PUBLIC WORKS

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

Contents

Overview

Utility of investment

Cost overrun and demand shortfall

Sources and further reading

See also

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 constructible object, via which, a nation can improve its economic infrastructure.
Examples of internal improvements are: 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. It is often used interchangeably with municipal infrastructure, e.g. urban infrastructure which is often, in big-city contexts, just called infrastructure.

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. However, in the private sector entrepreneurs bear their own losses and so private sector firms are generally unwilling to undertake projects that will 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 -- through private subcontractors. Large public works are associated with the opening of internal frontiers, as in the case of the Eire 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.

Sources and further reading

★ Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl (2002), "Underestimating Costs in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?" Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 68, no. 3, 279-295.

★ Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl (2005), "How (In)accurate Are Demand Forecasts in Public Works Projects?" Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 71, no. 2, 131-146.

★ "Political Economy of Very Large Space Projects", ''Journal of Evolution and Technology''. vol. 4. November 1999.

★ Fighting Hunger and poverty in Ethiopia (Peter Middlebrook)

See also

★ Jean-Baptiste Colbert

★ New Deal

★ infrastructural capital

★ Public Works Administration

★ Opera Publica

★ Cost overrun

★ Terraforming

Some Public Works Communities

★ Pennsylvania

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★ Derry Township

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★ Harrisburg

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★ Hummelstown

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★ South Hanover