Highways, market access and spatial sorting

Fretz, Stephan, Parchet, Raphaël and Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric (2017) Highways, market access and spatial sorting. SERC Discussion Papers (SERCDP227). Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

We design a spatial model featuring workers embodied with heterogeneous skills. In equilibrium, locations with improved market access become relatively more attractive to the high-skilled, high-income earners. We then empirically analyze the effects of the construction of the Swiss highway network between 1960 and 2010 on the distribution of income at the local level, as well as on employment and commuting by education level. We find that the advent of a new highway access within 10km led to a long-term 19%-increase of the share of high-income taxpayers and a 6%-decrease of the share of low-income taxpayers. Results are similar for employment data decomposed by education level, as well as for in- and outcommuters. Highways also contributed to job and residential urban sprawl

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Authors
Divisions:	Spatial Economics Research Centre Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
JEL classification:	D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H54 - Infrastructures; Other Public Investment and Capital Stock O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O18 - Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, and Changes R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R23 - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2018 10:55
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 20:39
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86575

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