The Infrastructure We Ride On

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 1-7

3. Infrastructure Needs and Reality

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 9-18

4. The Dubious Status of Formal Project Evaluation Procedures

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 19-34

5. Inferior and Unworthy Transportation Mega-Projects

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 35-49

6. Inaccuracies in Cost and Demand Forecasts

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 51-80

7. Mega-Project History and Decision-Making

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 81-91

8. Interest Groups: Advocacy and Opposition

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 93-106

9. The Decisive Role of Project Funding

   • Joseph Berechman

   Pages 107-126

10. Overseeing Institutions

    • Joseph Berechman

    Pages 127-146

11. Alternative Decision Criteria: Equity, Economic Development and Environmental Externalities

    • Joseph Berechman

    Pages 147-168

12. Why Unworthy Mega-Projects?

    • Joseph Berechman

    Pages 169-186

13. Back Matter

    Pages 187-194

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This book explores the various economic and institutional factors that explain why huge investments are made in unworthy transportation mega-projects in the US and other countries. It is based on research, the general literature, economic analyses, and results from a specifically collected database showing that a significant proportion of implemented mega-projects have been found to be inferior ex-ante or incapable of delivering the returns they promised ex-post. Transportation infrastructure and other public investments of a similar scope (“mega-projects”) reflect public sector priorities and objectives, non-pecuniary as well as financial constraints, and a range of decision-making processes. This book describes how decisions made in the public sector with respect to transportation infrastructure investments are affected by the large populations and territories they serve, the estimation of the substantial opportunity costs they entail, the formal procedures instituted for quantitatively appraising projected outcomes and monetary returns, and the political environment in which these decisions are made.

• transportation
• transportation economics
• infrastructure
• pork
• project evaluation
• technical bias
• lobbying
• special interest groups
• project evaluation
• investment
• Washington
• cost benefit analysis

• City College of New York, University of New York, New York, NY, USA

  Joseph Berechman

Joseph Berechman is the Marvin Kristein Professor in the Department of Economics and Business at the Colin Powell School, the City College of New York, USA. Between 2007 and 2014 he was the department’s chairman. Before coming to CCNY, he was the CN Chair Professor in Transportation and International Logistics at the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia, Canada. Dr. Berechman has consulted on a variety of transportation and urban projects in different countries and has been a principal investigator in several major studies done for the European Union. For the past several years he has been engaged in major cost and investment studies of transportation infrastructure projects in New York and elsewhere. He has published numerous journal papers and six books.

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