U.S. Department

of Transportation

Bureau of

Transportation Statistics

Transportation Investment and GDP, Some 

Concepts, Data, and Analysis

2004
 
i 

Table of Contents 

Executive Summary.............................................................................................................1

1. Introduction......................................................................................................................3 

2. Objective, Scope and Organization..................................................................................7 

3 .Review of Literature ........................................................................................................9 

4. Survey of Existing Statistical Work...............................................................................13 

5. Data Sources and Methodology.....................................................................................15 

5.1 Government Investment in Transportation ......................................................15 

5.2 Business Investment in Transportation............................................................15 

5.3 Household Purchase of Rolling Stock .............................................................16 

6. Trends in Transportation Investment.............................................................................17 

6.1 Overall Transportation Investment ..................................................................17 

6.2 Transportation Investment by Sector...............................................................19 

6.3 Characteristics of Investment in Transportation Infrastructure .......................20 

6.4 Characteristics of Investment in Rolling Stock ...............................................23 

6.5 Business Investment in Transportation Assets Compared with That in NonTransportation Assets.............................................................................................26 

6.6 Investment in Transportation Assets by Transportation Industries vs. NonTransportation Industries .......................................................................................27 

References..........................................................................................................................29 

Appendix A. Principal Data Sources .................................................................................33 

Appendix B. Data Tables...................................................................................................35 

List of Figures 

1. Transportation Investment as Percentage of GDP by Type of Asset, 1977-2000 .........17 

2. Growth in Transportation Investment by Type of Asset Compared with Growth 

 in GDP, 1977- 2000 .......................................................................................................18

3. Transportation Investment as Percentage of GDP by Sector, 1977-2000 .....................19 

4. Investment in Transportation Infrastructure as Percentage of GDP by Sector, 

 1977-2000 ......................................................................................................................20 

5. Investment in Transportation Infrastructure as Percentage of GDP by Mode and 
ii 

 by Sector, Average for 1977-2000.................................................................................21 

6. Investment in Transportation Infrastructure as Percentage of GDP by Mode, 

 1977-2000 ......................................................................................................................22 

7. Investment in Transportation Infrastructure as Percentage of GDP by Mode, 

 Excluding Highway, 1977-2000 ....................................................................................23 

8. Investment in Rolling Stock as Percentage of GDP by Sector and by Mode, 

 Average for 1977 – 2000 ...............................................................................................24 

9. Investment in Rolling Stock as Percentage of GDP by Sector, 1977-2000...................24 

10. Growth of Investment in Rolling Stock by Sector Compared with Growth in GDP, 

 1977-2000 ....................................................................................................................25 

11. Investment in Rolling Stock as Percentage of GDP by Mode, 1977-2000..................26 

12. Growth of Private Business Transportation Investment and Non-Transportation 

 Investment Compared with Growth in GDP, 1977-2000 ...........................................27 

13. Private Business Investment in Transportation by Transportation Industry vs. by NonTransportation Industries, Average for 1977-2000 

 
1

Executive Summary 

Transportation investment consists of purchases of transportation fixed assets with a 

service life of more than one year and changes in inventories. Transportation fixed assets 

include transportation infrastructure, rolling stocks, and other equipment that are used in 

the provision of transportation services. Transportation investment, by implementing 

new technology, establishing continuity of routes and eliminating bottlenecks, and by 

improving the coverage and accessibility of the transportation network, helps augment 

the capacity and improve the efficiency of the transportation industry. Hence, statistics 

on transportation investment indicate the potential capacity and efficiency of 

transportation in future years. Transportation investment utilizes current economic 

resources. Transportation investment data show the quantity of economic resources 

allocated to transportation capital. Transportation investment data are also of great value 

to government for planning and budgeting purposes, to policy makers trying to 

understand the impacts of investment decisions, and to researchers interested in 

investigating the relationship between transportation investment and economic 

development or conducting other research in this area. 

This report provides statistics on capital investment by sector (government, private 

business, and households), asset type (infrastructure, rolling stock, and other equipment 

used by transportation industries), and by mode of transportation (air, highway, water, 

mass transit, railroad, and pipelines). The investment dataset represents transportation 

investment before deducting depreciation of the existing capital; and this data is 

presented as a percentage of GDP, and wherever useful, as a percentage of total gross 

fixed capital formation. The report also provides a review of the literature that examines 

the linkage between transportation investment and economic performance, a survey of 

similar statistical works undertaken by other U.S. government agencies and agencies of 

foreign countries, a discussion of data sources and procedures used to develop the 

dataset, and a descriptive analysis of transportation investment in relation to GDP. The 

descriptive analysis is not intended to determine a causal relationship between 

transportation investment and economic development, which is beyond the scope of this 

report. 

The following findings resulted from the descriptive analysis of transportation investment 

in relation to GDP: 

• First, for the period of 1977 to 2000, overall transportation investment (including 

household purchase of rolling stock) on average accounted for more than 6% of 

GDP. Of this overall transportation investment, investment in rolling stock 

accounted for an average of 83%, and that in transportation infrastructure and 

other transportation equipment averaged 14% and 3%, respectively. 

• Second, while households are the primary purchasers of rolling stock, government 

is the dominant investor in transportation infrastructure with the exception of 

railroads and pipelines modes in which the business sector appears to be the 

exclusive investor. 
2 

• Third, the share of highways in the total infrastructure investment stayed almost 

the same, averaging 66%, but the relative shares for other modes changed 

significantly during 1977-2000, with air almost doubling and pipeline dropping 

by about 90%. 

• Fourth, whereas overall transportation investment (of which 83% is in rolling 

stock) closely echoed the business cycle, investment in transportation 

infrastructure evidently lagged behind the business cycle, notably during 1979-

1982 when transportation infrastructure investment was accelerating, while GDP 

growth had already gone through a fast increase and begun to decline. 

• Fifth, transportation investment has been more sensitive to the business cycle 

compared with non-transportation business investment. 

