Infrastructure Finance

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The Disaster Bills Coming Due

The United States largely waits for a disaster to strike and then spends billions to repair damages. Investing in resilience today can significantly reduce the costs to recover after a disaster strikes.

Jessie Riposo, Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson

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National Wastewater Tracking Could Help Us Stay Ahead of COVID-19—but Congress Cut the Funds

For years, medical experts have used wastewater to track the spread of diseases. The National Wastewater Surveillance System has the potential to significantly change the way we fight COVID-19 as well as future pandemics, bacterial diseases, and viruses. But building up the robustness of a wastewater surveillance system will take financial support, and it's not clear Congress will provide it.

Douglas Yeung @DouglasCYeung

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More Than Green: Leveraging Green Bonds to Invest in Greater Climate Resilience

The significance of green bonds may depend not only on having a lot of them but also on carefully developing, investing, and tracking projects against the larger goal of climate resilience.

Karishma V. Patel, Michelle E. Miro

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The Growing Green Bond Market Could Plateau. How Can It Grow Further?

If green bonds are a viable tool to reduce emissions and adapt infrastructure to the effects of climate change, how can governments encourage the issuance, sales, and growth in the share of green bonds in the total bond market?

David Catt, Nihar Chhatiawala, et al.

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Green Bonds Can Leave Issuers in the Red

To achieve the Biden administration's blueprint for solar energy and focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation, green bonds may be worth considering. But, like any other financing instrument, they may be best considered through a cost-benefit lens.

Brian Wong, Ismael Arciniegas Rueda

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Climate Change Is Only One Driver of Explosive Wildfire Season—Don't Forget Land Management

The fire seasons that have been scorching huge areas and wiping entire towns from the map appear to be the future. Accepting that wildland fires are a part of our environment and working to live with fires rather than continuously fighting against them may be the most responsible path forward.

Jim Whittington, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg @aclarkginsberg, et al.

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Defund Prisons, Not Police

The United States spends billions on prisons, jails, and juvenile detention facilities. New lows in incarceration rates present a chance to shift resources away from costly correctional facilities and toward education, job training, transportation, and other community services.

Shawn D. Bushway @BushwayShawn, Nidhi Kalra

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New Thinking to Translate Infrastructure Dollars into Resilience

Infrastructure investments the United States makes today to recover from the pandemic can help boost resilience for the future. We will need to think beyond what we've done in the past to ensure that these investments can continue to protect the nation from shifting threats in the future.

Benjamin Lee Preston @bl_preston, Michelle E. Miro, et al.

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Progress on Infrastructure, but the Devil May Be in the Details

Negotiations are underway between the White House and Congress about the scope of investment in infrastructure and how to pay for it. But reaching a compromise on spending may not be enough to ensure that the spending will produce results as intended.

Debra Knopman, Benjamin M. Miller

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U.S. Military Power Comes from More Than Just the Defense Budget

With U.S. domestic challenges ranging from the ongoing pandemic to long-delayed infrastructure investments, now is a good time to consider spending that provides both domestic and national security benefits. Infrastructure spending offers one such example.

Miranda Priebe @MirandaPriebe, Bryan Rooney, et al.

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President Biden's First Address to Congress: Insights from RAND

President Joe Biden addressed a joint session of Congress, summarizing his administration's early COVID-19 response and outlining plans that aim to loosen the pandemic's year-long grip on a weary nation. The speech reflected the fact that the United States faces policy challenges across a wide range of domains.

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Navigating Speed Bumps to a Possible Federal Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee

It's been clear for years that the gas tax has been losing its ability to pay for America's existing roads and bridges, let alone improvements and new construction. A vehicle miles traveled fee could provide a potential option for a 21st-century transportation funding system.

Liisa Ecola, Laura Patton

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Creating the Right Incentives for State and Local Governments to Reduce Disaster Costs

In the United States, federal, state, and local governments share responsibility for paying for losses from disasters. As the frequency and severity of disasters has increased, so have the losses. It's worth considering whether the current risk-sharing approach is appropriate.

Jason Thomas Barnosky, Noreen Clancy, et al.

