Abstract
It is widely believed that transportation infrastructure has important impacts on the development of cities. Until recently, however, there has been little systematic evidence with which to evaluate claims about the effects of transportation infrastructure on the development of cities and regions. In this paper, we describe the evolution of Chinese transportation infrastructure and how it relates to the evolution of location patterns of population and production in Chinese cities and surrounding regions. We summarize empirical evidence from our work with Loren Brandt, Vernon Henderson and Qinghua Zhang on the causal effects of various types of transportation infrastructure on the decentralization of Chinese cities. Finally, we put our results in context of the existing literature on the effects of infrastructure on productivity and the allocation of resources across locations.
Highlights
Over the past 2 decades, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has made huge investments in highways and railroads
If infrastructure can help cities in the PRC overcome this legacy of planning and become centers of innovation, it is important to learn what elements of the transport network are most effective at facilitating industrial decentralization
Our study area consists of the 26 provinces that make up the eastern PRC
Summary
Over the past 2 decades, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has made huge investments in highways and railroads. Such infrastructure improvements may generate welfare benefits by reducing commuting and shipping costs They may affect the physical layout of cities and the organization of activities within cities, yet what evidence we have is primarily for the effects of roads on cities in the developed world (Baum-Snow 2007, Baum-Snow et al 2017, Duranton and Turner 2011, Garcia-López and Holl 2015, Hsu and Zhang 2014). If infrastructure can help cities in the PRC overcome this legacy of planning and become centers of innovation, it is important to learn what elements of the transport network are most effective at facilitating industrial decentralization. Evidence from the literature suggests that returns to infrastructure are large in poor countries, but decline with increases in income levels and the extent of the network
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