Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/318203 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Urban Economics [ISSN:] 1095-9068 [Volume:] 145 [Article No.:] 103730 [Publisher:] Elsevier [Place:] Amsterdam [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 1-22
Publisher: 
Elsevier, Amsterdam
Abstract: 
This paper studies the causal effect of transport infrastructure on the spatial distribution of economic activity within subnational regions across a large number of developing countries. To do so, we introduce a new global dataset of geolocated Chinese grant- and loan-financed development projects from 2000 to 2014 and combine it with measures of spatial concentration based on remotely sensed data. We find that Chinese financed transportation projects decentralize economic activity within regions, as measured by a spatial Gini coefficient, by 2.2 percentage points. The treatment effects are particularly strong in regions that are less developed, more urbanized, and located closer to cities.
Subjects: 
Development finance
Transport costsInfrastructure
Foreign aid
Spatial concentration
China
JEL: 
F35
R11
R12
P33
O18
O19
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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