Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/68749 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre Discussion Paper No. 2009-32
Publisher: 
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Joint Transport Research Centre (JTRC), Paris
Abstract: 
The case for including agglomeration benefits within transport appraisal rests on an assumed causality between access to economic mass and productivity. Such causality is difficult to establish empirically because estimates may be subject to sources of bias from endogeneity and confounding. They may also be sensitive to the range of sample variance in agglomeration being used. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate some of the key difficulties that the researcher faces in estimating agglomeration economies and to show how these can affect the calculation of agglomeration benefits for the appraisal of transport projects. The results show a high degree of sensitivity to treatment for unobserved heterogeneity and to differences in the sample variance of agglomeration. A key conclusion is that we are unable to distinguish agglomeration effects from other potential explanations for productivity increases, most notably functional heterogeneity. Consequently, the agglomeration effects of transport investments cannot be interpreted causally.
Subjects: 
agglomeration
transport
causality
heterogeneity
confounding
JEL: 
R42
R12
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
416.72 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.