Spatial investment decisions of a government may be the result of a clearly stated and pursued policy. Often, however, investment decisions are made without such a policy, in contradiction to it, or ignoring it. This paper presents a new method that can be used to reveal the policy objectives with which actual public investment decisions are consistent. Japanese regional investment expenditures from 1958 to 1978 are analyzed, and the dominant policies in effect during this period are identified using this method. A connection between Japanese regional public investment policies and the convergence of population growth across regions is suggested.
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