New road infrastructure: The effects on firms
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Gibbons, Stephen
Lyytikäinen, Teemu
Overman, Henry G
Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper estimates the impact of new road infrastructure on employment and labour productivity using firm level longitudinal data for Britain. Exposure to transport improvements is measured through changes in accessibility, calculated at a detailed geographical scale from changes in minimum journey times along the road network. These changes are induced by the construction of new road link schemes. We deal with the potential endogeneity of scheme location by identifying the effects of changes in accessibility from variation across small-scale geographical areas close to the scheme. We find substantial positive effects on area level employment and number of establishments. For existing establishments we find increases in output per worker, wages and use of intermediate inputs. A plausible interpretation is that new transport infrastructure attracts transport intensive establishments to an area, and also leads to some reorganization of production in existing businesses.
Date Issued
2019-03-01
Date Acceptance
2019-01-11
Citation
Journal of Urban Economics, 2019, 110, pp.35-50
ISSN
0094-1190
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
35
End Page
50
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Urban Economics
Volume
110
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Sponsor
The British Academy
Grant Number
PFL40005
Subjects
Economics
1205 Urban and Regional Planning
1402 Applied Economics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-01-15