• Finally, transportation investment made by non-transportation industries has been 

consistently greater than that of transportation industries. However, the intensity 

of use of transportation capital, particularly rolling stock, is much higher for 

transportation industries than for non-transportation industries.1

 

 

1

 Intensity of use of transportation capital is measured as the ratio of investment in transportation capital to 

value added (GDP) from transportation. GDP from transportation services is higher in the transportation 

industries relative to investment in transportation capital than it is for in-house transportation services in the 

non-transportation industries. This drives the above conclusion. 
3

1. Introduction 

Transportation investment is defined as additions to transportation fixed assets. 

Transportation fixed assets refers to structures, motor vehicles, and other machinery and 

equipment, which are used in the provision of transportation services for more than one 

year. Due to data limitations, we exclude other machinery and equipment that are used in 

transportation by non-transportation-entities. Our definition thus reflects a combination of 

asset type and business characteristics of investors. Therefore, our list of transportation 

fixed assets includes all fixed assets within transportation industries and fixed assets that are 

transportation-specific and acquired by entities outside transportation industries. A fixed 

asset is transportation-specific when its only use is in transportation. For example, a pickup 

truck is transportation-specific whether or not it is used by a transportation entity, while a 

computer is not transportation-specific even if it is used by a trucking company. Therefore, 

our list includes all pickup trucks but only the computers used by transportation industries. 

Our extended definition of transportation assets and the related investment measures better 

serve transportation analysis purposes than measures of investment on a pure asset basis or 

industry basis. 

Many public policy questions focus on infrastructure, and there is interest in the levels 

and patterns of investment in infrastructure. The data in this paper address infrastructure, 

but they also cover the transportation equipment (aircraft, railroad cars, trucks) that use 

the infrastructure. Many issues relating to the impact of transportation investment on the 

economy, such as impact on aggregate demand and employment, relate just as much to 

equipment as to infrastructure. Infrastructure investment can leverage equipment 

investment, by improving equipment turn times, and can impact directly on equipment 

maintenance costs. On the other hand inadequate equipment investment can constrain the 

transportation system even if infrastructure is adequate. By providing total investment 

data, but breaking out infrastructure investment, we provide data that can be used to 

address these issues. In this way we also provide data that is comparable to investment 

data in national account statistics and in the Government Transportation Financial 

Statistics reports. 

Transportation investment or additions to transportation fixed assets can take two forms, 

purchase of new assets and change in inventories. Both purchases of new fixed assets and 

change in inventories are incorporated in our transportation investment estimates. 

Purchases are conducted by government, business, and households. Change in inventories 

consists of the current production of goods for transportation use that are not used or sold. 

Examples of change in inventories include motor vehicle inventories in the hands of 

manufacturers and dealers, work in progress on construction of transportation infrastructure, 

etc. Here is another innovation of our approach to measuring transportation investment, i.e., 

counting household purchase of transportation assets as investment. The national accounts 

classify household purchase of motor vehicles under current consumption to satisfy current 

national accounting principles, but household transportation activities are an integral 

component of overall transportation operations and should be so treated for transportation 

analysis purposes. Such treatment on the operations side requires similar treatment on the 

investment side. 
4 

The total value of investment, calculated before deducting depreciation or the portion of 

investment that is used to replace depreciation of the existing transportation capital stock, is 

referred to as gross investment. Deducting the depreciation from gross investment provides 

net investment, which represents the net addition to the stock of transportation capital for the 

period. Whether the transportation capital stock increases or decreases over a given period 

of time depends upon whether gross investment is greater or less than depreciation. 

Although the net investment is often more informative than gross investment, calculating it 

requires extensive measurement work in capital stock accounting. 

Transportation investment relates to the economy on both the demand and supply sides. 

Data on transportation investment have many different uses in dissecting the interrelationship between transportation and the economy. First, as additions to the stock of 

transportation capital, transportation investment helps augment the capacity and 

efficiency of transportation by implementing new technology, establishing continuity of 

routes, eliminating bottlenecks, improving the coverage and accessibility of the 

transportation network. Thus, the level of transportation investment indicates the 

potential capacity and efficiency of transportation, and its contribution to the overall 

economy for years to come. 

Second, as a component of aggregate demand, transportation investment shows the 

amount of economic resources devoted to transportation capital. A time series of 

transportation investment and its percentage share in GDP provide an overview of 

changes in the resource allocation, and the relationship between transportation and GDP 

over time. 

Third, data on transportation investment can be used to support policy analysis on the 

dynamics of transportation infrastructure, transportation technology, and the industrial 

structure in relation to the overall economy. Moreover, the relationship between public 

and private investment in transportation has been an ongoing research interest of 

academics. For example, the data can support research studies that attempt to investigate 

whether an increase in public investment displaces private investment or encourages 

private investors to invest more. 

Fourth, transportation investment as a final demand (use) is affected not only by the total 

output but also by structural changes in the economy. For example, during a given 

period, a steady increase in transportation investment as a percentage of GDP could be 

accompanied by an increase or a decrease in overall capital investment as a percentage of 

GDP. Change in transportation investment in relation to overall capital investment might 

indicate a change in the future structure of the economy. 

Fifth, there are two major types of fixed capital, namely, infrastructure and rolling stock, 

for transportation. While the private sector is the major investor in rolling stock, 

government is the major investor in infrastructure. This may, however, differ among 

transportation modes. For example, whereas highway infrastructure is almost entirely 

funded by the government, railroad and pipelines are mostly investments of the private 
5

sector. Therefore, data on transportation investment by sector of investors, types of 

assets, and transportation mode provide a clearer picture of transportation investment 

patterns for each of the transportation modes. 

Finally, transportation investment by mode of transportation can indicate possible 

structural changes within the transportation industry, which is important for 

transportation policy making. For example, a significant switch in capital investment 

between different modes (e.g., from air transportation to public transit) or unmatched 

growth for different types of assets within a single mode (e.g., a rising annual growth rate 

in the number of motor vehicles on the road compared with a much lower growth rate in 

highway investment) may signal a need to adjust future transportation investment plans. 

It is apparent from the above discussion that statistics on transportation investment are of 

great value for transportation planning and budgeting purposes, policy makers interested 

in understanding the impacts of transportation investment, and for researchers interested 

in investigating the link between transportation investment and economic development. 

