Infrastructure investment decisions are high-dollar, long-horizon, and politically salient.
Questions we answer
- How do we assess whether this investment is worth its cost, and how do we prioritize among options?
- What will happen to existing activity and costs over time if this investment is not made?
- What are the economic productivity effects of this transit line or corridor investment?
- How do we demonstrate the economic justification for this project to potential funders?
How we work
The analysis integrates benefit-cost methodology with community and place-specific analysis to address the questions that matter to decision-makers at all levels. Distributional and equity considerations are built into the analytical structure from the outset, examining who gains access, who bears costs, and whether projected benefits will hold up under scrutiny. Work spans project-level justification and program-level evaluation, built to meet the evidentiary standards of federal grants, legislative hearings, and public processes.
What we deliver
- Benefit-cost analysis
- A rigorous accounting of an investment's benefits against its costs, built especially for federal DOT and state government grant applications.
- Economic productivity assessment
- How an infrastructure or transit investment affects regional output and competitiveness.
- Access-to-jobs and access-to-opportunity modeling
- How a project changes who can reach jobs, services, and opportunity, and by how much.
- Return-on-investment studies
- What a completed or proposed project returns relative to its cost.
- Transportation funding analysis
- The funding and financing options behind a transportation investment.
- Infrastructure program evaluation
- Whether an initiative is delivering the returns it projected.
- Grant application economic support
- The economic case that strengthens federal and state grant applications.
Featured projects
Infrastructure Economics · 2024
The Economic Impact of Philadelphia International Airport
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Infrastructure Economics · 2023
The Economic, Environmental, and Public Health Impacts of the Trans Canada Trail
Read the report
Infrastructure Economics · 2023
A Delaware Canal for the 21st Century
Read the reportExplore our other practice areas
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