Job and population location choices and economic scale as effects of high speed rail: Simulation analysis of Shinkansen in Kyushu, Japan

Tomoru Hiramatsu

Research in Transportation Economics, 2018, vol. 72, issue C, 15-26

Abstract: Establishing transportation infrastructure stimulates economic activity. It also effects on economic disparities between regions. Accordingly, researches have been carried out on the economic effects of establishing transportation infrastructure. On one hand, establishing transportation infrastructure could be the important means for correcting disparities. Conversely, establishing transportation has the potential to bring about greater economic inequality between regions. This study created an inter-regional computational general equilibrium model to analyze the effect of establishing high speed rail (HSR) on the regional economy. A simulation analysis is performed by applying the model to the opening of Kyushu HSR. In base scenario with one route operation, economic scale grew in each region and discrepancies widened between prefectures. While we observed a growth for population, jobs, and economic scale in the regions with improved access, a decline in the population in other prefectures was noticed. In the case of jobs and economic scale, growth is observed in every prefecture. However as the degree of such growth was small, disparities widened. By establishing HSR over a wider area, the degree of growth disparity weakened, and growth approached a proportional pattern. The hypothetical scenarios, which consider the non-availability of the transfer of HSR between Kyushu and outside Kyushu are also simulated.

Keywords: High speed rail; Job and residential locations choice; Production value growth; Regional disparities; Computable general equilibrium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R12 R13 R23 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885917302950
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:retrec:v:72:y:2018:i:c:p:15-26

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_2&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2018.06.007

Access Statistics for this article

Research in Transportation Economics is currently edited by M. Dresner

More articles in Research in Transportation Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().