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On the Road: Access to Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Growth in China

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  • Banerjee, Abhijit
  • Duflo, Esther
  • Qian, Nancy

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of access to transportation networks on regional economic outcomes in China over a twenty-period of rapid income growth. It addresses the problem of the endogenous placement of networks by exploiting the fact that these networks tend to connect historical cities. Our results show that proximity to transportation networks have a moderate positive causal effect on per capita GDP levels across sectors, but no effect on per capita GDP growth. We provide a simple theoretical framework with empirically testable predictions to interpret our results. We argue that our results are consistent with factor mobility playing an important role in determining the economic benefits of infrastructure development.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 8874.

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Date of creation: Mar 2012
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8874

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Keywords: firms; growth; inequality; infrastructure;

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References

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  4. Duflo, Esther, 2004. "The medium run effects of educational expansion: evidence from a large school construction program in Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 163-197, June.
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  7. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," Working Papers 09-04, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Walker, Sarah, 2012. "The (Rail)road to Structural Change: Transportation Costs, Integration, and Production Specialization," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124614, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
  2. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Sylvie Démurger & Shi Li, 2013. "Urbanisation and Migration Externalities in China," AMSE Working Papers 1307, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, Marseille, France, revised 06 Feb 2013.
  3. Nicolas Ziebarth, 2013. "Are China and India Backwards? Evidence from the 19th Century U.S. Census of Manufactures," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 86-99, January.
  4. Roberto Bonfatti & Steven Poelhekke, 2013. "From Mine to Coast: Transport Infrastructure and The Direction of Trade in Developing Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 4170, CESifo Group Munich.
  5. Erik Hornung, 2012. "Railroads and Micro-regional Growth in Prussia," Ifo Working Paper Series Ifo Working Paper No. 127, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
  6. Sylvain Leduc & Daniel J. Wilson, 2012. "Should transportation spending be included in a stimulus program? a review of the literature," Working Paper Series 2012-15, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
  7. Taryn Dinkelman & Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, 2012. "Migration, congestion externalities, and the evaluation of spatial investments," Working Papers 700, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  8. Jan, Sajjad Ahmad & Chani, Muhammad Irfan & Pervaiz, Zahid & Chaudhary, Amatul R., 2012. "Physical infrastructure and economic development in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 37785, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  9. Ghani, Ejaz & Goswami, Arti Grover & Kerr, William R., 2013. "Highway to success in India : the impact of the golden quadrilateral project for the location and performance of manufacturing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6320, The World Bank.
  10. Antonio Estache, 2010. "A survey of impact evaluations of infrastructure projects, programs and policies," Working Papers ECARES 2010_005, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  11. Barham, Tania & Lipscomb, Molly & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2011. "Development Effects of Electrification: Evidence from the Geologic Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil," CEPR Discussion Papers 8427, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  12. Chao Li & John Gibson, 2012. "Rising Regional Inequality in China: Fact or Artefact?," Working Papers in Economics 12/09, University of Waikato, Department of Economics.

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