IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/64507.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From periphery to core: measuring agglomeration effects using high-speed rail

Author

Listed:
  • Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M.
  • Feddersen, Arne

Abstract

We analyze the economic impact of the German high-speed rail (HSR) connecting Cologne and Frankfurt, which provides plausibly exogenous variation in access to surrounding economic mass. We find a causal effect of about 8.5% on average of the HSR on the GDP of three counties with intermediate stops. We make further use of the variation in bilateral transport costs between all counties in our study area induced by the HSR to identify the strength and spatial scope of agglomeration forces. Our most careful estimate points to an elasticity of output with respect to market potential of 12.5%. The strength of the spillover declines by 50% ever 30 minutes of travel time, diminishing to 1% after about 200 minutes. Our results further imply an elasticity of per-worker output with respect to economic density of 3.8%, although the effects seem driven by worker and firm selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Feddersen, Arne, 2015. "From periphery to core: measuring agglomeration effects using high-speed rail," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64507, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:64507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64507/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Stephen J. Redding & Daniel M. Sturm & Nikolaus Wolf, 2015. "The Economics of Density: Evidence From the Berlin Wall," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 2127-2189, November.
    2. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Wendland, Nicolai, 2016. "The spatial decay in commuting probabilities: Employment potential vs. commuting gravity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 125-129.
    3. H. Hanson, Gordon, 2005. "Market potential, increasing returns and geographic concentration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Fujita, Masahisa & Ogawa, Hideaki, 1982. "Multiple equilibria and structural transition of non-monocentric urban configurations," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 161-196, May.
    5. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Wendland, Nicolai, 2016. "The spatial decay in commuting probabilities: employment potential vs. community gravity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66128, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Robert E. Lucas & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2002. "On the Internal Structure of Cities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1445-1476, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Stephen J. Redding & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2017. "Quantitative Spatial Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 21-58, September.
    2. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    3. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    4. Morgan Ubeda, 2020. "Local Amenities, Commuting Costs and Income Disparities Within Cities," Working Papers halshs-03082448, HAL.
    5. Augeraud Veron, E. & Marhuenda, F. & Picard, P.M., 2021. "Local social interaction and urban equilibria," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 72-83.
    6. Andres Dominguez & Hernán Enríquez Sierra & Nicolás Cuervo Ballesteros, 2021. "Regional Spatial Structure and Land Use: Evidence from Bogotá and 17 Municipalities," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, August.
    7. Pflüger, Michael & Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 2010. "The size of regions with land use for production," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 481-489, November.
    8. Mossay, Pascal & Picard, Pierre M. & Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 2020. "Urban structures with forward and backward linkages," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Larson, William & Yezer, Anthony & Zhao, Weihua, 2022. "Urban planning policies and the cost of living in large cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    10. Thisse, Jacques-François & Turner, Matthew A. & Ushchev, Philip, 2024. "Foundations of cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    11. Behrens, Kristian & Mion, Giordano & Murata, Yasusada & Suedekum, Jens, 2017. "Spatial frictions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 40-70.
    12. Achim Ahrens & Sean Lyons, 2021. "Do rising rents lead to longer commutes? A gravity model of commuting flows in Ireland," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 264-279, February.
    13. Redding, Stephen J. & Turner, Matthew A., 2015. "Transportation Costs and the Spatial Organization of Economic Activity," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1339-1398, Elsevier.
    14. Wrede, Matthias, 2017. "Urban land use, sorting, and population density: A continuous logit model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 283-294.
    15. Stephen J. Redding, 2021. "Suburbanization in the United States 1970-2010," Working Papers 286, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    16. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Takashi Akamatsu & Tomoya Mori & Minoru Osawa & Yuki Takayama, 2019. "Spatial scale of agglomeration and dispersion: Number, spacing, and the spatial extent of cities," Papers 1912.05113, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    18. Osawa, Minoru & Akamatsu, Takashi, 2019. "Emergence of Urban Landscapes: Equilibrium Selection in a Model of Internal Structure of the Cities," MPRA Paper 92395, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Henderson, J. Vernon & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2024. "Urban and spatial economics after 50 years," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125675, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    accessibility; agglomeration; high-speed rail; market potential; transport policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ehl:lserod:64507. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.