Urban Growth and Transportation
43 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2008
Date Written: January 2008
Abstract
We estimate the effects of major roads and public transit on the growth of major cities in the US between 1980 and 2000. We find that a 10% increase in a city's stock of roads causes about a 2% increase in its population and employment and a small decrease in its share of poor households over this 20 year period. We also find that a 10% increase in a city's stock of large buses causes about a 0.8% population increase and a small increase in the share of poor households over this period. To estimate these effects we rely on an instrumental variables estimation which uses a 1947 plan of the interstate highway system and an 1898 map of railroads as instruments for 1980 roads.
Keywords: Instrumental variables, public transport, transportation, urban growth
JEL Classification: L91, N70, R11, R49
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Productivity Gains from Geographic Concentration of Human Capital: Evidence from the Cities
-
By Edward L. Glaeser and David C. Maré
-
Micro-Foundations of Urban Agglomeration Economies
By Gilles Duranton and Diego Puga
-
Micro-Foundations of Urban Agglomeration Economies
By Gilles Duranton and Diego Puga
-
Cities, Skills, and Regional Change
By Edward L. Glaeser, Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, ...
-
Cities, Skills, and Regional Change
By Edward L. Glaeser, Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, ...
-
By Edward L. Glaeser, Jed Kolko, ...