Evaluating the effectiveness of government programs is an important topic for economic developers. One popular example is the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Public Works Program, initially established in 1965. Haughwout (1999) found a significant positive impact of EDA public works projects completed in 1990 on county-level employment over the period 1990 to 1994. The authors reexamine whether this effect continues to hold 20 years later by replicating Haughwout’s specification using data from 2010 to 2014. The results are consistent with those originally reported by Haughwout. The authors then extend the analysis by incorporating a spatial econometric approach to examine the existence of potential spillover effects. The results indicate that EDA investments have a significant positive effect on both targeted and neighboring counties’ employment. The findings suggest that public infrastructure investments can be important tools for economic development by positively influencing employment in both the recipient county and neighboring counties.

评估政府计划的有效性是经济开发商的重要课题。一个受欢迎的例子是美国经济发展局（EDA）的公共工程计划，该计划最初于1965年建立。Haughwout（1999）发现1990年完成的EDA公共工程项目对1990年至1994年期间的县级就业产生了重大的积极影响。作者通过使用2010年至2014年的数据复制了Haughwout的规范，重新研究了这种影响是否会持续20年。这种结果与Haughwout最初报道的结果一致。然后，作者通过合并空间计量经济学方法来扩展分析范围，以检查潜在溢出效应的存在。结果表明，EDA投资对目标县和邻近县的就业都具有显着的积极影响。研究结果表明，公共基础设施投资可以通过积极影响受援县和邻近县的就业，而成为经济发展的重要工具。