Infrastructures, Development and Cost Benefit Analysis

Abstract

The authors hold that if it is accepted that there does exist a positive relation between infrastructures and economic development and that regional inequalities should be cut back then public funding of transport infrastructures could well contribute to this end while likewise offering a social return that would be politically acceptable. Regional policy is here seen to enjoy in public investment for transport a tool with which to achieve goals such as the correcting of imbalance as between regions, a more fair sharing out of economic activity and a booster for both income and employment growth. For this to be so, Public Administration is here felt to need a globalizing investment policy in which the criteria to be used should be the seeking of an optimum economic and equity return from outlay which would in itself establish the priorities proper to funding. A cost benefit analysis of investment in infrastructure is suggested as a method helpful to public administrators when deciding on projects as this would allow for choices to be made on the grounds not only of cost efficiency but also of cost equity, this latter an aim of the first importance when attempting to correct invidious distinctions as between regions.