Updates on the Transit Costs Project

+ Alon Levy

Fellow Alon Levy has provided several updates on their transit-infrastructure project with Research Scholar Eric Goldwyn. They have outlined their case-selection methodology, which consists of identifying cases in five clusters:

Very low-cost countries
Middle-range countries
Countries with recent cost growth
Rich countries with very high costs
Countries on the global periphery with very high costs

In addition, Levy has provided insights on construction costs in the Arab world through research conducted by Assistant Research Scholar Anan Maalouf. They note:

There are identifiable clusters in the Arab world, which is not surprising—it’s similar to how there is a common Nordic cost (which is low), a common cost to the English-speaking world (which is high), and so on. Of course, these clusters are not perfectly predictable ex ante; in light of the most important global pattern with the coronavirus crisis, I keep stressing that there is no distinct Europe vs. East Asia cluster when it comes to costs, and instead both regions have similar averages and huge internal variations. The Arab world does not form an entire cluster itself, but its clusters are at least somewhat understandable based on internal divisions.

The team hopes to have their transit-infrastructure cost data, in a website of over 500 projects, out soon.

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Thank you!