Transport infrastructure investment, accessibility change and firm productivity: Evidence from the Seoul region

Jae Kwang Lee

Journal of Transport Geography, 2021, vol. 96, issue C

Abstract: This study explores how and to what extent transport infrastructure investment affects the level of agglomeration and consequently impacts on firm productivity, using transport network data and micro-data for manufacturing firms in the Seoul region. A first-difference model with novel instrument variables is developed to obtain more precise results than those in previous studies, and the partial arbitrariness that exists in previous studies is reduced by using the estimated spatial-decay parameter. An accessibility indicator derived from a multi-modal travel model is also applied to increase the accuracy in the measurement of agglomeration. It is found that an increase in the degree to which transport infrastructure investment improves the level of agglomeration raises firm productivity, with a best estimated elasticity of 0.0452. The finding highlights the key role of transport infrastructure investment in strengthening the level of agglomeration and the resulting economic advantages for production and economic actors. It is suggested that a policy for transport projects be implemented to maximise their cost effectiveness and ensure that agglomeration is promoted in the area where they are developed.

Keywords: Firm productivity; Transport infrastructure investment; Accessibility; Agglomeration; Instrument variables; First-difference model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692321002350

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:96:y:2021:i:c:s0966692321002350

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103182

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().