Blog

Hamilton Project Director Jay Shambaugh comments on the COVID-19 virus and how economic policies with automatic triggers can alleviate the financial burden of the epidemic.

Much of the nation’s economic activity is made possible by roads and railways. As policymakers consider new directions for infrastructure policy, The Hamilton Project outlines investment proposals that could facilitate economic growth and promote climate resiliency, as well as minimize the damage of a recession as an effective fiscal stimulus.

The President’s 2019 Budget gives a prominent place to infrastructure policy, proposing $100 billion of matching funds to state and local governments, as well as $50 billion in funding for rural infrastructure and $50 billion in other spending. In this blog, Hamilton Project Policy Director Ryan Nunn assesses the Administration's budget proposal for infrastructure policy.

The need to improve our nation’s infrastructure is an issue on which many policy makers, at all levels of government and across the political aisle, can agree. Regrettably, the consensus essentially begins and ends with the need to address our nation’s infrastructure. In response, an innovative concept for funding and financing infrastructure investment has gained traction in recent years: public-private partnerships. In this blog post, THP assesses the pros and cons of public-private partnerships. 

In late March, Governor Jerry Brown signed a billion-dollar emergency drought relief legislation package. Recent Hamilton Project authors Newsha K. Ajami and Barton H. Thompson discuss the importance of investing in water infrastructure and innovation.

In the blog post, The Hamilton Project explores the regulatory challenges of America's fragmented water systems and highlight eye-opening information from our new list of economic facts about water in the United States. We note that—with more than 150,000 water systems in the United States—there are many roadblocks to streamlined regulation, implementation of new technologies, and costly repairs to equipment.

In a new policy memo, The Hamilton Project highlights four policy challenges hampering the economic potential of wireless spectrum and opportunities to address these challenges through innovative, evidence-driven approaches to reform.

In his latest Bloomberg View column, Advisory Council member Peter Orszag discusses how to design private-public partnerships for financing infrastructure in the U.S. He highlights a Hamilton Project paper “Public-Private Partnerships to Revamp U.S. Infrastructure” in which Eduardo Engel, Ronald Fischer, and Alexander Galetovic propose a series of best practices for state and local governments to follow when using public–private partnerships to provide infrastructure. The paper also was cited by Michael Deane, Executive Director of the National Association of Water Companies, in a blog post for the Huffington Post on the need for public-private partnerships for the nation’s water infrastructure.

In a recent blog post for Occupational Health & Safety magazine, Jerry Law writes that many lawmakers and stakeholders “are calling for making major investments to repair America's roads and bridges.” He highlights a recent Hamilton Project paper, “Fix It First, Expand It Second, Reward It Third: A New Strategy for America’s Highways,” in which Matthew Kahn of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and David M. Levinson of the University of Minnesota proposed a reorganization of our national highway infrastructure priorities. To read the full piece, click here.

In a “Moneybox” post comparing budget proposals released this week by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan and Senate Democrats, Slate’s Matthew Yglesias discusses The Hamilton Project’s “15 Ways to Rethink the Federal Budget,” which includes pragmatic, evidenced-based proposals that would reduce the deficit and while also bringing broader economic benefits. Yglesias highlights two of the proposals: “The Many Benefits of a Carbon Tax,” by Adele Morris; and “Funding Transportation Infrastructure with User Fees ,” by Tyler Duvall and Jack Basso. To read the full piece, click here.

In last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a “Fix-it-First” approach to investing in our nation’s ailing infrastructure. This approach recognizes the value of the well-traveled network of roads and bridges that make up our nation’s existing highway system, and prioritizes the maintenance and rehabilitation of our deteriorating system. In “Fix It First, Expand It Second, Reward It Third: A New Strategy for America’s Highways," a paper commissioned by The Hamilton Project at Brookings, authors Matthew Kahn and David Levinson argue that the repair, maintenance, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and enhancement of our existing roads and bridges is the best way to maximize the benefits of infrastructure spending. When first constructed decades ago, the interstate highway system led to economic gains by connecting people and businesses. The full benefits of that system has eroded as roads and bridges have deteriorated, contributing to congestion, longer travel times, increased wear and tear on vehicles, and even accidents. A fix-it-first approach would recoup the value we’re missing from using our current system inefficiently.

Advisory Council member Laura Tyson outlines her view that manufacturing growth is important for the United States economy in the Financial Times.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign legislation to authorize the auction of public spectrum now used for television broadcasts to create more wireless Internet systems. This legislation draws from a 2008 Hamilton Project discussion paper focused on ways to reform spectrum policy to ensure the most efficient use of wireless spectrum.

In her Economix posting for The New York Times, Advisory Council member Laura D’Andrea Tyson discusses why she believes a strong manufacturing sector is important for the United States.

In The Financial Times, Advisory Council member Lawrence H. Summers proposes several policy changes that could be readily implemented to help improve the housing market.

Hamilton Project Advisory Council member Laura Tyson discusses the dual benefits of infrastructure spending – the creation of jobs in the short term and the promotion of competitiveness and productivity in the long term.