Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

On the road to prosperity ? The economic geography of China's national expressway network

Contents:

Author Info

  • Roberts, Mark
  • Deichmann, Uwe
  • Fingleton, Bernard
  • Shi, Tuo

Abstract

Over the past two decades, China has embarked on an ambitious program of expressway network expansion. By facilitating market integration, this program aims both to promote efficiency at the national level and to contribute to the catch-up of lagging inland regions with prosperous Eastern ones. This paper evaluates the aggregate and spatial economic impacts of China's newly constructed National Expressway Network, focussing, in particular, on its short-run impacts. To achieve this aim, the authors adopt a counterfactual approach based on the estimation and simulation of a structural"new economic geography"model. Overall, they find that aggregate Chinese real income was approximately 6 percent higher than it would have been in 2007 had the expressway network not been built. Although there is considerable heterogeneity in the results, the authors do not find evidence of a significant reduction in disparities across prefectural level regions or of a reduction in urban-rural disparities. If anything, the expressway network appears to have reinforced existing patterns of spatial inequality, although, over time, these will likely be reduced by enhanced migration.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/11/15/000158349_20101115151238/Rendered/PDF/WPS5479.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 5479.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: 01 Nov 2010
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5479

Contact details of provider:
Postal: 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433
Phone: (202) 477-1234
Email:
Web page: http://www.worldbank.org/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: Transport Economics Policy&Planning; Economic Theory&Research; Labor Policies; Roads&Highways; Regional Economic Development;

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Meng, Xin & Gregory, Robert & Wang, Youjuan, 2005. "Poverty, inequality, and growth in urban China, 1986-2000," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 710-729, December.
  2. Sylvie DEMURGER & SACHS & Wing Thye WOO & BAO & CHANG & MELLINGER, 2001. "Geography, Economic Policy and Regional Development in China," Working Papers 200109, CERDI.
  3. Laura Hering & Sandra Poncet, 2010. "Market access and individual wages: evidence from China," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00633785, HAL.
  4. Straub, Stephane, 2008. "Infrastructure and development : a critical appraisal of the macro level literature," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4590, The World Bank.
  5. Vickerman, R., 2000. "Evaluation methodologies for transport projects in the United Kingdom," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 7-16, January.
  6. Bernard Fingleton, 2005. "Beyond neoclassical orthodoxy: A view based on the new economic geography and UK regional wage data," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 351-375, 08.
  7. Bernard Fingleton & Julie Le Gallo, 2008. "Estimating spatial models with endogenous variables, a spatial lag and spatially dependent disturbances: Finite sample properties," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(3), pages 319-339, 08.
  8. Laura Hering & Sandra Poncet, 2010. "Income Per Capita Inequality in China: The Role of Economic Geography and Spatial Interactions," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 655-679, 05.
  9. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Miren Lafourcade, 2005. "Transport costs: measures, determinants, and regional policy implications for France," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 319-349, June.
  10. Jens Suedekum, 2003. "Increasing Returns and Spatial Unemployment Disparities," ERSA conference papers ersa03p44, European Regional Science Association.
  11. Philip McCann, 2005. "Transport costs and new economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 305-318, June.
  12. Shirley, Chad & Winston, Clifford, 2004. "Firm inventory behavior and the returns from highway infrastructure investments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 398-415, March.
  13. Ana Isabel Moreno-Monroy, 2008. "The dynamics of spatial agglomeration in China: an empirical assessment," Economics Program Working Papers 08-06, The Conference Board, Economics Program.
  14. Giuseppe De Arcangelis & Giordano Mion, 2002. "Spatial Externalities and Empirical Analysis: The case of Italy," series 0006, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Metodi Matematici - Università di Bari, revised Jan 2002.
  15. Bernard Fingleton, 2005. "Towards applied geographical economics: modelling relative wage rates, incomes and prices for the regions of Great Britain," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37(21), pages 2417-2428.
  16. Bernard Fingleton & Manfred Fischer, 2010. "Neoclassical theory versus new economic geography: competing explanations of cross-regional variation in economic development," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 467-491, June.
  17. Chandra, Amitabh & Thompson, Eric, 2000. "Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?: Evidence from the rural interstate highway system," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 457-490, July.
  18. Michaels, Guy, 2007. "The Effect of Trade on the Demand for Skill - Evidence from the Interstate Highway System," CEPR Discussion Papers 6056, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  19. Fingleton, Bernard, 2008. "Competing models of global dynamics: Evidence from panel models with spatially correlated error components," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 542-558, May.
  20. Keeler, Theodore E. & Ying, John S., 1988. "Measuring the benefits of a large public investment : The case of the U.S. Federal-aid highway system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 69-85, June.
  21. Bernard Fingleton, 2004. "The new economic geography versus urban economics : an evaluation using local wage rates in Great Britain," ERSA conference papers ersa04p638, European Regional Science Association.
  22. Mayer, Thierry, 2008. "Market Potential and Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 6798, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. On the road: understanding the benefits from infrastructure investment
    by Straub in Stephane Straub on 2012-06-10 13:10:00
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Justin Yifu Lin & Doerte Doemeland, 2012. "Beyond Keynesianism: Global Infrastructure Investments In Times Of Crisis," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(03), pages 1250015-1-1.
  2. Fabrizio Barca & Philip McCann & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2011. "The case for regional development intervention: Place-based versus place-neutral approaches," Working Papers 2011-15, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5479

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Roula I. Yazigi).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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