Received:
2023-01-06 | Accepted:
2023-03-08 | Published:
2023-03-30
Title
Agglomeration benefits and costs of investing in urban transport infrastructure
Abstract
Theory and evidence suggest that a city owes its existence to an agglomeration benefit. An investment in urban transportation infrastructure may increase this benefit. While some years ago the agglomeration benefit of urban transportation was just a vague idea, recently its size has been estimated and the idea has gained concreteness and respectability. However, the theoretical literature has emphasized the agglomeration benefit that arises through immigration and higher population, while the empirical literature has emphasized the benefit that arises from effective density at constant population. A third strand of the literature has discussed transportation of goods. We bring together these theoretical and empirical literatures, and discuss which agglomeration benefits and costs are relevant for major categories of urban passenger and freight transport investment.
Keywords
transport, agglomeration, effective density, cost-benefit analysis
JEL classifications
R13
, R42
, H43
, H54
URI
http://jssidoi.org/ird/article/125
DOI
Pages
59-71
Funding
The research is supported by the Norwegian Research Council Grant no 267 697, 'Impact'.
This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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