IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lmu/muenar/84767.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How new airport infrastructure promotes tourism: evidence from a synthetic control approach in German regions

Author

Listed:
  • Doerr, Luisa
  • Dorn, Florian
  • Gaebler, Stefanie
  • Potrafke, Niklas

Abstract

The paper examines how new airport infrastructure influences regional tourism. Identification is based on the conversion of a military airbase into a regional commercial airport in the German state of Bavaria. The new airport opened in 2007 and promotes travelling to the touristic region of Allgau in the Bavarian Alps. A synthetic control approach is used to show that the new commercial airport increased tourism in the Allgau region over the period 2008-16. The positive effect is especially pronounced in the county in which the airport is located. The results suggest that new transportation infrastructure promotes regional economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Doerr, Luisa & Dorn, Florian & Gaebler, Stefanie & Potrafke, Niklas, 2020. "How new airport infrastructure promotes tourism: evidence from a synthetic control approach in German regions," Munich Reprints in Economics 84767, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:84767
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gibbons, Stephen & Lyytikäinen, Teemu & Overman, Henry G. & Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa, 2019. "New road infrastructure: The effects on firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 35-50.
    2. Jan K. Brueckner, 2003. "Airline Traffic and Urban Economic Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1455-1469, July.
    3. Juan L. Eugenio-Martin, 2016. "Estimating the Tourism Demand Impact of Public Infrastructure Investment: The Case of Malaga Airport Expansion," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(2), pages 254-268, April.
    4. Eric Pels & Peter Nijkamp & Piet Rietveld, 2001. "Airport and Airline Choice in a Multiple Airport Region: An Empirical Analysis for the San Francisco Bay Area," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 1-9.
    5. Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2012. "Urban Growth and Transportation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1407-1440.
    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. Breidenbach, Philipp, 2015. "Ready for Take-off? The Economic Effects of Regional Airport Expansion," Ruhr Economic Papers 549, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    8. Gabriel M Ahlfeldt & Arne Feddersen, 2018. "From periphery to core: measuring agglomeration effects using high-speed rail," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 355-390.
    9. Alfred Bauer & Florian Dorn & Luisa Dörr & Stefanie Gäbler & Manuela Krause & Martin Mosler & Christiaan Niemeijer & Horst Penzkofer & Niklas Potrafke, 2019. "Regional Economic Impact of Memmingen Airport on Tourism," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 100.
    10. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    11. Victor Chernozhukov & Kaspar Wüthrich & Yinchu Zhu, 2021. "An Exact and Robust Conformal Inference Method for Counterfactual and Synthetic Controls," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 116(536), pages 1849-1864, October.
    12. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Maennig, Wolfgang, 2015. "Homevoters vs. leasevoters: A spatial analysis of airport effects," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 85-99.
    13. Sheard, Nicholas, 2014. "Airports and urban sectoral employment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 133-152.
    14. J.Fernando Vera Rebollo & Josep Ivars Baidal, 2009. "Spread of Low-Cost Carriers: Tourism and Regional Policy Effects in Spain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 559-570.
    15. Firpo Sergio & Possebom Vitor, 2018. "Synthetic Control Method: Inference, Sensitivity Analysis and Confidence Sets," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-26, September.
    16. Tveter, Eivind, 2017. "The effect of airports on regional development: Evidence from the construction of regional airports in Norway," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 50-58.
    17. Halpern, Nigel & Bråthen, Svein, 2011. "Impact of airports on regional accessibility and social development," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1145-1154.
    18. B. Derudder & F. Witlox, 2005. "An Appraisal of the Use of Airline Data in Assessing the World City Network: A Research Note on Data," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(13), pages 2371-2388, December.
    19. Roesel, Felix, 2017. "Do mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures? – Evidence from Germany using the synthetic control method," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 22-36.
    20. Möller, J. & Zierer, M., 2018. "Autobahns and jobs: A regional study using historical instrumental variables," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 18-33.
    21. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    22. Marco Percoco, 2010. "Airport Activity and Local Development: Evidence from Italy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(11), pages 2427-2443, October.
    23. Castillo, Victoria & Figal Garone, Lucas & Maffioli, Alessandro & Salazar, Lina, 2017. "The causal effects of regional industrial policies on employment: A synthetic control approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 25-41.
    24. Heike Alberts & John Bowen & Julie Cidell, 2009. "Missed Opportunities: The Restructuring of Berlin's Airport System and the City's Position in International Airline Networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 739-758.
