Analysis of highways expenditures as public infrastructure investment in the process of transition to the green economy

The starting point of this study is climate change, which is accepted as one of the most important problems awaiting mankind in the future. How the level of prosperity reached today will evolve in the future due to climate change is a matter of serious concern. Multiple crises in the recent past, in which food, water and economic crises were seen simultaneously, have led to the discussion of current economic structures. For this reason, the concept of green economy was chosen as the main study subject because of the suggestions it brought and the relationship between the economy and the environment and social justice. In addition, public infrastructure investment expenditures in the transportation sector were analyzed in detail. Various studies compiled from the literature on the concept of green economy and the transition process to green economy were used. A number of new concepts were mentioned by applying the patterns derived from this to the theory of public finance and especially public expenditures. In addition to these, econometric analysis methods were used while examining the transportation sector. Analyzes were made with simultaneous equation systems, which are used to model economic situations that are complex and difficult to express with a single equation. Previous studies in this area have generally focused on the economic effects of transportation expenditures. In this study, the relations of road infrastructure expenditures with social, economic and environmental variables between 1998-2013 were tested. That is, transportation expenditures were analyzed from a green economy perspective. In the results, positive and one-sided relations from employment to road infrastructure investments, positive and bilateral relations between road infrastructure investments and urbanization were found. However, it was seen that urbanization affects road infrastructure investments 2.5 times more than employment. Road infrastructure investments, on the other hand, are the least supportive variable to GDP. While real income was positively affected by GDP, it was negatively affected by the exchange rate. A one-way causality relationship was obtained from real income to environmental variables. In addition, it has been indirectly concluded that road infrastructure investments increase emissions.