How Public Spending and Infrastructure Shape Local Development

Co-author: Jean Dubé

Project summary. This working paper studies how time-varying public-sector interventions—public spending and major infrastructures—are associated with local development outcomes over time.

Data. The analysis uses Canadian census data from 1981 to 2021 (quinquennial waves) on a standardized municipal geography, combined with additional administrative sources describing the timing and location of infrastructures (e.g., highways) and selected public facilities.

Approach. The empirical strategy relies on difference-in-differences and event-study logic embedded in an augmented growth-model framework with unit and time fixed effects, and extensions that account for spatial spillovers using a spatial weights matrix (queen contiguity).