Estimating Infrastructure Needs: Methods and Controversies
经济学家Paul Gary Wyckoff比较了三种估算资本存量需求的方法：专家技术估算、简单比较研究和经济估算，并用中西部十个城市的数据展示了这些方法。
In this article, economist Paul Gary Wyckoff examines the pros and cons associated with three alternative measures of capital-stock needs: technical estimates,based on the judgments of experts (such as safety engineers and urban planners); simple comparison studies, which look at the expenditures of other, similar cities; and economic estimates, which result from an approach developed by the author in an earlier working paper. In constructing economic estimates, the author compares the expenditures of each city with those of a typical city in the sample, after accounting for the features of the city that affect the need for capital stock (for example, population, land area, and age of capital stock). The article illustrates these three alternatives, using bridge condition and highway spending data from ten midwestern urban areas.