In order to serve these and other related purposes, the data compilation effort should go 

beyond producing aggregate statistics on transportation investment. The effort should 

produce comprehensive statistics, incorporating public and private investment, and also it 

should be as detailed as possible. 
6 
7

2. Objective, Scope and Organization 

The main purpose of this report is to provide time series data on transportation 

investment in fixed assets, which include infrastructure, rolling stock, and other 

equipment used in transportation activities. The data are reported by sector (private, 

government, and households), type of fixed assets (infrastructure, rolling stock, and other 

equipment), and by mode (highways, air, transit, railroads, water, and pipelines). The 

investment figures are presented before deducting depreciation of the existing 

transportation capital. While it is of paramount importance to compile data on net 

investment and/or depreciation of capital in order to determine the net addition to the 

capital stock, they are not covered in this report because of data limitations. Data on 

transportation investment as a percentage of GDP and a descriptive analysis of the trends 

in transportation investment in relation to GDP are also provided. The descriptive 

analysis is not intended to determine the causal relationship between transportation 

investment and GDP, which requires more rigorous work. Rather, it is a simple analysis 

that provides a bird’s eye view of the statistical trends of transportation investment in 

relation to GDP. 

All investments made by private business engaged in transportation activities as well as 

transportation-related investments made by non-transportation industries (such as 

agriculture, manufacturing, mining, construction, etc.) are covered. As far as nontransportation industries are concerned, only rolling stock is accounted for. The 

infrastructure components of transportation investments made by non-transportation 

industries are not included because of lack of comprehensive information. Government 

investment constitutes investments made by all levels of government, namely, federal, 

state and local government. Although the existing classification in the National Income 

and Product Accounts (NIPA) defines household purchases of rolling stock as 

consumption rather than capital investment, household purchases of rolling stock are 

treated as transportation investment in this report. Since household-owned automobiles 

account for about 60% of total investment and have a significant impact on the 

transportation network and the economy (Chen, Fang, Han, and Sloboda, 2002), it is 

appropriate, therefore, to classify household purchases of rolling stock as a component of 

transportation fixed capital.

The rest of this report is structured in four sections. Section III reviews literature that 

examines the linkage between transportation investment and economic performance. A 

survey of major statistical undertakings by other government agencies that contain 

datasets on transportation investment is provided in Section IV. Both the literature 

review and the survey of statistical works are aimed at gaining insights into the type and 

level of detail of transportation investment data that can better meet multifaceted research 

agendas and facilitate policy making. Section V discusses data sources and procedures 

used to develop the dataset, and a list of data sources is provided in Appendix A. The 

final section presents the data tables and a descriptive analysis of transportation 

investment in relation to GDP. 
8 
9

3. Review of Literature 

The literature review covers the various research studies on the link between 

transportation investment and economic development. This literature review is intended 

to draw implications regarding the type, structure, and level of detail of transportation 

investment data that are needed to support transportation investment decisions. The 

objective here is not to critique the literature or provide an exhaustive review of all 

research on the subject; rather its purpose is to find out the data needs of current research 

efforts in order to narrow our data compilation effort towards meeting these and other 

related data needs. 

Largely because of the work by Aschauer (1989), academics have undertaken numerous 

studies that explore the relationship between transportation investment and economic 

performance. Economic performance can be measured by output, value-added (GDP), 

productivity and employment (e.g., Demetriades and Mamuneas, 2000). Some studies 

have explored the impact of infrastructure investment on technical efficiency that enters 

the production function (e.g., Delorme, Thompson, and Warren, 1999). Similar studies 

have also been undertaken based on foreign data (e.g., Kim, Koo, and Lee for South 

Korea, Rioja for seven Latin American countries, Everaert and Heylen for Belgium, and 

Sturm, Jacobs, and Groote for the Netherlands). Three major literature reviews, which 

were conducted in the late 1990s, cover major literature and most research projects on 

this subject in the U.S. up to early 2000.2

 As pointed out above, by summarizing these 

literature reviews and some recent academic studies, we will draw observations that shed 

some light for our data work. 

According to Bell and McGuire (1997), a major finding from studies up to early 1994 is 

that “a positive statistically significant but small effect of public capital on output has 

been confirmed by many.” As pointed out in the report, however, structural changes in 

relation to infrastructure investment have received insufficient attention in the literature. 

These changes include “differentiated economic linkage between specific industry and 

specific type of infrastructure,” the role of investment flows in examining “the derived

demand for public infrastructure by private sector,” and “the relationship between 

infrastructure types (e.g., complementary vs. substitutable)” (Bell and McGuire 1997, p. 

9-10). The review indicates that research on the question of the relative productivity of 

different types of public infrastructure, which have been constrained by data limitations, 

requires data by infrastructure type or mode of transportation. 

The subsequent literature review by Apogee Research and Greenhorne & O’Mara (1998) 

focused on evaluating the merits and limitations of techniques used in studies linking 

transportation investment and economic performance. This review divides the existing 

studies into macro- and microanalysis, with the former employing mainly production 

function and cost function methods and the latter cost-benefit analysis and case studies. 

In an attempt to find the impact of investment on productivity, the macroanalysis 

methods compare national trends in economic activity with levels of total public 

 

2

 See Bell and McGuire (1997), Apogee Research, Inc. and Greenhorne & O’Mara (1998), and Weisbrod 

(2000). 
10 

infrastructure investment. According to the authors’ view, these methods fail to address 

the causal relationship; instead they simply show how various data series are related to 

each other. The microanalysis methods, by focusing on the economic effects of a 

particular project, provide insights into how the private sector reacts to changes in 

transportation. The review points out that both methods lack “a solid understanding of the 

mechanisms by which transportation investment influence structural changes in a 

developed economy” (Apogee Research and Greenhorne & O’Mara 1998, p. 26). 

