The Fast, the Slow, and the Congested: Urban Transportation in Rich and Poor Countries

Prottoy Akbar, Victor Couture, Gilles Duranton and Adam Storeygard

No 31642, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We assemble a new global database on motor vehicle travel speed in over 1,200 large cities in 152 countries. We then estimate comparable city-level indices of travel speed and congestion. Most of the variation in urban travel speed is across countries, not within. National income per capita explains most of this cross-country variation in speed. In rich countries, urban travel is roughly 50% faster than in poor countries. To investigate the link between economic development and mobility, we develop an urban model with endogenous travel, road infrastructure, and land area. The model provides an exact decomposition of how city size, infrastructure, and topography contribute to explaining why urban travel is faster in richer countries. We find that richer countries are faster, mainly because their cities have more major roads and wider land areas. These effects operate by increasing uncongested speed, not by reducing congestion.

JEL-codes: O18 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tre and nep-ure
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Working Paper: The fast, the slow, and the congested: Urban transportation in rich and poor countries (2023)
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