Partisan determinants of federal highway grants

Abstract

Using data from the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, we examine whether political ideology and political alignment affect how much a state receives in per-capita highway funding. For the period 1994 – 2008, we find evidence that Republican-dominated House of Representatives delegations received more highway funding per capita compared with Democratic delegations, especially in states with below average urban population shares. Overall, the distribution of highway spending during this time period appears to have been determined by political, rather than deterministic, considerations. In a way, it is consistent with how the Interstate Highway System has distributed Republican voters to rural areas.