A recent synthesis of practices for assessing economic development impacts from 

transportation investments (Weisbrod, 2000) covers studies by both academia and 

practitioners up to early 2000. The synthesis, aimed at providing sub-national (local, 

regional, and state) planners with analytical tools, defines the economic impact by using 

regional rather than national indicators (e.g., using gross regional product rather than 

gross domestic product). In addition to a literature review, the synthesis is primarily 

based on a survey of 75 transportation planning agencies (in the U.S., Canada and the 

United Kingdom) on their current research and practice in evaluating the relationship 

between transportation and economic development. It pointed out that the evaluation of 

economic impact of public investment in transportation infrastructure has to date 

“focused primarily on highway spending,” implying the need to broaden the study to 

cover more transportation modes. 

Among all the studies of the economic impact of transportation investment, Nadiri and 

Mamunees (1996) appeared to be the most influential.3

 The study used data on public 

highway capital, which was developed by Apogee Research, Inc., based on Federal 

Highway Administration capital outlay data. One of the findings that are most relevant to 

the design of our data work is that the economic impact of highway capital at the national 

level differs from that at the industry level and varies by industry. Furthermore, highway 

capital seems to have a substitution effect on private capital for most industries and is 

complementary for the rest. One comment on this ongoing study is that it overlooked the 

welfare benefits of highway capital to consumers that are “likely to be significant.” (Eno, 

1999, Appendix A). 

Among other recent studies, Chandra and Thompson (2000) found that highways not 

only have “a differential impact across industries” but also “affect the spatial allocation

of economic activity.” Demetriades and Mamuneas (2000), using an inter-temporal 

optimization framework, found that in all 12 OECD countries, the magnitude of positive 

economic effect of public capital changes over time depending on the under-investment 

gap in infrastructure, which was wider during the 1970s and 1980s but narrowed down 

significantly by the early 1990s. Everaert and Heylen (2001), using single-equation cointegration analysis based on annual data, found a strong positive relationship with 

causality running from public capital (including roads, buildings, educational facilities, 

etc.) to multifactor productivity in Belgium for the period of 1953 to1996. 

In summary, the above literature review tells us that past studies were mostly focused on 

the economic impact of government transportation investment. Most of the studies were 

 

3

 Refer to Eno (1996, 1999). 
11

concentrated on impacts of highway capital. Little attention has been paid to business 

transportation investment, its economic impact, and its interaction with government 

investment; and other modes. Furthermore, as pointed out by the aforementioned 

literature reviewers, more work needs to be done to explore the structural impact of 

characteristically different transportation investments on the economy. Structural 

impacts refer to those impacts that may be classified by industrial, geographical, and even 

demographic changes within an economy. As for characteristically different 

transportation investments, one may include a broad range of characteristics that can 

differentiate one type of investment from the other in terms of transportation mode, asset 

type, sector of investors, funding source, technology embedded, and the nature of 

investment (i.e., public goods, club goods, or private goods). Finally, few studies raise 

the issue of how economic development impacts transportation investment. That is, how 

economic development (e.g., economic growth and industrial restructuring) stimulates 

transportation investment in terms of both growing demand and increased funding 

sources for transportation services. 

Ideally, new data development initiatives should be broader and more detailed to support 

a wide variety of future research undertakings. This report, which provides transportation 

investment by sector of investors, types of assets, and transportation modes, will fill some 

of the data gaps mentioned above, thus providing the basic data that will support policy 

decisions, and researches on transportation investment and economic development. Using 

the dataset developed by this report, researchers will be able to conduct those studies that 

they could not conduct in the past due to lack of data. For example, this report provides 

the infrastructure investment data by mode called for by Bell and McGuire. This is the 

first step towards the breakdown of infrastructure by type that they also suggest. 

Similarly, by providing comparable data across all modes, this paper emphasizes the need 

to move beyond the primary focus on highway spending that was pointed out by 

Wiesbrod. By bringing together data for infrastructure and equipment, and for 

government, industry and household sectors, it supports the kind of investigation of 

substitution and complentarity effects performed by Nadiri and Mamunees. Not only 

will this data begin to address some of the specific gaps mentioned above, but it may 

stimulate further related research. 
12 
13

4. Survey of Existing Statistical Work 

This survey is focused on existing statistical works that are similar to this one. It covers 

only undertakings by other domestic and foreign government agencies that are 

comparable to either the Department of Transportation or the Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics. For broader coverage of works on a smaller scale and by lower-level 

government agencies, one may refer to Lakshmanan (Eno, 1996, Appendix C) and 

Weisbrod (2000). 

Congressional Budget Office 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has in recent years (1992, 1993, 1995, and 

1999) published its analysis on Trends in Public Infrastructure Outlays and the 

President’s Proposals for Infrastructure Spending. The analysis is based on data 

supplied by the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Census Bureau, and CBO’s 

Budget Analysis Division. As identified in its 1999 paper (Appendix), all the 

government capital outlays for transportation infrastructure are included in the public 

infrastructure outlays. They are highways, mass transit, rail, aviation, and water 

transportation (the other three types of public infrastructure are water resources, water 

supply, and wastewater treatment). Based on its analysis, the published CBO paper on 

this subject divides spending into capital outlays (primarily the purchase, construction, or 

rehabilitation of physical assets) and non-capital outlays (primarily the operation and 

maintenance of physical assets) for each type of public infrastructure. All the amounts 

are presented in both current dollars and constant dollars. The analysis covers the period 

of 1956 up to the latest year for which the budget estimates are available. Through 1994, 

based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Government Finances series (available only through 

1994), CBO calculated government spending, in both amount and percentage share, by 

the level of government, the total including all levels of government, federal, and state 

and local. Federal spending is further divided into direct and indirect outlays, with the 

latter comprising grants and loans to state or local government entities; state and local 

outlays are categorized as total and net outlays, with the former including grants and 

loans from the federal government. As a result of this detailed calculation, the analysis 

shows trends in relative contributions of federal, state, and local governments split 

between capital and non-capital outlays and priorities for infrastructure programs. Since 

1995, the CBO analysis of trends in public infrastructure spending has covered only 

federal government outlays. 

