IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v171y2025icp764-802.html

Comparative study of the impact of Indian transportation infrastructure on firm-level performance in inland waterways

Author

Listed:
  • Srivastava, Archana
  • Mathur, Somesh Kumar
  • Chauhan, Manish
  • De, Prabir

Abstract

The present study attempts to analyze the impact of transportation infrastructure like new roads, railway routes and inland waterways on firm-level performance in India. We use World Enterprise Survey data to analyze the same using Difference-in-Difference (DID) methodology. This allows us to assess the policy intervention over time and across treatment and control groups. In transportation and network studies, firms operating near to the infrastructure are qualified as treatment group and all others operating faraway as control group. We cover in our study (i) the inland waterways connecting Allahabad with Haldia, (ii) Golden Quadrilateral infrastructure connecting 19 cities of India, (iii) the Delhi-Meerut expressway, and (iv) Eastern and Western freight railway routes connecting eastern and western part of India. Results reveal that it is only Delhi-Meerut expressway and Western freight rail routes which bring dividends to firms operating near to the infrastructure over the years. It is evident that for other rail and road routes and inland waterways, the firms which operate further away from the infrastructure bring more businesses to firms and create less obstacles to transportation.

Suggested Citation

  • Srivastava, Archana & Mathur, Somesh Kumar & Chauhan, Manish & De, Prabir, 2025. "Comparative study of the impact of Indian transportation infrastructure on firm-level performance in inland waterways," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 764-802.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:171:y:2025:i:c:p:764-802
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.06.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X25002501
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.06.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dave Donaldson, 2018. "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 899-934, April.
    2. Riccardo Crescenzi & Marco Di Cataldo & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Government Quality And The Economic Returns Of Transport Infrastructure Investment In European Regions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 555-582, September.
    3. Perra, Elena & Sanfilippo, Marco & Sundaram, Asha, 2024. "Roads, competition, and the informal sector," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Niamat Ullah Ibne Hossain & Farjana Nur & Raed Jaradat & Seyedmohsen Hosseini & Mohammad Marufuzzaman & Stephen M. Puryear & Randy K. Buchanan, 2019. "Metrics for Assessing Overall Performance of Inland Waterway Ports: A Bayesian Network Based Approach," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-17, May.
    5. Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther & Qian, Nancy, 2020. "On the road: Access to transportation infrastructure and economic growth in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Shruti Tripathi & Vikash Gautam, 2010. "Road Transport Infrastructure and Economic Growth in India," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 2(2), pages 135-151, December.
    8. Manish Chauhan & Somesh Kumar Mathur & Praveen Kulshreshtha, 2025. "Spatial Convergence Among Indian Districts: An Econometric Evidence," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 23(3), pages 679-711, September.
    9. Datta, Saugato, 2012. "The impact of improved highways on Indian firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 46-57.
    10. Andrew B. Bernard & Andreas Moxnes & Yukiko U. Saito, 2019. "Production Networks, Geography, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 639-688.
    11. Pravakar Sahoo & Ranjan Dash, 2009. "Infrastructure development and economic growth in India," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 351-365.
    12. McCoy, Daire & Lyons, Sean & Morgenroth, Edgar & Palcic, Donal & Allen, Leonie, 2016. "The impact of local infrastructure on new business establishments," MPRA Paper 69074, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Zheming Liu & Bin Li & Saixing Zeng & Hongquan Chen, 2020. "Spillovers from transport infrastructures onto firm productivity: An analytical and empirical study," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1583-1609, November.
    14. Ejaz Ghani & Arti Grover Goswami & William R. Kerr, 2016. "Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral Project for the Location and Performance of Indian Manufacturing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 317-357, March.
    15. Liu, Zheming & Zeng, Saixing & Jin, Zhizhou & Shi, Jonathan Jingsheng, 2022. "Transport infrastructure and industrial agglomeration: Evidence from manufacturing industries in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 100-112.
    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. Okamoto, Chigusa & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2021. "Impacts of high-speed rail construction on land prices in urban agglomerations: Evidence from Kyushu in Japan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Bird, Julia & Straub, Stéphane, 2020. "The Brasília experiment: The heterogeneous impact of road access on spatial development in Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. He, Guojun & Xie, Yang & Zhang, Bing, 2020. "Expressways, GDP, and the environment: The case of China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    4. Lelarge, Claire & Charnoz, Pauline & Trevien, Corentin, 2018. "Communication Costs and the Internal Organization of Multi-Plant Businesses: Evidence from the Impact of the French High-Speed," CEPR Discussion Papers 12585, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Kaoru HOSONO & Daisuke MIYAKAWA & Arito ONO & Hirofumi UCHIDA & Iichiro UESUGI, 2019. "Damage to the Transportation Infrastructure and Disruption of Inter-firm Transactional Relationships," Discussion papers 19043, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    6. Xie, Lin & Wang, Shaozhuang & Yan, Lingxiao, 2024. "Distributional effects of expressway access on rural entrepreneurial activities in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Baek, Jisun & Park, WooRam, 2022. "The impact of improved passenger transport system on manufacturing plant productivity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    8. Alder, Simon, 2025. "Chinese roads in India: The effect of transport infrastructure on economic development," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    9. Ciani, Emanuele & de Blasio, Guido & Poy, Samuele, 2022. "A freeway to prosperity? Evidence from Calabria, South of Italy," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    10. Liu, Zheming & Zeng, Saixing & Jin, Zhizhou & Shi, Jonathan Jingsheng, 2022. "Transport infrastructure and industrial agglomeration: Evidence from manufacturing industries in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 100-112.
    11. Kailthya, Subham & Kambhampati, Uma, 2022. "Road to productivity: Effects of roads on total factor productivity in Indian manufacturing," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 174-195.
    12. Poudel, Dixit & Gopinath, Munisamy, 2025. "Roads and Climate Resilience in Informal Food Industries: Evidence from India," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360978, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Das, Abhiman & Ghani, Ejaz & Grover, Arti & Kerr, William & Nanda, Ramana, 2024. "JUE insight: Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India’s GQ highway network," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    14. Yoshifumi Konishi & Akari Ono, 2024. "Do Winners Win More from Transport Megaprojects? Evidence from the Great Seto Bridge in Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-018, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    15. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2025. "Productivity and wage effects of an exogenous improvement in transport infrastructure: Accessibility and the Great Belt Bridge," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    16. Branco, Catarina & Dohse, Dirk C. & Pereira dos Santos, João & Tavares, José, 2023. "Nobody’s gonna slow me down? The effects of a transportation cost shock on firm performance and behavior," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    17. Holl, Adelheid, 2016. "Highways and productivity in manufacturing firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 131-151.
    18. Chen, Fanglin & Hao, Xinyue & Chen, Zhongfei, 2021. "Can high-speed rail improve health and alleviate health inequality? Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 266-279.
    19. Junjun Tang & Xing Zhao, 2023. "Does the new digital infrastructure improve total factor productivity?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 895-916, October.
    20. Catarina Branco & Dirk C. Dohse & João Pereira Santos & José Tavares, 2022. "The impact of a rise in transportation costs on firm performance and behaviour," GEE Papers 0167, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Sep 2022.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:trapol:v:171:y:2025:i:c:p:764-802. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    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.