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The Strange Economics of Tolls and Public Roads
In this episode of The Fiscal Policy Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the economics of toll roads—why some governments privatize them, why others keep them public, and what happens when a toll road goes bankrupt. They anchor on the specific case of the Indiana Toll Road, a 157-mile stretch that was leased to a private consortium in 2006 for $3.8 billion, only to see that consortium file for bankruptcy in 2014. Lucas explains the concessions model, the role of traffic projections, and why investors overestimated demand. Luna brings up the counterexample of Florida's Turnpike, a publicly…
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