This book grew out of a decade of co-teaching a course entitled ‘Infrastructure Management’ at Carnegie Mellon University. Our teaching philosophy was to prepare students for work in the field of infrastructure management. We believe that infrastructure management is a professional endeavor and an attractive professional career. The book is co-authored by two accomplished engineers - each representing professional practice, academic research and theoretical evaluation. Their collective strengths are presented throughout the text and serve to support both the practice of infrastructure management and a role for infrastructure management inquiry and search. Importantly, both co-authors have academic research interests (and a number of research publications) on various topics of infrastructure management. That said, the primary audience for this book is expected to be professionals intending to practice infrastructure management, and only secondarily individuals who intend to pursue a career of research in the area.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Discuss the components of economic growth, including physical capital, human capital, and technology
Explain capital deepening and its significance
Analyze the methods employed in economic growth accounting studies
Identify factors that contribute to a healthy climate for economic growth

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Understand the arguments for and against requiring the U.S. federal budget to be balanced
Consider the long-run and short-run effects of a federal budget deficit