Urban growth and transportation

Gilles Duranton () and Matthew Turner ()

Working Papers from University of Toronto, Department of Economics

Abstract: We estimate the effects of major roads and public transit on the growth of major cities in the US between 1980 and 2000. We find that a 10% increase in a city’s stock of roads causes about a 2% increase in its population and employment and a small decrease in its share of poor households over this 20 year period. We also find that a 10% increase in a city’s stock of large buses causes about a 0.8% population increase and a small increase in the share of poor households over this period. To estimate these effects we rely on an instrumental variables estimation which uses a 1947 plan of the interstate highway system and an 1898 map of railroads as instruments for 1980 roads.

Keywords: urban growth; transportation; public transport; instrumental variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L91 N70 R11 R49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
Date: Written 2007-12-19
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Related works:
Working Paper: Urban Growth and Transportation (2008)
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