TY  - BOOK
AU  - Coşar,A.Kerem
AU  - Demir,Banu
AU  - Ghose,Devaki
AU  - Young,Nathaniel
ED  - National Bureau of Economic Research.
TI  - Road Capacity, Domestic Trade and Regional Outcomes
T2  - NBER working paper series
PY  - 2021///
CY  - Cambridge, Mass.
PB  - National Bureau of Economic Research
N1  - September 2021; Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
N2  - What is the impact on intra-national trade and regional economic outcomes when the quality and lane-capacity of an existing paved road network is expanded significantly? We investigate this question for the case of Turkey, which undertook a large-scale public investment in roads during the 2000s. Using spatially disaggregated data on road upgrades and domestic transactions, we estimate a large positive impact of reduced travel times on trade as well as local manufacturing employment and wages. A quantitative exercise using a workhorse model of spatial equilibrium implies heterogeneous effects across locations, with aggregate real income gains reaching 2-3 percent in the long-run. Reductions in travel times increased local employment-to-population ratio but had no effect on local population. We extend the model by endogenizing the labor supply decision to capture this finding. The model-implied elasticity of employment rates to travel time reductions captures about one-third of the empirical elasticity
UR  - https://www.nber.org/papers/w29228
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w29228
ER  -