O&M outlays in the transport sector.