The Productivity of Public Capital: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

The paper measures the contribution of public capital to private output using a simple meta-analysis and a meta-regression analysis based on panel data. We find an output elasticity of public capital of 0.14 in the random effects model, which is substantially smaller than the simple arithmetic average value of 0.20. Reported estimates of the output elasticity of public capital show considerable heterogeneity. We identify the type of public capital, the level of aggregation of the public capital data, the country type, the econometric specification, and publication bias as sources of variation.