Regional effects of governmental effort in infrastructure - a review of studies

This working report documents the project Review of studies of regional effects of governmental efforts in infrastructure. The project is part of the Effektutredningen (the Effect Elucidation), initiated by the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Related to the Effektutredningen the Ministry has received references to studies carried out by Norwegian research institutions concerning regional effects of governmental efforts in different sectors. In the policy field Infrastructure the ministry has received references in the following subfields: General infrastructure and transport and communications, roads, sea/ports, aviation, railway, post, IT and telecommunication, and energy supply. TØI has reviewed these and some other relevant reports to give an account of existing studies and knowledge in each of these subfields. A main impression is that there is relatively little empirically based and general knowledge about regional effects of governmental policy in most of the subfields.