Office of Management and Budget 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) publishes historical tables that contain 

several time series on federal government capital outlays that are somewhat related to our 

work. The latest version of Historical Tables (OMB, 2003) covers the period of 1940 to 

2003 for the federal government outlays on major public physical capital. In particular, 

Table 9.6 in Section 9 contains information on “grants for major public physical capital 

investment” in transportation by mode (highways, urban mass transportation, airports, 

and other). However, the publication does not provide further breakdown by asset type 
14 

(i.e., infrastructure vs. other capital outlays) since most of these grants are spent by state 

and local governments, over which OMB does not necessarily have control. Furthermore, 

the OMB publication is based on the federal government fiscal year, which is not directly 

comparable to statistics on transportation investment made by state and local 

governments and the private sector including both business and households. 
15

5. Data Sources and Methodology 

Key data used for our work are obtained from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the 

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and the U.S. Census Bureau (Census). None of 

these data sources, however, is readily usable for our purposes. Therefore, to produce 

tables presented in this report, we needed to fill in the gaps of these data sources. Our 

work is mainly based on BEA data, but we use data from the Census as a cross-reference. 

Appendix A contains a detailed list of the data sources used for our work. Following is a 

description of data sources and procedures used to produce tables presented in this report. 

5.1 Government Investment in Transportation 

Gross government capital investment in transportation is classified as investment in 

infrastructure and in rolling stock. The consensus is that equipment used for providing 

and maintaining the transportation infrastructure may be seen as a component of 

infrastructure despite the fact that the government sector must have made and will still 

make capital investment in transportation equipment other than rolling stock (e.g., 

computers for operating transportation facilities from highways to airports). It should be 

noted that there is no identifiable source of data that can be used for a reliable estimate of 

government investment in transportation equipment that is not blended with 

infrastructure. Therefore, we do not specify government investment in transportation 

equipment other than rolling stocks. The available data from the Census also show that 

government investment in transportation equipment is insignificant compared with 

government investment in construction, land, and existing structures, all of which are 

components of infrastructure. 

Government investment in transportation infrastructure is grouped by transportation 

mode, such as highways, air, water, and transit, including railroad. Data on government 

investment in “highways and streets” are adopted from BEA, Fixed Assets Table 7.5. 

Data on government investment in other transportation infrastructures are obtained from 

BEA, the Government Division. The government annual purchase of motor vehicles, 

including automobiles, trucks and buses, is estimated from BEA, National Accounts, 

Table for Auto Output (i.e., underlying table 8.8U). More specifically, government 

purchase of motor vehicles (excluding employee reimbursement and government 

investment in motor vehicles for defense) is counted as government capital outlays on 

rolling stock for the highway and mass transit modes. At the current stage, there are no 

data available on government purchases of non-defense rolling stock for other 

transportation modes.4

 

5.2. Business Investment in Transportation 

Estimates for business investment in transportation are developed based on BEA data on 

capital investment by industry and by asset type, 1901–2000. Our report groups 

 

4

 Our communication with the BEA staff also indicated that government purchases for other type of rolling 

stocks such as airplanes and ships including investment in ship construction are exclusively for defense 

purposes, which is beyond our scope of work. 
16 

industries into two sectors for the purposes of measuring investment, the transportation 

industry, and all others, which we refer to as non-transportation industries. Six modes are 

specified within the transportation industry. They are: highways, air, water, mass transit, 

railroad, and pipelines. For the transportation sector, the following three types of assets 

are specified: infrastructure, rolling stock, and other. Non-transportation industries 

include agricultural, mining and construction, manufacturing, communications, utilities, 

trade, finance, insurance and real estate, and service industries. For non-transportation 

industries, only investment in rolling stock (including motor vehicles, aircrafts, ships and 

boats, and railroad equipment) is identified as transportation investment. 

5.3. Households Purchase of Rolling Stock 

Household purchase of rolling stock is classified into three modes: highways and streets 

(road), air, and water. For road transportation, household purchase of rolling stock 

includes automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles. Household purchase of aircraft and 

boats are classified as air transportation and water transportation, respectively. As shown 

in Appendix A, all these data are obtained through personal communication with BEA 

and from various BEA web links. 
17

6. Trends in Transportation Investment 

In this section, we discuss trends in transportation investment in the following sequence: 

overall transportation investment, transportation investment by sector, transportation 

investment by asset type (i.e., infrastructure and rolling stock) and by sector of investors

(i.e., government, business, and household sector), business investment by category (i.e., 

transportation and non-transportation investment), and business investment in 

transportation by industry (i.e., transportation vs. non-transportation industries). 

6.1. Overall Transportation Investment 

The overall transportation investment accounted for more than 6% of GDP for most years 

during the period of 1977 to 2000 (Figure 1). Of this overall transportation investment, 

investment (including household expenditure) in rolling stock accounted for 83.3%, and 

that in transportation infrastructure and in other transportation equipment, 14.2% and 

2.5%, respectively. As such, the trend of investment in rolling stock dominates the trend 

in transportation investment. It is also noteworthy that, whereas infrastructure investment 

appears to have been steady at around 0.9% of GDP since 1981 when it dropped below 

1% of GDP, the overall expenditure in rolling stock (net of government purchase for 

defense) fluctuated along with the economic cycle. For example, the year-by-year drops 

in overall expenditure in rolling stock during the period of 1979 to 1982 echoed the 

repeated business downturns during that period (Figure 2). The picture for 1991 tells a 

similar story, whereas that for 1996 reflects a brief economic stagnation in 1995. Finally, 

business investment in transportation equipment (other than rolling stock) as a share of 

GDP, although insignificant, appeared to increase steadily for the second half of the 

1990s, which may indicate technological advancement within the transportation industry 

during that period and warrants further study (Figure 1). 

Figure 1. 

Transportation investment as percentage of GDP by type of asset, 

1977-2000

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

1977 19 79 19 81 19 83 198 5 19 87 198 9 199 1 19 93 19 95 19 97 19 99

Year

Percent

Infrastructure Rolling stock Other equipment Total

Note: Other equipment includes transportation industries’ investment in all types of equipment 

excluding rolling stock. 
18 

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income 

and Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; 

and personal communication with BEA.

