Public Capital and Economic Development

Abstract

AbstractPublic capital is sizable and its share in total capital is higher in poor countries. The standard development accounting approach does not distinguish it from private capital, ignoring its public good features. The goal of this paper is to measure public capital stocks for a wide range of countries, and then develop and implement a development accounting framework that explicitly includes its non-rival aspects. The paper finds that factors of production account for a significantly greater share of cross-country differences in output per worker compared to the standard framework. With both non-rivalry and congestion, the contribution of factors of production decreases.