35 Years of Public Capital Budgeting: A Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

This paper reviews a large number of works published over the past 35 years on public capital budgeting. the purpose of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive analysis of research on capital budgeting. Through this review, this study seeks to critically analyze the literature on the public capital budgeting, identify the research gaps, and set future research agenda based on those gaps. Our study presents a review of 106 academic studies on this topic. the main finding is that constructs, such as international capital budgeting, infrastructure maintenance, cross-state and cross-local municipalities’ analysis, need further attention. This study found that there is a lack of literature that examines how the federal, state, and local governments cope with challenges and pressures during economic decline. Future studies could examine the effects of economic decline during and after Covid-19 pandemic on changes in capital budgeting practices in different countries on national, regional and local levels. the paper is intended as a resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, focusing on public capital budgeting issues.