IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v115y2022icp164-180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The wider local impacts of new roads: A case study of 10 projects

Author

Listed:
  • Welde, Morten
  • Tveter, Eivind

Abstract

This paper investigates the impacts of road investments in secondary markets, which the authors label wider local impacts. The impacts are studied using four indicators: commuting, population, new firms, and employment. We use the synthetic control method to study the counterfactual problem, namely what would have happened if a given project had not been realised. The method is used to compare municipalities that had been given a new road with municipalities that had not had a new road. The study sample consists of ten road projects that opened for traffic between 2000 and 2010 and the impacts of the projects are examined at municipal level. The results do not provide a clear answer as to whether road projects are a suitable tool for fulfilling political objectives of improving the local economy. Apart from possibly one exception, none of the projects scored positively on all indicators. We identify several examples of significant negative impacts as a result of road investments, and conclude that although the impacts have been positive in many areas, there is no evidence that road investments are generally a potent tool for achieving positive wider local impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Welde, Morten & Tveter, Eivind, 2022. "The wider local impacts of new roads: A case study of 10 projects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 164-180.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:115:y:2022:i:c:p:164-180
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.11.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X21003334
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.11.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gibbons, Stephen & Lyytikäinen, Teemu & Overman, Henry G. & Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa, 2019. "New road infrastructure: The effects on firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 35-50.
    2. Odeck, James, 2017. "Government versus toll funding of road projects – A theoretical consideration with an ex-post evaluation of implemented toll projects," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 97-107.
    3. Laird, James J. & Venables, Anthony J., 2017. "Transport investment and economic performance: A framework for project appraisal," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-11.
    4. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    5. Graham, Daniel J. & Gibbons, Stephen, 2019. "Quantifying Wider Economic Impacts of agglomeration for transport appraisal: Existing evidence and future directions," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Jonas Eliasson & Maria Börjesson & James Odeck & Morten Welde, 2015. "Does Benefit-Cost Efficiency Influence Transport Investment Decisions?," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(3), pages 377-396, July.
    7. Itf, 2008. "The Wider Economic Benefit of Transport: Macro-, Meso and Micro Transport Planning and Investment Tools," OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre Discussion Papers 2008/6, OECD Publishing.
    8. Roger Vickerman, 2013. "The wider economic impacts of mega-projects in transport," Chapters, in: Hugo Priemus & Bert van Wee (ed.), International Handbook on Mega-Projects, chapter 17, pages 381-397, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Daniel J. Graham, 2007. "Agglomeration, Productivity and Transport Investment," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 41(3), pages 317-343, September.
    10. De Vos, Jonas & Witlox, Frank, 2013. "Transportation policy as spatial planning tool; reducing urban sprawl by increasing travel costs and clustering infrastructure and public transportation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 117-125.
    11. Paal Brevik Wangsness & Kenneth Løvold Rødseth & Wiljar Hansen, 2017. "A review of guidelines for including wider economic impacts in transport appraisal," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 94-115, January.
    12. Tveter, Eivind & Welde, Morten & Odeck, James, 2017. "Do Fixed Links Affect Settlement Patterns: A Synthetic Control Approach," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 59-72.
    13. Halse, Askill Harkjerr & Fridstrøm, Lasse, 2019. "Explaining low economic return on road investments. New evidence from Norway," MPRA Paper 94389, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Welde, Morten & Bråthen, Svein & Rekdal, Jens & Zhang, Wei, 2020. "Road investments and the trade-off between private and public funding," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mar Ortega-Reig & Carsten Schürmann & Adrian Ferrandis Martínez & Andrew Copus, 2023. "Measuring Access to Services of General Interest as a Diagnostic Tool to Identify Well-Being Disparities between Rural Areas in Europe," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-30, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhou, You & Zhang, Lingzhu & JF Chiaradia, Alain, 2022. "Estimating wider economic impacts of transport infrastructure Investment: Evidence from accessibility disparity in Hong Kong," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 220-235.
    2. Knudsen, Elias Stapput & Hjorth, Katrine & Pilegaard, Ninette, 2022. "Wages and accessibility – Evidence from Denmark," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 44-61.
    3. Riukula, Krista & Väänänen, Touko, 2024. "Estimating the Labour Market Impacts of Transport Projects in Finland," ETLA Working Papers 120, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    4. Holl, Adelheid & Mariotti, Ilaria, 2018. "Highways and firm performance in the logistics industry," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 139-150.
    5. Lee, Jae Kwang, 2021. "Transport infrastructure investment, accessibility change and firm productivity: Evidence from the Seoul region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    6. Chang, Huibin & Indra, Debarshi & Maiti, Abhradeep, 2023. "Metropolitan area heterogeneity and the impact of road infrastructure improvements on VMT," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. Tveter, Eivind & Laird, James J. & Aalen, Peter, 2022. "Spatial aggregation error and agglomeration benefits from transport improvements," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 257-269.
    8. Kenneth Løvold Rødseth & Rasmus Bøgh Holmen & Timo Kuosmanen & Halvor Schøyen, 2023. "Market access and seaport efficiency: the case of container handling in Norway," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Hörcher, Daniel & De Borger, Bruno & Seifu, Woubit & Graham, Daniel J., 2020. "Public transport provision under agglomeration economies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Anas, Alex & Chang, Huibin, 2023. "Productivity benefits of urban transportation megaprojects: A general equilibrium analysis of «Grand Paris Express»," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    11. Ginés de Rus & M. Pilar Socorro & Jorge Valido & Javier Campos, 2023. "Cost–Benefit Analysis of Transport Projects: Theoretical Framework and Practical Rules," Springer Books, in: Economic Evaluation of Transport Projects, chapter 0, pages 11-42, Springer.
    12. Hörcher, Daniel & De Borger, Bruno & Graham, Daniel J., 2023. "Subsidised transport services in a fiscal federation: Why local governments may be against decentralised service provision," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    13. Luisa Doerr & Florian Dorn & Stefanie Gaebler & Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "How new airport infrastructure promotes tourism: evidence from a synthetic control approach in German regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(10), pages 1402-1412, October.
    14. Holl, Adelheid, 2016. "Highways and productivity in manufacturing firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 131-151.
    15. Eivind Tveter, 2021. "Transport network improvements: The effects on wage earnings," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 478-491, June.
    16. Weisbrod, Glen & Hensher, David A., 2023. "Improving transportation project evaluation by recognizing the role of spatial scale and context in measuring non-user economic benefits," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 80-89.
    17. Akihiro Otsuka, 2021. "A new approach to inter‐regional network externalities in Japan," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 1051-1067, June.
    18. Schubert, Daniel & Sys, Christa & Vanelslander, Thierry & Roumboutsos, Athena, 2022. "No-queue road pricing: A comprehensive policy instrument for Europe?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Anna Stansbury & Dan Turner & Ed Balls, 2023. "Tackling the UK’s regional economic inequality: binding constraints and avenues for policy intervention," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3-4), pages 318-356, August.
    20. Holl , Adelheid, 2013. "Firm location and productivity in Spain," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 25, pages 27-42.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:115:y:2022:i:c:p:164-180. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.