Policy makers often call for increased spending on infrastructure, which can encompass a broad range of investments, from roads and bridges to digital networks that will expand access to high-speed broadband. Some point to the near-term macroeconomic benefits, such as job creation, associated with infrastructure spending; others point to the long-term effects of such spending on productivity and economic growth. Economic Analysis and Infrastructure Investment explores the links between infrastructure investment and economic outcomes, analyzing key economic issues in the funding and management of infrastructure projects. It includes new research on the short-run stimulus effects of infrastructure spending, develops new estimates of the stock of US infrastructure capital, and explores incentive aspects of public-private partnerships with particular attention to their allocation of risk. The volume provides a reference for researchers seeking to study infrastructure issues and for policymakers tasked with determining the appropriate level and allocation of infrastructure spending.

Annuity insurance products help protect retirees against outliving their incomes. Dramatic advances in life expectancy mean that today's retirees must plan on living into their eighties, their nineties, and even beyond. Longer life expectancies are the symbol of a prosperous society, but this progress also means that some retirees will need to plan conservatively and cut back substantially on their living standards or risk living so long that they exhaust their resources. This book examines the role that life annuities can play in helping people protect themselves against such outcomes. A life annuity is an insurance product that pays out a periodic amount for as long as the annuitant is alive, in exchange for a premium. The book begins with a history of life annuity markets during the twentieth century in the United States and elsewhere. It then explores recent trends in annuity pricing and money's worth, as well as the economic value generated for purchasers of these products. The book explains the potential importance of inflation-protected annuities and stock-market-linked variable annuities in providing more complete retirement security. The concluding chapters examine life annuities in various institutional settings and the tax treatment of annuity products.

Although Japan and the United States are the world's leading economies, there are significant differences in the ways their wealth is translated into living standards. For example, average per capita living space in the United States is more than 50 percent greater than in Japan, and many more American homes are equipped with modern plumbing. Yet housing in Japan costs seven times the average Japanese income, while in the United States the cost is three times the average U.S. income. A careful comparison of housing markets illustrates not only how living standards in the two countries differ, but also reveals much about saving patterns and how they affect wealth accumulation. Ten essays, by Japanese and American scholars, discuss the evolution of housing prices, the link between housing markets and personal saving behavior, commuting, housing finance, and the impact of public policy on housing markets. The first pair of papers analyzes the source of the house price increase in Japan during the 1980s, and the corresponding determinants of house price fluctuations in the United States. The second pair discusses mortgage financing in Japan and explains the relationships between mortgages and other financial markets in the United States. The third pair examines how housing market conditions affect commuting decisions. These essays find that because housing in Tokyo is scarce, workers are forced to commute from homes in the suburbs to jobs in the city. In America, however, increasingly workers are driving from homes in one suburb to jobs in another. The fourth pair analyzes the effects of housing prices on saving. In Japan, increasing housing prices have discouraged people from saving fordown payments, while in the United States a similar increase has led to more saving by renters and more spending by homeowners. The final two papers review the impact of tax policies on housing markets. One essay finds that Japanese tax policies that discourage the conversion of agricultural land to housing create a scarcity of available land for housing, and thus drive up housing prices. An essay on the United States reviews the effects of tax reforms, inflation, and low-income housing policies since the 1970s. The first comparison of housing in the world's leading economies, this study will be useful for policymakers, economists, urban planners, housing experts, and others concerned with Japanese economy and society.