New Road Infrastructure: the Effects on Firms

Stephen Gibbons, Teemu Lyytikäinen, Henry Overman and Rosa Sanchis-Guarner

SERC Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: This paper estimates the impact of road improvements on firm employment and productivity using plant level longitudinal data for Britain. Exposure to transport improvements is measured by changes in employment accessibility along the road network. These changes are constructed using data on employment for small geographical units, details of the main road network and of road construction schemes carried out between 1998 and 2007. We deal with the central problem of endogenous scheme placement by using changes due to new road links and exploiting the spatial detail in our data to focus on accessibility changes close to new schemes. We find substantial effects on employment and numbers of plants for small-scale geographical areas (electoral wards), but no employment response at plant level. This suggests that road construction affects firm entry and exit, but not the employment of existing firms. We also find effects on labour productivity and wages at the firm level, although these results are less robust.

Keywords: Productivity; employment; accessibility; transport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 O18 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/sercdp0117.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: New road infrastructure: The effects on firms (2019)
Working Paper: New Road Infrastructure: The Effects on Firms (2017)
Working Paper: New road infrastructure: the effects on firms (2017)
Working Paper: New road infrastructure: the effects on firms (2016)
Working Paper: New road infrastructure: the effects on firms (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:sercdp:0117

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