Our study shows that high‐speed railroads (HSR) can either polarize or diffuse economic geography based on the sector and distance between cities. Economic activities could agglomerate from distant to core areas, while disperse from core toward its periphery at the same time. Empirical evidence from the 1982 introduction of two major HSRs in Japan, which halved intercity transit time, support this. Noncore areas lost 3–6 percent population; service employment declined 7 percent, whereas manufacturing employment increased by 21 percent. Municipalities within approximately 150 km of Tokyo expanded, while the distant ones contracted. The net result is that the Tokyo metropolitan area agglomerates because of HSR.

Using 2003-2016 panel data of 278 prefecture-level Chinese cities, we analysed the relationship between highway construction, resource flow, and urban-rural income gap using multiple spatial econometric models. Overall highway construction has narrowed the urban-rural income gap owing to better population mobility and goods flow. However, while goods flow has narrowed the gap, population mobility has aggravated it. A regional difference in the impact of highway construction also exists, that is, the effect is negative in central and western cities, but positive for eastern cities. Moreover, China's "4 trillion" fiscal and currency stimulus plan has strengthened highway construction in narrowing the income gap. K E Y W O R D S highway construction, resource flow, spatial econometric model, Theil index J E L C L A S S I F I C A T I O N R11; R12; R49

This study estimates how highways affected industrial development in China's peripheral regions between 1998 and 2007, a period during which China experienced rapid growth in highway mileage. Highways between major cities pass through some counties but not others. Based on this difference in counties' access to highways, we conduct a difference-in-difference propensity score matching estimation, with the treatment variables being counties' highway connection status and their industrial performance before and after being connected to a highway. We find that highways promote industrial development in counties with higher output and greater investment levels. Moreover, highways have differential impacts across industries and regions.JEL classification: H54, L91, R12, O18

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We examine residential location choice behavior in a metropolitan area of Japan that experienced seismic damage. We find that the internal structure of the affected area was reshaped, although, in the long term, its total population size was robust to this temporary shock. Before the earthquake, the population was evolving toward a state of equilibrium with dense locations in the core facing redevelopment barriers and, therefore, stagnation. In contrast, the periphery was becoming increasingly appealing and thus growing. Seismic damage allowed for redevelopment at higher density, making the adjusted equilibrium with dense locations grow again. In summary, the initially expanding periphery stagnated as an unintended consequence of urban redevelopment.

By exploiting the 1995 Hanshin earthquake, which occurred in Japan, as an exogenous shock to the container shipping industry of northeastern Asia, this study provides an empirical relevance of the role of transport density economies in shaping the transport geography. The Hanshin earthquake caused severe damage to the Kobe port. Consequently, its container throughput was largely diverted to the nearby Busan port, which scaled up in this windfall. Focusing on the long-term growth of major port areas in northeastern Asia, we find that extensive diversions of container traffic occurred after the earthquake from Tokyo and Yokohama ports to Busan port, although container shipping operations in Tokyo and Yokohama ports were not directly affected by the earthquake. We interpret the economies of transport density benefitting Busan as the underlying mechanism; increased transport density allows Busan port to further enlarge its hinterlands and reshape the transport geography. We also find that the unintended diversions of container shipping lead to a structural change of manufacturing pattern in related regions.

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