From a purely accounting perspective, public investment refers to capital expenditure on physical infrastructure and soft infrastructure with a productive use that extends beyond a year (i.e., gross fixed capital formation, GFCF). However, the issues discussed in this chapter extend beyond the narrow definition of public GFCF, either because transactions could be classified as intermediate consumption (such as maintenance operations) or because the entity performing investments is outside the public sector from a statistical standpoint. Moreover, the infrastructure investments discussed in this chapter exclude publicly provided private goods such as education, health care and public housing.