摘要：In a period of heightened concern about fiscal consolidation in the euro area, a politically
expedient way of controlling the public budget is to cut public investment. A critical
question, however, is whether or not political expediency comes at a cost, in terms of both
long-term economic performance and future budgetary contention efforts. First, common
wisdom suggests that public investments have positive effects on economic performance
although the empirical evidence is less clear. Second, it is conceivable that public investment
has such strong effects on output that over time it generates enough additional tax revenues
to pay for itself. Obviously, it is equally plausible that the effects on output although positive
are not strong enough for the public investment to pay for itself.