    25. Rehman Khan, Syed Abdul & Qianli, Dong & SongBo, Wei & Zaman, Khalid & Zhang, Yu, 2017. "Travel and tourism competitiveness index: The impact of air transportation, railways transportation, travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 125-134.
    26. Adler, Nicole & Ülkü, Tolga & Yazhemsky, Ekaterina, 2013. "Small regional airport sustainability: Lessons from benchmarking," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 22-31.
    27. Kirsi Mukkala & Hannu Tervo, 2013. "Air Transportation and Regional Growth: Which Way Does the Causality Run?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(6), pages 1508-1520, June.
    28. Barbot, Cristina & D'Alfonso, Tiziana, 2014. "Why do contracts between airlines and airports fail?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 34-41.
    29. Wiltshire, James, 2018. "Airport competition: Reality or myth?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 241-248.
    30. Lieshout, Rogier, 2012. "Measuring the size of an airport’s catchment area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 27-34.
    31. Blonigen, Bruce A. & Cristea, Anca D., 2015. "Air service and urban growth: Evidence from a quasi-natural policy experiment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 128-146.
    32. Boes, Stefan & Nüesch, Stephan, 2011. "Quasi-experimental evidence on the effect of aircraft noise on apartment rents," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 196-204, March.
    33. Koo, Tay T.R. & Lim, Christine & Dobruszkes, Frédéric, 2017. "Causality in direct air services and tourism demand," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 67-77.
    34. Eugenio-Martin, Juan L. & Inchausti-Sintes, Federico, 2016. "Low-cost travel and tourism expenditures," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 140-159.
    35. Julie Cidell, 2015. "The role of major infrastructure in subregional economic development: an empirical study of airports and cities," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 1125-1144.
    36. Tay-Ryang Koo & Christine Lim & Frédéric Dobruszkes, 2017. "Causality in direct air services and tourism demand," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/259047, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    37. Jacco Hakfoort & Tom Poot & Piet Rietveld, 2001. "The Regional Economic Impact of an Airport: The Case of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(7), pages 595-604.
    38. Derudder, Ben & Devriendt, Lomme & Witlox, Frank, 2010. "A spatial analysis of multiple airport cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 345-353.
    39. Florian Dorn & Luisa Dörr & Kristin Fischer & Stefanie Gäbler & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2019. "Memmingen Airport as a Location Factor for the Region: Results of a Business Survey," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 101.
    40. Lian, Jon Inge & Rønnevik, Joachim, 2011. "Airport competition – Regional airports losing ground to main airports," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 85-92.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Erick Lahura & Rosario Sabrera, 2023. "The effect of infrastructure investment on tourism demand: a synthetic control approach for the case of Kuelap, Peru," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 443-478, July.
    2. Wu, Hanjun & Hong Tsui, Kan Wai & Ngo, Thanh & Lin, Yi-Hsin, 2023. "Airport subsidies impact on wellbeing of smaller regions: A systemic examination in New Zealand," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 26-36.
    3. Pot, Felix Johan & Koster, Sierdjan, 2022. "Small airports: Runways to regional economic growth?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Bowen Liu & John R. Bryson & Deniz Sevinc & Matthew A. Cole & Robert J. R. Elliott & Suzanne E. Bartington & William J. Bloss & Zongbo Shi, 2023. "Assessing the Impacts of Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone on Air Quality: Estimates from a Machine Learning and Synthetic Control Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(1), pages 203-231, October.
    5. Chow, Clement Kong Wing & Tsui, Wai Hong Kan & Wu, Hanjun, 2021. "Airport subsidies and domestic inbound tourism in China," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Teniwut, Wellem Anselmus & Hamid, Syahibul Kahfi & Makailipessy, Marvin Mario, 2022. "Developing a masterplan for a sustainable marine sector in a small islands region: Integrated MCE spatial analysis for decision making," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    7. Mona Foertsch & Felix Roesel, 2023. "Public Infrastructure and Regional Resilience: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Flu in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 10705, CESifo.
    8. Hannes Wallimann & Kevin Blattler & Widar von Arx, 2021. "Do price reductions attract customers in urban public transport? A synthetic control approach," Papers 2111.14613, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    9. Wallimann, Hannes & Blättler, Kevin & von Arx, Widar, 2023. "Do price reductions attract customers in urban public transport? A synthetic control approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Boto-García, David & Pérez, Levi, 2023. "The effect of high-speed rail connectivity and accessibility on tourism seasonality," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Duarte, Rosa & García-Riazuelo, Álvaro & Sáez, Luis Antonio & Sarasa, Cristina, 2022. "Economic and territorial integration of renewables in rural areas: Lessons from a long-term perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    12. Hannes Wallimann, 2022. "A complementary product of a nearby ski lift company," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(2), pages 418-434, March.

