Interesting little article from the
Economic Policy Institute about a potential effect of investing in transportation and infrastructure development in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Namely, that it could reduce income inequality. Ethan Pollack explains:
According to research that will be presented at an upcoming EPI event, workers in jobs created or supported by these investments are less likely to have a college degree and more likely to be union members compared to workers in the overall economy. Despite employing workers with less education on average, fewer of these jobs are low-wage jobs. Green investments—including mass transit, but also energy efficiency, electric grid, etc.—result in very similar job characteristics and are thus equally effective at reducing wage inequality.
I don't really have more details than that. It would probably be a small effect. But interesting. Here is the graph, reprinted from the EPI:
