The role of airports in city employment growth, 1950–2010

Marquise McGraw ()

Journal of Urban Economics, 2020, vol. 116, issue C

Abstract: This study considers the effects of commercial airports on local economies over the post-World War II period (specifically, 1950–2010). To overcome endogeneity concerns, a pooled synthetic control event study strategy is employed on newly digitized historical aviation data to estimate treatment effects on a variety of employment, population, and wage outcomes. I find that airports have led to, on average, 3.9 percent growth in total employment (and 3.4% growth in population) per decade. Over the 30-year period for which wage and air traffic data are available, earnings per worker increased by 2%, and per-capita personal income increased by 3%, corresponding to growth rates of up to 1.2 percent per decade, respectively.

Keywords: Airports; Local labor markets; Transportation; Employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L9 N9 R1 R3 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:116:y:2020:i:c:s0094119020300115

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2020.103240

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