Impact of Public and Private Infrastructure Investment on Economic Growth: Evidence from India

Abstract

Literature presents contradictory views regarding the impact of public and private investment on the economic growth of a country. India being a developing country, where the major share of investment is by public sector, the question which props up is what among public and private investment is contributing more towards the economic growth of the country. In this framework, the gross domestic product (GDP) can be fairly explained as a function of public infrastructure investment and private infrastructure investment. Johansen’s co-integration was used to test the long-run relationship between the variables over the period from 1961–1962 to 2016–2017. A vector error correction model (VECM) along with an impulse response function and variance decomposition analysis was done to measure the impact of public infrastructure investment and private infrastructure investment on the GDP. Based on the empirical evidence discussed earlier, it was evident that both public and private infrastructure investments have a significant impact on the economic growth of the nation. Findings which came up in this study correlate to majority findings of past literature that, when compared with public investment, it is private investment which is capable of giving a better impetus to economic growth.