How Does the Health of Transportation Infrastructure Affect State Credit Ratings? An Empirical Analysis

被引:15
作者
Chen, Can [1 ]
Kriz, Kenneth A. [2 ]
Wang, Qiushi [3 ]
机构
[1] Florida Int Univ, Dept Publ Adm, Steven J Green Sch Int & Publ Affairs, Miami, FL 33199 USA
[2] Wichita State Univ, Hugo Wall Sch Publ Affairs, Wichita, KS USA
[3] Rutgers State Univ, Sch Publ Affairs & Adm, 111 Washington St, Newark, NJ 07102 USA
关键词
public infrastructure; transportation; state credit ratings; infrastructure health index;
D O I
10.1177/1091142115611742
中图分类号
F8 [财政、金融];
学科分类号
0202 ;
摘要
A well-developed and carefully maintained public infrastructure system is of critical importance to ensure that the economy can function effectively. To investigate the consequence of deficient public transportation infrastructure conditions on states' creditworthiness, this study constructs an infrastructure health index to measure the physical conditions of state highway transportation systems and empirically estimates the effect of the overall health of state highway transportation infrastructure on Moody's and Standard and Poor's state credit ratings by using a data set from 1999 to 2009. The empirical results indicate that the poorer the quality of a state's highway infrastructure, the lower the probability that the state will be in a higher credit rating category, and the higher the probability that the state will be in the medium or low credit rating category. This finding suggests that state policy makers should be cautioned about the negative consequences of cutting spending on infrastructure maintenance and expansion.
引用
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页码:660 / 680
页数:21
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