A century of economic growth: The social returns to investment in equipment and structures

A large body of literature has been published showing that the social returns to investment in equipment are low and insignificant in the OECD countries in the post-war period. The work reported in this paper re-examines the nexus between economic growth and investment in equipment and structures using data for 11 OECD countries over 130 years and for 22 OECD countries over 40 years. The empirical results suggest that the social returns to investment in equipment substantially exceed their private returns in the OECD countries in both the pre-war and the post-war periods.