The role of space in public capital research

The role of public capital in the economy is an emerging research area with theoretical significance and societal and policy relevance. Several academ ic disciplines and public institutions are regular contributors to this res earch field. The range of findings of these studies extends from virtually no role to a very strong role for public capital in the economy. Reconcilin g the varied and sometimes contradictory results has not been a high priori ty among researchers. The lack of attention to spatial forces, an issue gai ning attention only relatively recently, also has been troublesome. This ar ticle reviews public capital research along three primary dimensions: the d ependent variable, scale of analysis, and attention to spatial processes. T he authors emphasize scale and space as among the most important but least discussed differences among public capital studies and then focus on the na ture of the economic processes at work and detectable at different scales o f analysis.