 Figure 2. 

 Growth in transportation investment by type of asset compared with growth in GDP, 

 1977-2000 

Total investment and GDP

-17.0

-12.0

-7.0

-2.0

3.0

8.0

13.0

18.0

23.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

GDP

Total

Infrastructure and GDP

-17.0

-12.0

-7.0

-2.0

3.0

8.0

13.0

18.0

23.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

GDP

Infrastructure

Rolling stock and GDP

-17.0

-12.0

-7.0

-2.0

3.0

8.0

13.0

18.0

23.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

Rolling stock

GDP

O ther investment and GDP

-17.0

3.0

23.0

43.0

63.0

83.0

103.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

Other

GDP

 Note: All growth rates are calculated based on chained 1996 dollar values. 

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic 

Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and Product Account (NIPA) 

Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; and personal communication with BEA. 
19

6.2. Transportation Investment by Sector 

Figure 3 illustrates transportation investment by sector, namely, households, private 

business, and government. As a share of GDP, government investment, which consists of 

infrastructure and rolling stock, stayed almost the same, averaging 0.9% for the entire 

period, while private business investment, which includes infrastructure, rolling stock and 

other equipment, declined until 1990 and showed a consistent increase since 1991. 

Transportation investment of the household sector has been consistently greater than that 

of the public and private business sectors combined during the period under 

consideration. As a share of GDP, transportation investment by the household sector 

averaged 3.7%, fluctuating between a low of 3.1% and a high of 4.5% during 1977-2000. 

Figure 3. 

Transportation investment as percentage of GDP by sector, 1977-

2000

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999

Year

Percent

Government Private Business Households

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and 

Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; and 

personal communication with BEA. 

The role of government, private business, and households in transportation investment 

vary by asset type and mode of transportation (Figures 3 and 4). The public sector 

provides most transportation infrastructure with the exception of railroads and pipelines. 

For example, of the total government transportation investment, infrastructure accounted 

for an average of 89% for the period 1977-2000. The private business sector invests 

heavily in rolling stock and operates on publicly provided infrastructure. Private business 

investment in rolling stock and other equipment used for transportation activities 

accounted for about 92% of the total private sector transportation investment. The 

remaining 8% went to transportation infrastructure. A large proportion of the business 

infrastructure investment has been used for railroads and pipelines, which accounted for 

about 60% on average during 1977-2000. The household sector doesn’t invest in 
20 

transportation infrastructure and hence its investment is entirely in rolling stocks (i.e., 

motor vehicles, trucks and vans, airplanes, boats, etc.). 

6.3. Characteristics of Investment in Transportation Infrastructure 

Figure 4 provides an enlarged picture of investment in transportation infrastructure in 

terms of time trend and by sector. Figures 5-7 further illustrates this type of investment 

by transportation mode and by sector of investors. Four observations can be drawn from 

these figures. 

Figure 4. 

Investment in transportation infrastructure as percentage of GDP by

sector, 1977-2000

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999

Year

Percent

Government Business Total

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," available at 

http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; and personal communication with BEA. 

First, government is the predominant investor in transport infrastructure (Figure 4). 

Therefore, government investment clearly dominates the trend of investment in 

transportation infrastructure with only a few exceptions (e.g., in 1978, 1986, and 1987). 

For the period of 1977 to 2000, the government share in infrastructure investment, on 

average, is 97% for highways, 94% for transit, 81% for airports, and 84% for water 

transportation (Figure 5). While the business sector accounts for almost 100% of 

infrastructure investment for railroads and pipelines, total infrastructure investment for 

these two modes accounts for less than 0.1% of GDP since 1986 (Figure 5).5

 With its 

minor share, the business sector’s investment in transportation infrastructure as a 

proportion of GDP had been dropping since 1977 when it accounted for 0.21% of GDP 

and stabilized since 1987 around 0.1% of GDP, with a brief rise to 0.14% of GDP for 

1998 and 1999 (Figure 4). 

 

5

 It is known that government invests in railroad infrastructure. Most of the public investment is, however, 

allocated to commuter rail and subways, which are counted in transit mode.
21

Figure 5. 

Investment in transportation infrastructure as percentage of GDP by

mode and by sector, average for 1977-2000

0.57

0.07

0.02

0.090

0.0 0.0 0.02 0.02 0.005 0.006

0.59

0.09

0.03

0.095

0.07

0.01

0.07

0.01

0 .0

0 .1

0 .2

0 .3

0 .4

0.5

0 .6

Hig hway Air Water Transit Railroad Pipelines

Mode

Percent

Government Private business Total

 Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, 

 Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," 

 available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; and personal communication with BEA. 

Second, investment in transportation infrastructure lagged behind the business cycle. 

Overall investment in transportation infrastructure peaked in 1980, followed by a sharp 

downturn that bottomed out in 1984 and has fluctuated ever since, with a strong pickup in 

the late 1990s when both government and business sectors increased their investment 

(Figure 4). It is interesting to note that overall investment in transportation infrastructure 

lagged behind the business cycles. For example, whereas overall transportation 

investment, of which about 80% is in rolling stock, started to drop in 1979 when business 

contraction was well underway (Figure 2), investment in transportation infrastructure 

rose in 1979 and receded in 1980 and 1981 when the economy showed a brief revival 

(Figures 4). This implies that infrastructure investment, particularly that funded by the 

government sector, is an induced variable of past economic performance; it could be also 

a result of government budget decisions, which is often counter cyclical. 

Third, highway investment, on average, accounts for over 65% of total investment in 

transportation infrastructure for the period of 1977 to 2000 (Figures 5 and 6). 

Consequently, the trend in highway investment dominates the observed trend in the 

overall infrastructure investment. 
22 

Figure 6. 

Investment in transportation infrastructure as percentage of GDP by

mode, 1977-2000

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

19 77 1979 198 1 198 3 198 5 19 87 198 9 199 1 19 93 199 5 199 7 199 9

Year

Percent

Highway Air Water Trans it

Railro ad P ipelines Total

 Notes: Transit includes relatively small amounts of government investment in railroad 

 infrastructure. Transportation services include establishments furnishing services incidental 

 to transportation, such as forwarding and packing services and the arrangement of passenger 

 and freight transportation. 

 Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

 Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," available at 

 http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; and personal communication with BEA. 

Finally, despite all the fluctuation, infrastructure investment in non-highway 

transportation modes changed significantly in relative shares. As illustrated by Figure 7, 

as a percentage of GDP, investment in air transportation (mainly airports) in 2000 

(0.11%) was almost double that in 1977 (0.056%). Similarly, though less significantly, 

investment in both water transportation and public transit as a percentage of GDP 

increased by more than 20% from 1977 to 2000. In contrast, investment in railroad as a 

percentage of GDP has decreased over time by more than 60% and that in pipelines 

dropped by 90%. 
23

Figure 7. 

Investment in transportation infrastructure as percentage of GDP by

mode, excluding highway, 1977-2000

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

0.12

0.14

1977 1979 198 1 198 3 19 85 19 87 198 9 199 1 19 93 19 95 19 97 199 9

Year

Percent

Air Water Trans it Railro ad P ipelines

Notes: Transit includes relatively small amounts of government investment in railroad 

infrastructure. Transportation services include establishments furnishing services incidental to 

transportation, such as forwarding and packing services and the arrangement of passenger and 

freight transportation. 

 

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," available at 

http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002; and personal communication with BEA. 

6.4. Characteristics of Investment in Rolling Stock 

Figures 8-11 illustrate several characteristics of investment in rolling stock measured as a 

percentage of GDP. 

First, households are the predominant investors in rolling stock, particularly motor 

vehicles (Figure 9). This is well documented in the National Account (for example, see 

the BEA website, Table 8.8U for Auto Output, at http://www.bea.gov). The annual 

change in household-dominated investment in rolling stock appeared to be closely related 

to the change in the annual growth rate in GDP (Figure 10). This is consistent with the 

close association between household spending and overall economic performance. In 

other words, as the growth in GDP speeds up, so does household purchase of rolling 

stock as a proportion of GDP (sometimes with a short time lag), and vice versa. 
24 

Figure 8. 

Investment in rolling stock as percentage of GDP by sector and by

mode, average for 1977-2000

0.09 0.16

0.91

3.57

4.74

0.13 0.09 0.03 0.03 0.01 0.12 0.18 0.06 0.02 0.08 0.24

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

Government Transp ortation

ind ustries

Non-transportation

industries

Househo lds To tal

Percent

 Highway/Trans it Air Water Railro ad

Notes: Transportation industries cover establishments involved in providing railroad 

transportation, local and interurban passenger transit services, trucking and warehousing, water 

transportation, air transportation, pipelines except natural gas, and transportation services. 

Non-transportation industries include agriculture, mining and construction, manufacturing, 

communications, utilities, trade, finance, insurance and real estate, and services industries. 

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and 

Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002. 

Figure 9. 

Investment in rolling stock as percentage of GDP by sector, 1977-

2000

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

1977 1979 198 1 19 83 1985 19 87 19 89 199 1 19 93 19 95 19 97 199 9

Year

Percent

Go vernment P rivate bus ines s Ho us eho lds Total

Notes: Transportation industries cover establishments involved in providing railroad 

transportation, local and interurban passenger transit services, trucking and warehousing, 

water transportation, air transportation, pipelines except natural gas, and transportation 

services. Non-transportation industries include agriculture, mining and construction, 

manufacturing, communications, utilities, trade, finance, insurance and real estate, and 

services industries. 

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and 

Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002. 
25

Second, compared with their investment in transportation infrastructure, government and 

business investment in rolling stock is more cyclical, although with more evident time lag 

than household purchase of rolling stock. On the other hand, similar to their investment in 

infrastructure, government and business investment in rolling stock showed a steady 

upward trend since 1992. This trend requires a further investigation of its economic 

driving forces and consequences. 

Figure 10. 

 Growth of investment in rolling stock by sector compared with growth in GDP, 1977- 2000

Total rolling stock and GDP

-20.0

-15.0

-10.0

-5.0

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

GDP

Rolling stock

Business and GDP

-20.0

-15.0

-10.0

-5.0

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

Business

GDP

Government and GDP

-35.0

-15.0

5.0

25.0

45.0

65.0

85.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

Government

GDP

Households and GDP

-20.0

-15.0

-10.0

-5.0

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

Year

(Annual growth in percent)

Households

GDP

 Note: All growth rates in this figure are calculated based on chained 1996 dollar values. 

 Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic 

Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and Product Account (NIPA) 

Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002.
26 

Finally, the majority of investment in rolling stock is in motor vehicles, including 

automobiles, trucks and buses. As a result of this, investment in motor vehicles (for 

highway/transit modes) dominates the trend of investment in rolling stocks (Figure 11). 

Investment in motor vehicles, or rolling stock for highway and transit use, has been well 

above 90% of the total gross investment in rolling stock since 1983. 

 

Figure 11. 

Investment in rolling stock as percentage of GDP by mode, 1977-

2000

0 .0

1.0

2 .0

3 .0

4 .0

5.0

6 .0

1977 19 79 198 1 198 3 198 5 19 87 19 89 19 91 19 93 199 5 19 97 19 99

Year

Percent

 Highways /Trans it Air Water Railro ad

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and 

Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002. 

Figure 8 provides a summary of investment in rolling stock by sector and by 

transportation mode. As described above, the figure shows that household purchase of 

automobiles (for the highway mode) on average accounts for about 70% (=3.71%/5.24%) 

of gross investment in rolling stock. This is consistent with the study on household 

production of transportation services (Chen, Fang, Han and Sloboda, 2002). Since 

household purchase of motor vehicles is one of the major components of gross personal 

consumption expenditure (PCE) and follows closely the trend in GDP growth, it 

contributes significantly to the fact that PCE is used as a critical component of many 

economic indicators (e.g., manufacturers' new orders for consumer goods and materials, 

the personal consumption expenditure deflator for money supply, and consumer 

installment credit to income ratio, etc.). 

