China's dazzling transport-infrastructure growth: Measurement and effects

Peter H. Egger; Gabriel Loumeau; Nicole Loumeau

doi:10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103734

China's dazzling transport-infrastructure growth: Measurement and effects

Peter H. Egger^*
, Gabriel Loumeau
, Nicole Loumeau

^*Corresponding author for this work

Spatial Economics

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We document an unprecedented change in the size and the quality of China's transport-infrastructure network between 2000 and 2013 based on hand-collected and digitized data on roads and railways. The changes are summarized and portrayed as shortest-possible transport times of people and goods between 330 prefectures of mainland China. A quantitative model of China's prefectures and a Rest of the World, featuring both goods trade and migration, suggests that the transport-infrastructure changes induced regional convergence of lagging-behind prefectures in terms of population density and, to a lesser extent, of real per-capita income. Not only changes in highway and high-speed-railway networks but also ones in lower-level road and railway networks are quantitatively important.

Original language	English
Article number	103734
Pages (from-to)	1-22
Number of pages	22
Journal	Journal of International Economics
Volume	142
Early online date	14 Feb 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103734
Publication status	Published - May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are grateful to the editor, Treb Allen, and two anonymous referees for many helpful and productive suggestions. Peter Egger gratefully acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant no. 100018_169537

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

We are grateful to the editor, Treb Allen, and two anonymous referees for many helpful and productive suggestions. Peter Egger gratefully acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant no. 100018_169537

Funders	Funder number
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung	169537, 100018_169537

Keywords

General-equilibrium models
Migration
Regional economics
Structural estimation
Transport infrastructure
Transportation problem

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10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103734

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title = "China's dazzling transport-infrastructure growth: Measurement and effects",

abstract = "We document an unprecedented change in the size and the quality of China's transport-infrastructure network between 2000 and 2013 based on hand-collected and digitized data on roads and railways. The changes are summarized and portrayed as shortest-possible transport times of people and goods between 330 prefectures of mainland China. A quantitative model of China's prefectures and a Rest of the World, featuring both goods trade and migration, suggests that the transport-infrastructure changes induced regional convergence of lagging-behind prefectures in terms of population density and, to a lesser extent, of real per-capita income. Not only changes in highway and high-speed-railway networks but also ones in lower-level road and railway networks are quantitatively important.",

keywords = "General-equilibrium models, Migration, Regional economics, Structural estimation, Transport infrastructure, Transportation problem",

author = "Egger, \{Peter H.\} and Gabriel Loumeau and Nicole Loumeau",

note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to the editor, Treb Allen, and two anonymous referees for many helpful and productive suggestions. Peter Egger gratefully acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant no. 100018\_169537 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors",

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N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to the editor, Treb Allen, and two anonymous referees for many helpful and productive suggestions. Peter Egger gratefully acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant no. 100018_169537 Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

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AB - We document an unprecedented change in the size and the quality of China's transport-infrastructure network between 2000 and 2013 based on hand-collected and digitized data on roads and railways. The changes are summarized and portrayed as shortest-possible transport times of people and goods between 330 prefectures of mainland China. A quantitative model of China's prefectures and a Rest of the World, featuring both goods trade and migration, suggests that the transport-infrastructure changes induced regional convergence of lagging-behind prefectures in terms of population density and, to a lesser extent, of real per-capita income. Not only changes in highway and high-speed-railway networks but also ones in lower-level road and railway networks are quantitatively important.

KW - General-equilibrium models

KW - Migration

KW - Regional economics

KW - Structural estimation

KW - Transport infrastructure

KW - Transportation problem

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China's dazzling transport-infrastructure growth: Measurement and effects

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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