Employment Impacts of Infrastructure Investments

The interest in infrastructure — from both a scientific and a political angle — is exhibiting a wave-like pattern. In the period of the sixties a broad interest in infrastructure expansion emerged as a result of the unprecedented economic growth necessitating the construction of large infrastructure networks. In the seventies much more emphasis was placed on a more efficient use of existing network capacity, mainly as a result of the limits to growth discussion (including environmental externalities and resource scarcity). In the eighties the attention shifted towards infrastructure and economic stagnation, as a result of a particular interest in the relationship between public investment and employment, whilst in the second part of the eighties also the restructuring effects of new infrastructure (e.g., informatics, telematics) came to the fore (see e.g. GIAOUTZI and NIJKAMP, 1988). Very recently also the relationship between infrastructure and international trade (and competition) — from the viewpoint of the unification of the European market — has been given due attention (including the interest in high speed transport systems).