Research Seminar at IESE Business School

Earlier this week, Matthias Breuer visited IESE Business School for a research seminar and meetings with faculty members and PhD students.

During his visit, Matthias presented joint work with Qingkai Dong titled “Managing What You Measure: Evidence from Federal Infrastructure Surveys.” The paper examines how government measurement efforts—such as infrastructure surveys—can shape public spending decisions.

Their findings show that when roads are included in federal infrastructure surveys, local governments tend to allocate more spending toward those roads. While measurement can help identify investment needs and improve infrastructure outcomes, it can also shift attention and resources toward what is being measured—highlighting an important trade-off in the design of information systems and public policy.

The visit also included valuable discussions with faculty at IESE and a great opportunity to exchange ideas on accounting, measurement, and public policy research.