In recent times, the need to maintain, optimize, and expand both digital and physical infrastructure has increased. Critical infrastructure is aging and needs replacement, while digitalization and demographic changes require infrastructure to be upgraded and adapted. Additionally, the war in Europe, the phase-out of fossil fuels, and adaptation to a changing climate are driving the need to rebuild and strengthen several infrastructure systems.
How is infrastructure prioritized and financed, and how can the operation and security of these systems be organized? What does the distribution of risks and responsibilities between public and private actors look like in major infrastructure projects? And how can governance and management be coordinated?
The research project will provide knowledge and insights for discussions and action. The project timeframe is 2025–2027.
Research Director: Jonas Klarin, jonas.klarin@sns.se, 072-251 57 98
Project Manager: Anna Jahre, anna.jahre@sns.se, +46 (0) 76-724 43 45
Mikael Witterblad, Head of Research Programme, mikael.witterblad@sns.se
A large portion of the Swedish transport, energy and water infrastructures were built in the period 1950–1980 and have at this stage reached the end of their technical life. There are also indications that the level of necessary maintenance investments has been insufficient. At the same time, changes in society, such as decarbonization, digitalization and Sweden joining NATO, lead to demands for new investments in both physical and digital infrastructures.
Expanding the digital infrastructure and the links between physical and digital systems have the potential to increase the efficiency of all these systems. High-speed networks (5G, 6G) may improve our ability to monitor, collect data and continuously analyze by means of various AI tools. At the same time, technological developments also result in being exposed to various risks, such as cyberattacks. This means that these developments not only require robust security analyses but also finding the right balance between efficiency and resilience in the systems.
Several types of infrastructures enable many people to use them but not at the expense of other people’s ability to use them. These types of public goods are frequently funded by the public sector. Otherwise, there would not be enough investments in these goods due to the fact that “free-rider problems” might easily arise. This refers to individuals benefitting from the infrastructure without contributing to its funding, which could lead to insufficient investments. At the same time, the political system faces well-known challenges that risk leading to insufficient funding for things that are not directly noticeable to voters, such as maintenance, or projects where the benefits will not materialize until well into the future.
Infrastructures are also associated with social benefits (or things that are not beneficial) that are not reflected in the costs. The typical solution to this problem is that the government addresses these so-called market failures by means of subsidies, taxes or bans. If, however, policymakers do not request relevant data/analyses or ignore the impact analyses made, we might instead refer to these as regulatory failures. These too may lead to infrastructures being either too great or too limited in scope as well as a lack of maintenance and the overuse of existing systems.
Infrastructure projects are inherently complicated. They are extensive and often require collaboration between several different actors. If there are coordination problems or uncertainties regarding responsibilities and mandates between private and public actors, between different policymaking levels or horizontally between government agencies, there is a risk of prioritizing the wrong things or having a flawed sharing of risks.
The rules in the Swedish fiscal policy framework impose restrictions on how the public sector may borrow money for infrastructure. There are also legal restrictions on how the business sector may invest in infrastructure, including rules on user fees and procurement.
The report summarizes the current state of research on alternative financing and organization of infrastructure. It will also give som policy recommendations based on Swedish circumstances, grounded in economic theory and current research trends.
Author: Ingemar Bengtsson, researcher at department of Technology and Science, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University
Launch 2026.
The report describes the principles that usually motives taxation and the use of user fees within the system of transportation. It also provides an overview of how the Swedish transportation system is being used today, and of public revenues and costs for each mode of transportation, both measured as total and marginal costs. The report also discusses how future taxation of users of transportation is expected to develop in the future, especially against the backdrop of the rapid electrification of road traffic.
Författare: Maria Bratt Börjesson, professor of economics with a focus on transportation, The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), and adjunct professor of economics at Linköping university, and Jacob Lundberg, researcher in economics at the research institute of industrial economics (IFN).
Launch 2026.
More reports will be added.