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Does congestion negatively affect income growth and employment growth? Empirical evidence from US metropolitan regions

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  • Jin, Jangik
  • Rafferty, Peter

Abstract

Traffic congestion has long been among the biggest economic problems in US metropolitan areas. Scholars have argued the importance of research focusing on transportation planning that aims to mitigate traffic congestion and reduce economic costs. However, most existing work has overlooked the interrelationship between congestion and economic components. With this perspective, this study seeks to explore the interrelationship between congestion, income, and employment. To this end, we focus on 86 US metropolitan areas by utilizing a simultaneous equation model. The results show that there is an interrelationship between income growth, employment growth, and congestion growth, but their effects are somewhat different between periods of the economic boom in the 1990s and the economic recession in the 2000s. In addition, our findings clearly show that traffic congestion growth negatively affects income growth and employment growth. It is suggested that transportation policy that aims to reduce traffic congestion could provide economic benefits in terms of increasing employment growth as well as income growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin, Jangik & Rafferty, Peter, 2017. "Does congestion negatively affect income growth and employment growth? Empirical evidence from US metropolitan regions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:55:y:2017:i:c:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2016.12.003
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    8. Yaqi Hu & Yingzi Chen, 2022. "Coupling of Urban Economic Development and Transportation System: An Urban Agglomeration Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Magalhães, David José Ahouagi Vaz de & Rivera-Gonzalez, Carlos, 2021. "Car users’ attitudes towards an enhanced bus system to mitigate urban congestion in a developing country," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 452-464.
    10. Samir, Saidi & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Akhtar, Pervaiz, 2018. "The Long-Run Relationship between Transport Energy Consumption and Transport Infrastructure on Economic Growth in MENA Countries," MPRA Paper 85037, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Mar 2018.
    11. Jin, Jangik & Rafferty, Peter, 2018. "Externalities of auto traffic congestion growth: Evidence from the residential property values in the US Great Lakes megaregion," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 131-140.
    12. Selod,Harris & Soumahoro,Souleymane, 2020. "Big Data in Transportation : An Economics Perspective," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9308, The World Bank.
    13. Sarri, Paraskevi & Kaparias, Ioannis & Preston, John & Simmonds, David, 2023. "Using Land Use and Transportation Interaction (LUTI) models to determine land use effects from new vehicle transportation technologies; a regional scale of analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 91-111.
    14. Jangik Jin & Danya Kim, 2018. "Expansion of the subway network and spatial distribution of population and employment in the Seoul metropolitan area," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(11), pages 2499-2521, August.
    15. Amparo Moyano & Marcin Stępniak & Borja Moya-Gómez & Juan Carlos García-Palomares, 2021. "Traffic congestion and economic context: changes of spatiotemporal patterns of traffic travel times during crisis and post-crisis periods," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3301-3324, December.
    16. Chao Sun & Jian Lu, 2022. "The Relative Roles of Socioeconomic Factors and Governance Policies in Urban Traffic Congestion: A Global Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, September.

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