City Infrastructure Policies: Lessons from Research

In the United States, most infrastructure investment is made at the state and local level. City
government leaders play a critical role in building, managing, and maintaining infrastructure such as
roads and highways, bridges, public transportation, water infrastructure, airports, and much more.
This infrastructure greatly impacts not only the lives of city residents, but also the economic growth
and development of a city. Despite this, infrastructure in many cities across the country is
unsatisfactory, and high infrastructure costs make improvements challenging. In this webinar, we
consult with experts to better understand issues surrounding infrastructure including the
determinants of infrastructure costs, methods of funding and financing infrastructure investment, and the potential benefits of investment to cities.

This webinar is part of a course at Stanford GSB titled Public Policy Lab: Financial Challenges Facing
US Cities. The class (ALP 307) is an experiential learning class that is part of Stanford GSB’s Action
Learning Program. The students and teaching team have partnered with three cities across the
country, each a different size, in different regions, and with different economic and political
landscapes. The class works with city officials to assess current policies, conduct research, and make data-driven, evidence-based policy proposals.

Speakers:
Dr. Edward Glaeser – Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the
Department of Economics at Harvard University

Dr. Zachary Liscow – Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget, and Professor of Law at Yale Law School (on leave for 2022-2023 academic year)

Dr. Megan Ryerson – UPS Chair of Transportation Associate Dean for Research at the Weitzman School of Design, and Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at University of Pennsylvania

Moderated by:
Dr. Joshua Rauh –Ormond Family Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).