摘要: |
U.S. infrastructure is the foundation for national competitiveness in a global age. Yet, business has found it necessary to enter into a debate with policy makers about the role of infrastructure in economic prosperity. As a result, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce saw the need for a new tool--an Infrastructure Index--to communicate effectively the need to improve the condition and performance of U.S. infrastructure. The Index measures the performance of infrastructure as it meets the needs of productive businesses working toward economic prosperity. This report documents the process developed to create one element of the Infrastructure Index, the Transportation Index and reports the values of the national Transportation Index from 1990 to 2008, and the values of state-by-state Transportation Indices for 1995, 2000 and 2007. Forecast values for the national and state-by-state indices for 2015 are also reported. The report also documents an economic analysis that demonstrates the usefulness of the Index for exploring the contribution of infrastructure to keeping American businesses competitive. |