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We estimate the effects of interstate highways on the growth of US cities between 1983 and 2003. We find that a 10% increase in a city's initial stock of highways causes about a 1.5% increase in its employment over this 20 year period. To estimate a structural model of urban growth and transportation, we rely on an instrumental variables estimation which uses a 1947 plan of the interstate highway system, an 1898 map of railroads, and maps of the early explorations of the US as instruments for 1983 highways. University of TorontoThis draft: 25 November 2008 Abstract: We estimate the effects of major roads and public transit on the growth of major cities in the us between 1980 and 2000. We find that a 10% increase in a city's stock of roads causes about a 2% increase in its population and employment and a small decrease in its share of poor households over this 20 year period. We also find that a 10% increase in a city's stock of large buses causes about a 0.8% population increase and a small increase in the share of poor households over this period. To estimate these effects we rely on an instrumental variables estimation which uses a 1947 plan of the interstate highway system and an 1898 map of railroads as instruments for 1980 roads.

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We study the extent to which us urban development is sprawling and what determines differences in sprawl across space. Using remote-sensing data to track the evolution of land use on a grid of 8.7 billion 30×30 meter cells, we measure sprawl as the amount of undeveloped land surrounding an average urban dwelling. The extent of sprawl remained roughly unchanged between 1976 and 1992, although it varied dramatically across metropolitan areas. Ground water availability, temperate climate, rugged terrain, decentralized employment, early public transport infrastructure, uncertainty about metropolitan growth, and unincorporated land in the urban fringe all increase sprawl.Key words: urban sprawl, land development, remote sensing jel classification: r14, o51 * For helpful comments and suggestions we thank three anonymous referees, William Fischel, Masahisa Fujita, John Hartwick, Vernon Henderson, John Landis, William Strange, and, in particular, Edward Glaeser. We also received helpful comments from seminar participants at the University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Stanford University, and at conferences organized by the Regional Science Association International, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and the Lincoln Institute. We are very grateful to Ferko Csillag for his advice on remote-sensing data. Also to the us Geological Survey, and in particular to Stephen Howard and James Vogelmann, for early access to preliminary versions of the 1992 data. Vernon Henderson and Jordan Rappaport kindly provided us with data on metropolitan population 1920-1990, Matthew Kahn with data on employment decentralization, and Jacob Vigdor with data on streetcar usage. While working on this project, Burchfield was an MSc student at the Department of Geography, University of Toronto. She gratefully acknowledges help from Kent Todd in preparing arc Macro Language scripts. Funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Puga and Turner), and the support of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (Puga) and the National Fellows program at the Hoover Institution (Turner) are gratefully acknowledged.† Neptis Foundation, 50 Park Road, Toronto, Ontario m4w 2n5, Canada (e-mail: mburchfield@neptis.org). ‡ Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London wc2a 2ae, United Kingdom (e-mail: h.g.overman@lse.ac.uk; website: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/~overman). Also affiliated with the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.§ Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 150 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario m5s 3g7, Canada (e-mail:d.puga@utoronto.ca; website: http://dpuga.economics.utoronto.ca). Also affiliated with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. ¶ Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 150 Saint George Street, Toronto, On...

We estimate the effect of interstate highways on the level and composition of trade for US cities. Highways within cities have a large effect on the weight of city exports with an elasticity of approximately 0.5. We find little effect of highways on the total value of exports. Consistent with this, we find that cities with more highways specialize in sectors producing heavy goods. University of TorontoThis draft: 21 July 2011 Abstract: We estimate the effects of interstate highways on the level and composition of trade for us cities. Highways within cities have a large effect on the weight of city exports with an elasticity of approximately 0.5. There is no discernible effect of highways on the total value of exports. Consistent with this, we find that cities with more highways specialize in sectors producing heavy goods.

We investigate the effect of lane kilometers of roads on vehicle-kilometers traveled (VKT) for different types of roads in the United States. For interstate highways in metropolitan areas we find that VKT increases one for one with interstate highways, confirming the "fundamental law of highway congestion" suggested by Anthony Downs (1962Downs ( , 1992. We also uncover suggestive evidence that this law may extend beyond interstate highways to a broad class of major urban roads, a "fundamental law of road congestion." These results suggest that increased provision of interstate highways and major urban roads is unlikely to relieve congestion of these roads.Our investigation is of interest for three reasons.

Qinghua (2017) Roads, railroads and decentralization of Chinese cities. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 99 (3). pp. 435-448.

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between the spatial distribution of economic activity and transportation costs. We develop a multi-region model of economic geography that we use to understand the general equilibrium implications of transportation infrastructure improvements within and between locations for wages, population, trade and industry composition. Guided by the predictions of this model, we review the empirical literature on the effects of transportation infrastructure improvements on economic development, paying particular attention to the use of exogenous sources of variation in the construction of transportation infrastructure. We examine evidence from different spatial scales, between and within cities. We outline a variety of areas for further research, including distinguishing reallocation from growth and dynamics.