The marginal effective tax rate on income generated by any kind of direct spending is just not going to vary that much across infrastructure projects, as there is just not that much variation in income and payroll tax rates across the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution. Given this, infrastructure investments that can reduce the cost of transportation significantly—say, by providing public transit options or by repairing highways so that automobiles do not require as frequent repairs—will provide benefits that are progressively distributed...
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