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Economic development Is Increasingly used by state departments of transportation as a criterion In highway funding. However, past studies of the Interactions between highways and development provide little or no evidence justifying the use of such a criterion. Existing techniques usually rely on cross-sectional analysis, whl. ch only determines correlations between highways and development. In this paper, a time series methodology Is developed to differentiate the effects of highways on development from the effects of development on highways. This methodology, which Includes both structural plot analysis and causaUty tests, Is based on pooled time series and cross-sectional data on highway construction expend. ltures and county employment. The results Indicate that Increases in Wghway expenditures do not In general lead to Increases in employment other than temporary Increases In the year of construction. However, In the counties that are economic centers of the state, highway expenditures do have a positive longterm effect, t: bat is, employment Increases more than it would for the normal trend of the economy.

Possible economic effects of highways influence highway funding decisions either directly through stated objectives or indirectly through the political arena. For example, departments of transportation in 36 states explicitly consider regional economic development in their highway program selection (1). In this paper, the question of whether highway projects have a definite and foreseeable effect on economic development, increasing the number of jobs more than would the normal trend of the economy, is studied. If highway …