A Replication of “Is Public Expenditure Productive?” (Journal of Monetary Economics, 1989)

Abstract

We replicate the results of the landmark paper by Aschauer (1989) on the impact of public capital on the US economy. We obtained data from his stated sources and followed his exact methods and are able to replicate his main results. We also extend his data to the period 1949 to 2015, use different data sources, DOLS and VECM estimation, and Granger causality tests. We are again able to replicate his results. Please see the longer version of our article for details.