Political Preferences and Transport Infrastructure: Evidence from California’s High-Speed Rail

Details

• Creators:
  Fajgelbaum, Pablo D. ; Gaubert, Cecile ; Gorton, Nicole ; Morales, Eduardo ; Schaal, Edouard
• Corporate Creators:
  National Bureau of Economic Research ; University of California, Los Angeles. Institute of Transportation Studies
• Corporate Contributors:
  State of California ; United States. Department of Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Economic Factors High Speed Rail Infrastructure Politics
• Publication/ Report Number:
  31438
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Working Paper
• Corporate Publisher:
  National Bureau of Economic Research
• Abstract:
  We study how political preferences shaped California’s High-Speed Rail (CHSR), a large transportation project approved by referendum in 2008. Voters’ support responded significantly to the projected economic gains in their tract of residence, as measured by a quantitative model of high-speed rail matched to CHSR plans. Given this response, a revealed-preference approach comparing the proposed network with alternative designs identifies strong planner’s preferences for political support. The optimal politically-blind design would have placed the stations nearer to California’s dense metro areas, where it was harder to sway votes, thus increasing the projected economic gains.
• Content Notes:
  This is an open access report published with the National Bureau of Economic Research: https://www.nber.org/papers?page=1&perPage=50&sortBy=public_date. Please cite this paper as: Fajgelbaum, P., Gaubert, C., Gorton, N., Morales, E., & Schaal, E. (2024). Political Preferences and Transport Infrastructure: Evidence from California’s High-Speed Rail. UC Office of the President: University of California Institute of Transportation Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w31438 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zh3s8nv
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3b840c2d305b8ad80304e90cc7e40817ea28d2ca2c4c1613e1c034abbd8c6e4e7b02fb4752328d43a86b49dd72029b81a2e4ff8e62d0b2ba26552d5655d87062
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/86915/dot_86915_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.98 MB ]