Measuring Infrastructure Performance

Abstract

Infrastructure systems are the foundation for economic growth and productivity. Business and commerce depend on roadways, waterways, pipelines, electricity lines, and broadband connections to transport goods, gain access, provide services, communicate, and efficiently function. Despite the importance of infrastructure, empirical economists have been hindered by the lack of infrastructure performance measures. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is supporting the development of a national index to measure and understand infrastructure performance. In contrast to established infrastructure assessments which rely on dollars spent or counting highway miles, this index applies a rigorous, repeatable, and universal methodology to quantify infrastructure performance. This article documents the methodology for developing a national infrastructure index and the application for one sector: transportation. The integration of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) into the methodology as a mechanism to weight performance indicators is discussed as well as the challenges faced in constructing a Transportation Performance Index.