RAIL STATIONS TO DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM COLONIAL MALAYA

Yit Wey Liew (), Muhammad Rahman and Audrey Kim Lan Siah
Additional contact information
Yit Wey Liew: Monash University

No 2023_01, Working Papers from Durham University Business School

Abstract: This study examines how the historical rail stations condition long-run development, using Colonial Malaya as a laboratory. Constructing a novel historical data on rail stations, agglomeration centers, tin mines and rubber plantations dated back to a century and matching with contemporary data on economic activity at one-kilometer cell level, we find that the earlier a region obtains rail stations, the higher level of economic activity it performs today due to agglomeration economies. These results hold even in regions that have already abandoned colonial stations. This study signifies the role of investment on transport infrastructure to accelerate local economic activity.

Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.durham.ac.uk/business/media/durham-uni ... pdfs/EconWP23_01.pdf main text (application/pdf)

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:dur:durham:2023_01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Durham University Business School Durham University Business School, Mill Hill Lane, Durham DH1 3LB, England. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by IT Office ().