6.5. Business Investment in Transportation Assets Compared with That 

in Non-Transportation Assets 

The term “business investment” in our report is equivalent to the term “gross private 

fixed investment” used in the input-output (I-O) accounts. For our purposes, business 

investment, or gross private fixed investment (GPFI), can be classified as transportation 

and non-transportation investment. As mentioned before, business investment in 
27

transportation includes all the investments made by the transportation industries and 

investments in rolling stock made by non-transportation industries; non-transportation 

investment includes the rest. Compared with non-transportation investment, 

transportation investment is more sensitive to the business cycle as measured by growth 

in GDP. Figure 12 illustrates this comparison. In other words, compared with nontransportation investment, transportation investment is more suppressed by economic 

contraction and more buoyed by economic recovery and boom. A possible explanation is 

that, compared with non-transportation investment, transportation investment (largely 

rolling stock as mentioned above) is more flexible in terms of its utilization and useful 

life, hence replacement cycle. On the other hand, several notable overshoots in 

transportation investment, particularly those appearing to go against the business cycle 

(e.g., in 1990-91), require further investigation. 

Figure 12. 

Growth of private business transportation and non-transportation 

investment: 1977-2000 

-26 .0

-16 .0

-6 .0

4 .0

14 .0

24 .0

1977 1979 198 1 1983 198 5 198 7 19 89 199 1 19 93 199 5 199 7 19 99

Year

Annual growth in percent

Trans po rtatio n inves tment No n-trans po rtatio n inves tment GDP

Note: All growth rates are calculated based on chained 1996 dollar values. 

 

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and 

Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002. 

6.6. Investment in Transportation Assets by Transportation Industries 

vs. Non-Transportation Industries 

Transportation investment made by non-transportation industries accounts for 6.7% of 

GPFI and 1.1% of GDP, respectively, whereas that by the transportation industry 

accounts for 4.2% and 0.7%, respectively (Figure 13). In other words, transportation 

investment made by non-transportation industries (all in rolling stock) is about 60% more 

than that made by transportation industries (including infrastructure, rolling stock and 

other equipment). It is interesting to look at these statistics in reference to the 

transportation satellite accounts (TSA). As indicated in the 1992 TSA (BTS, 1999), inhouse transportation services provided by non-transportation industries were about 60% 
28 

of the for-hire transportation services provided by transportation industries (i.e., in-house 

accounted for 1.9% of GDP; for-hire, 3.1%). This rough comparison indicates that the 

intensity of use of transportation capital (largely rolling stock) is higher for the 

transportation industries than that for non-transportation industries. 

Figure 13. 

Private business transportation investment by transportation and nontransportation industries, average for 1977-2000

4.2

6.7

10.9

0.7

1.1

1.7

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

Transp ortation ind ustry No n-transp ortation ind ustries To tal

Percent

 As % of gross private fixed investment As % of GDP

Sources: BTS calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA), "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables," "National Income and 

Product Account (NIPA) Tables," available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002. 

In summary, for the period of 1977 to 2000, overall transportation investment (including 

household purchase of rolling stock) on average accounted for more than 6% of GDP. Of 

this overall transportation investment, investment in rolling stock accounted for 83.3%, 

and that in transportation infrastructure and in other transportation equipment, 14.2% and 

2.5%, respectively. Second, while households are the primary purchaser of rolling stock, 

government is the dominant investor in transportation infrastructure, except for railroads 

and pipelines, in which the business sector appears to be the exclusive investor. Third, 

besides the dominant share of highways in total infrastructure investment, which 

averaged 66%, the relative share of infrastructure investment among other modes 

changed significantly during 1977-2000, with air investment almost doubling and 

pipelines investment dropping by about 90%. Fourth, whereas the overall transportation 

investment (of which 83% is rolling stock) closely echoed the business cycle, investment 

in transportation infrastructure evidently lagged behind the business cycle. Fifth, within 

business investment, transportation investment is more sensitive to the business cycle 

compared with non-transportation investment. Finally, transportation investment made by 

non-transportation industries is greater than that by transportation industries. However, 

the intensity of use of transportation capital, particularly rolling stock, is much higher in 

transportation industries than in non-transportation industries. Readers should note that 

these findings require further study of their economic and policy background to facilitate 

future budgeting for transportation investment.
29

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32 
33

Appendix A. Principal Data Sources 

Data Sources 

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 

Chain-type price indexes 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics 

Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 

“National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) Tables,” 

available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/, as of July 

2002. 

Gross private fixed investment U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics 

Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), “Fixed 

Assets and Consumer Durables,” available at 

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn/faweb, as of July 2002 

Government gross investment in 

highways and streets 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics 

Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), “Fixed 

Assets and Consumer Durables,” Table 7.5, available at 

http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/faweb/, as of July 2002. 

Government gross investment in 

transportation infrastructure by mode 

other than highways and streets 

Personal communication with BEA, Government Division. 

Gross government investment in autos 

and trucks. 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics 

Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 

“National Income and Product Accounts Tables,” historical 

underlying details, Table 8.8U Motor vehicle output, available 

at http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn1.htm, as of July 2002. 

Government investment defense 

related automobiles 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis 

(BEA), “Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables,” Table 7.5, 

available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/faweb/, as of July 

2002. 

Private business transportation 

investment by type of asset (i.e., 

infrastructure, rolling stock, and other 

equipment) 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis 

(BEA), “Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables,” Nonresidential detailed estimates of historical cost investment, 

available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/faweb/, as of July 

2002. 

Consumer expenditure on 

automobiles 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics 

Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), “Fixed 

Assets and Consumer Durables,” Table 8.7, Historical cost 

investment in consumer durable goods, available at 

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn/faweb, as of July 2002. 

Consumer expenditure on other 

rolling stock including bicycles, 

motorcycles, pleasure boats and 

aircrafts 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics 

Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 

“National Income and Product Accounts Tables,” historical 

underlying details, Table 2.6U, Personal consumption 

expenditures, available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn1.htm, as 

of July 2002. 
34 
35

Appendix B. Data Tables