Evaluating the Impact of Urban Transit Infrastructure: Evidence from Bogotá's TransMilenio

Nick Tsivanidis

American Economic Review, 2026, vol. 116, issue 2, 418-63

Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of improving public transit infrastructure on city structure and welfare. It develops a quantitative urban model with multiple worker groups and transit modes, and derives a special case yielding sufficient statistics for aggregate welfare in a broad class of models. The paper estimates reduced-form elasticities to implement the approach using data spanning construction of the world's largest Bus Rapid Transit system in Bogotá, Colombia. This class of models explains observed adjustments in economic activity. Standard value-of-time calculations capture only 52 percent of welfare gains. Accounting for reallocation and general equilibrium effects, distributional impacts are modest.

JEL-codes: H76 L92 L98 O18 R42 R53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20190874

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