Do the distributional preferences of national infrastructure planners diverge from those of the public?

Résumé

In this paper, we study how the distributional preferences of planners and the public diverge in the context of national infrastructure planning. To do so, we surveyed a sample of 323 planners working at the Swedish Transport Administration and 2,108 members of the Swedish public. The most striking difference is that planners place a relatively higher value on aggregate benefits than the public. Planners also place a significantly higher relative value on infrastructure plans that benefit rail transport compared to the public. It is our contention that planners value aggregate benefits relatively more highly because they have a better understanding of the attribute and because they have internalised the long-standing goal of an economically efficient Swedish transport sector.