Public works

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Public works

Public works are the construction or engineering projects carried out by the state on behalf of the community.

Overview
Utility of investment
Cost overrun and demand shortfall
Sources and further reading
See also
External links
Some Public Works Communities

Overview

The notion of internal improvements or public works is a concept in economics and politics. The term public infrastructure refers only to the infrastructural capital involved in these activities.

An internal improvement is some constructed object that augments a nation's economic infrastructure; examples include airports, canals, dams, dikes, pipelines, railroads, roads, tunnels, and artificial harbours.

Public works is a slightly broader term, it can include such things as: mines, schools, hospitals, water purification and sewage treatment centers. Municipal infrastructure, urban infrastructure and rural development are often used interchangeably but imply either large cities or developing nations' concerns respectively. The terms public infrastructure or critical infrastructure are also used interchangeably but suggest the inclusion of some facilities like hospitals, banks and concerns like national security and terrorism which are not under the mandate of local officials alone.

Reflecting increased concern with sustainability, urban ecology and quality of life, efforts to move towards sustainable municipal infrastructure are common in developed nations, especially in European Union and Canada (where the FCM InfraGuide provides an officially mandated best practice exchange to move municipalities in this direction).

Utility of investment

In some cases, it is argued that internal improvements can be used to reduce unemployment. Opponents of internal improvement programs argue that such projects should be undertaken by the private sector, and not the public sector, because public works projects are characteristic of socialism. However, in the private sector, entrepreneurs bear their own losses and so private sector firms are generally unwilling to undertake projects that could result in losses. Since it is politically unpopular for governments to use public revenues to bail out private firms that lose money, many times the preferred alternative is to have governments undertake unprofitable projects directly. Consequently, almost all significant infrastructure in the U.S., including the Transcontinental Railroad, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Interstate Highway System, were created through federal investment (often employing private subcontractors). Large public works are associated with the opening of internal frontiers, as in the case of the Erie Canal and Trans-Siberian Railway.

Cost overrun and demand shortfall

Cost overruns and demand shortfalls frequently haunt public works projects. The main causes of cost overrun and demand shortfall are optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation (Flyvbjerg et al. 2002, 2005). Reference class forecasting was developed to curb optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation and thus arrive at more accurate cost and demand estimates.