Stuck with the bill, but why? : an analysis of the Portuguese public finance system with respect to surface transportation policy and investments

Despite decentralization progress in other sectors, the Portuguese central government maintains significant administrative and fiscal power over national and sub-national surface transportation operations and infrastructure. This thesis provides a global view of the state of surface transportation in Portugal through an analysis of both the nation's public finance and transportation finance systems as well as a discussion of specific surface transportation systems. It reveals that national and sub-national governments in Portugal are collectively pursuing an unsustainable transportation finance policy that places a significant burden on the public finance system, unfairly privileges the nation's metropolitan areas, and enables a costly and highly politicized tug-of-war between central government and sub-national governments with respect to public transportation investments.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Nelson, Joshua S

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• P. Christopher Zegras.

• Urban Studies and Planning.
• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44371

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44371