    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. Lenaerts, Bert & Allroggen, Florian & Malina, Robert, 2021. "The economic impact of aviation: A review on the role of market access," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Alfred Bauer & Florian Dorn & Luisa Dörr & Stefanie Gäbler & Manuela Krause & Martin Mosler & Christiaan Niemeijer & Horst Penzkofer & Niklas Potrafke, 2019. "Regional Economic Impact of Memmingen Airport on Tourism," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 100.
    3. Pot, Felix Johan & Koster, Sierdjan, 2022. "Small airports: Runways to regional economic growth?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Talebian, Ahmadreza & Zou, Bo & Hansen, Mark, 2018. "Assessing the impacts of state-supported rail services on local population and employment: A California case study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 108-121.
    5. Aguirre, Julio & Mateu, Pedro & Pantoja, Chrissie, 2019. "Granting airport concessions for regional development: Evidence from Peru," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 138-152.
    6. Shreyas Gadgin Matha & Patricio Goldstein & Jessie Lu, 2020. "Air Transportation and Regional Economic Development: A Case Study for the New Airport in South Albania," CID Working Papers 127a, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    7. Wu, Hanjun & Hong Tsui, Kan Wai & Ngo, Thanh & Lin, Yi-Hsin, 2020. "Impacts of aviation subsidies on regional wellbeing: Systematic review, meta-analysis and future research directions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 215-239.
    8. Xiaowen Fu & Kan Wai Hong Tsui & Breno Sampaio & David Tan, 2021. "Do airport activities affect regional economies? Regional analysis of New Zealand’s airport system," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 707-722, April.
    9. Carbo, Jose M. & Graham, Daniel J., 2020. "Quantifying the impacts of air transportation on economic productivity: a quasi-experimental causal analysis," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    10. Stephen Gibbons & Wenjie Wu, 2020. "Airports, access and local economic performance: evidence from China [Are Chinese cities too small?]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 903-937.
    11. Sobieralski, Joseph B., 2021. "Transportation infrastructure and employment: Are all investments created equal?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Francesco Russo & Giuseppe Fortugno & Marco Merante & Domenica Savia Pellicanò & Maria Rosaria Trecozzi, 2021. "Updating National Air Passenger Demand from Traffic Counts: The Case of a Secondary Airport in an Underdeveloped Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.
    13. Zeigler, Patrick & Pagliari, Romano & Suau-Sanchez, Pere & Malighetti, Paolo & Redondi, Renato, 2017. "Low-cost carrier entry at small European airports: Low-cost carrier effects on network connectivity and self-transfer potential," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 68-79.
    14. Alderighi, Marco & Gaggero, Alberto A., 2017. "Fly and trade: Evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 51-60.
    15. Luisa Dörr & Stefanie Gäbler, 2020. "Does Highway Accessibility Influence Local Tax Factors? Evidence from German Municipalities," ifo Working Paper Series 321, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    16. Alderighi, Marco & Gaggero, Alberto A., 2019. "Flight availability and international tourism flows," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Murakami, Jin & Matsui, Yurika & Kato, Hironori, 2016. "Airport rail links and economic productivity: Evidence from 82 cities with the world’s 100 busiest airports," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 89-99.
    18. Chen, Xin & Xuan, Chao & Qiu, Rui, 2021. "Understanding spatial spillover effects of airports on economic development: New evidence from China’s hub airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 48-60.
    19. Wu, Hanjun & Hong Tsui, Kan Wai & Ngo, Thanh & Lin, Yi-Hsin, 2023. "Airport subsidies impact on wellbeing of smaller regions: A systemic examination in New Zealand," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 26-36.
    20. Kamruzzaman, Md. & Aston, Laura & Baker, Douglas & Braun, Boris & Shatu, Farjana, 2021. "Changes in land use typology of global airports: An empirical investigation with implications for the aerotropolis concept," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • Z38 - Other Special Topics - - Tourism Economics - - - Policy
    • L93 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Air Transportation

    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:lmu:muenar:84767. 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: Tamilla Benkelberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.