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Counting the Costs: Improving Disaster Recovery Cost Estimation

Estimating the cost of disasters is a complex process. Disaster recovery is complicated even further during this new era of COVID-19, when extra precautions must be taken. How can we estimate costs quickly and reliably, thus improving the flow of dollars back into the community?

Kelly Klima @KellyKlima1, Ismael Arciniegas Rueda

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What to Watch to Understand the Sino-Iranian Relationship

Beijing and Tehran are in the process of finalizing an ambitious partnership covering a range of security and economic issues. The United States should not overreact to shifting geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East, and should instead keep an eye out to assess the evolution of the relationship and take stock of what is delivered instead of what is merely promised.

Colin P. Clarke, Mollie Saltskog

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Demystifying the Belt and Road Initiative

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, China works with more than 70 countries to design and implement large infrastructure projects. Why are countries of all stripes turning to China for funding when the world is awash with cash?

Rafiq Dossani

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State of the Union 2020: Insights from RAND

The final State of the Union address of President Trump's four-year term may be viewed through the lens of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the evening. But the speech touched on a range of policy challenges that will remain, regardless of how politics play out in 2020.

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U.S.-Turkish Relations, Airports, Opioids: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the future of the U.S.-Turkish partnership, helping America's commercial airports meet rising demand, the opioid crisis, and more.

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Development with No Political Framework Is a Car Without an Engine

Pushing an economic development plan for the Middle East without addressing the political issues specific to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is like trying to sell a car without an engine. Why? Because an economic strategy that doesn't address core political issues would have no governing entity to put it into effect.

C. Ross Anthony, Charles P. Ries @charles_ries

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State of the Union 2019: Insights from RAND

To shed light on a wide range of topics that figured in President Trump's second State of the Union address, we've rounded up insights from some of RAND's objective and nonpartisan research, analysis, and expertise.

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Veterans, Infrastructure, Middle East: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the challenges facing veterans and their loved ones, a chance for bipartisan infrastructure policy, realignment in the Middle East, and more.

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The Long Game on Infrastructure

The Trump administration recently announced its Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America. With its lack of new federal funding, the plan may not be the best path to fixing America's most serious regional, national, and long-term problems.

Debra Knopman, Martin Wachs

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Trump's First State of the Union: Insights from RAND

RAND research, analysis, and expertise provide context for the issues discussed in the president's first State of the Union address, including infrastructure, North Korea, and opioids.

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How Federal Policy Could Help Water and Wastewater Utilities

A targeted approach could help the federal government address the root causes of infrastructure problems more effectively than a spending initiative that simply spreads money around with the hope that more spending might do some good.

Debra Knopman, David Catt

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China's Field of Dreams in Pakistan

China is four years into joint planning and construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a vast economic development package. Beneath the surface, Beijing is testing a new "build it and they will come" model for delivering economic development and foreign aid.

Rafiq Dossani, Niels Erich

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The Driving Force Behind China's Ambitious 'Belt and Road Initiative'

By committing trillions of dollars to infrastructure projects across 60 countries, China could transform the lagging economies of the region and place itself in the enviable position of being Asia's true pivot. But the new Silk Road blueprint presents risks as well as benefits.

Rafiq Dossani

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Regulating Infrastructures in the Tropics

Regulation helps address the demands of investors who are seeking assurances that their investments are safe, while also reassuring democratically elected governments. Regulatory reform could help Brazil attract more private investment in its infrastructure.

Christian Van Stolk, Daniel Schweppenstedde, et al.

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The Road Ahead: Rebuilding the Country's Infrastructure in the Trump Administration Era

Policymakers generally agree on the need to rebuild America's infrastructure. But the country is far behind in this area. Why? Transportation projects take time and money. And it's hard to predict how a project will affect its surroundings.

Liisa Ecola

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The Olympic Legacy — What Can Rio Learn?

Rio will spend $14.4 billion on the Olympics. Like other host cities, it hopes to achieve an “Olympic legacy” to ensure that this investment pays dividends after the games and provides long-term economic, social, sporting, and cultural benefits.

Richard Warnes

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Pay as You Go

Using vehicle miles traveled as a means of distributing the cost of maintaining America's roads and bridges may not be the only answer, but it represents the kind of innovative thinking that is necessary at a time when this sector of the American transportation infrastructure is desperately in need of a fix.

