Statement

In my research project supported by the Keynes Fund, I examine how school infrastructure projects affect local economies. I start by constructing a unique dataset of thousands of US school bond referenda from newspaper articles reporting on the referenda. Using difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity approaches, I find that bond approval has large, positive effects on per capita income and employment, and that it leads to persistent increases in local population, house prices, residential construction, and refinancing activity. These results in turn suggest an important complementarity between fiscal multipliers and the marginal utility of government spending.