Liisa Ecola

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How to Improve Oregon's Mileage-Fee Experiment

Oregon is rolling out the nation's first large-scale pilot to examine switching to a mileage fee instead of the gas tax. The trial is a welcome next step toward understanding how mileage fees can be deployed.

Liisa Ecola, Laura Patton

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Future of Coastal Flooding

President Obama's executive order that directs federal agencies to plan and build for higher flood levels as they construct new projects in flood-prone regions will affect hundreds of billions of dollars of future public works projects. In an ideal world, planners would estimate the benefits and costs for each project, taking into account everything from the details of the local landscape to the potential for adaptive responses over time.

Debra Knopman, Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, et al.

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Crimean Adventure Will Cost Russia Dearly

Moscow may have overreached, as it appears ill-prepared to come up with the necessary funds to cover Crimea-related costs. Infrastructure improvements, development aid, government operations, and other costs will be a multi-billion drain -- as much as $4.5 billion per year.

Larry Hanauer

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In Africa: U.S. Promotes Security, China Does Business

Africans require both security and economic growth. Global powers like China and the United States do not need to choose between the two when focusing their foreign policy efforts.

Larry Hanauer, Lyle J. Morris

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Paying for Infrastructure, a Taxing Issue

If the user pays idea is worth saving, the United States needs a different calculation, writes Liisa Ecola. Some states are looking at mileage fees. With mileage fees, you pay based on the number of miles you drive, rather than the number of gallons of gas used.

Liisa Ecola

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Getting Over the Privacy Hurdle to Mileage-Based Road Fees

There is no need for privacy concerns to halt all discussion of new technologies to help address America's mounting transportation funding crisis, writes Liisa Ecola.

Liisa Ecola

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No Data? Big Problem.

Good data can inform decision makers about what really works—how best to relieve congestion and improve supply-chain connectivity to make freight transportation—and hence the U.S. economy—more competitive, write Mortimer Downey, Joseph Schofer, and Johanna Zmud.

Mortimer Downey, Joseph Schofer, et al.

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Save Money Hire Police

The high cost of crime to society suggests that adding police officers may give large cities a sizable return on their investments, write Greg Ridgeway and Paul Heaton.

Greg Ridgeway, Paul Heaton

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A System Under Strain

Our transportation future will be multi-layered and complex—bounded by transportation infrastructure that is under-funded on the one hand and ever-expanding congestion and capacity constraints on the other, writes Johanna Zmud.

Johanna Zmud

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Follow the Money

If the U.S. does not improve its ability to track federal spending and develop reliable measures of effectiveness, precious federal disaster aid will continue to be at risk of being squandered, writes Agnes Gereben Schaefer.

Agnes Gereben Schaefer

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Among Potential Deficit Remedies, Don't Rule Out Raising Gas Tax

A proposed 15-cents-a-gallon gas tax is worth a second look. Among various painful options put forward in the Deficit Reduction Commission's draft report, this tax hike may be well justified, write Martin Wachs.

Martin Wachs

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The Future of Transportation Finance: A New Generation of User Fees

The principle of paying for roads and transit by charging those who use the system has served our nation well, but in its current form it will soon outlive its usefulness, writes Martin Wachs.

Martin Wachs

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Grab Vital Habitat Now: How Riverside County Can Step Up Conservation While Land Prices Are Down

The economic slowdown threatens to put a crimp in ambitious efforts to balance preservation, transportation improvements and development in western Riverside County. It doesn't have to. Actually, it presents an opportunity, writes Lloyd Dixon.

Lloyd Dixon

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Iraq Needs an Ownership Surge

The military surge in Iraq has created conditions favorable for long-term stability. Now a new approach to economic reconstruction is needed to sustain the hard-fought military gains, write Clare Lockhart and Joseph Konzelmann.

Joseph Konzelmann, Clare Lockhart

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Paying for Our Transportation Needs

Published commentary by RAND staff: Paying for Our Transportation Needs, in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Martin Wachs

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Planning for Palestine

Published commentary by RAND staff.

Steven Simon, C. Ross Anthony