The Brasília Experiment: Road Access and the Spatial Pattern of Long-Term Local Development in Brazil

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the rapid expansion of the Brazilian road network, which occurred from the 1960s to the 2000s, on the growth and spatial allocation of population and economic activity across the country's municipalities. It addresses the problem of endogeneity in infrastructure location by using an original empirical strategy, based on the "historical natural experiment" constituted by the creation of the new federal capital city Brasília in 1960. The results reveal a dual pattern, with improved transport connections increasing concentration of economic activity and population around the main centers in the South of the country, while spurring the emergence of secondary economic centers in the less developed North, in line with predictions in terms of agglomeration economies. Over the period, roads are shown to account for half of pcGDP growth and to spur a signicant decrease in spatial inequality.

Gold mining and proto-urbanization: recent evidence from Ghana

“…A growing body of recent literature shows a substantial impact of investments in transport infrastructure on the concentration of economic activities over geographical space (Donaldson, 2014;Banerjee et al, 2012;Faber, 2014;Bird and Straub, 2014;Thompson, 2000;Michaels, 2008). There is however less empirical evidence on the role of primary production in the rise of cities.…”

China Belt and Road Initiative: Measuring the impact of improving transportation connectivity on trade in the region

“…Empirical evidence on this has been established primarily using cross-country data (e.g. Limão and Venables 2001) but there is also single-country data, for instance regarding the construction of very large national transport networks in the United States (Baum-Snow 2007; Donaldson and Hornbeck 2015), India (Donaldson 2016), China (Banerjee et al 2012;Faber 2014), Indonesia (Rothenberg 2013) and Brazil (Bird and Straub 2014). Rich literature, in different contexts, suggests that the improvement of transport infrastructure has an impact on the spatial distribution of economic activity; however, evidence on the pattern of the spatial distribution continues to present a mixed picture (see Redding and Turner 2014 for a comprehensive review).…”

“…They suggest mobility played an important role in determining the economic benefits of infrastructure in this case. Bird and Straub (2014) explore the impact of the rapid expansion of the Brazilian road network from the 1960s to the 2000s. Using the 'historical natural experiment' constituted by the creation of the new capital city of Brasilia, they identify significant and positive impacts of transport infrastructure on GDP per capita.…”

Marriage, work, and migration: The role of infrastructure development and gender norms

“…A number of recent studies have also looked at the economic effects of major road and rail infrastructure on economic development, includingDonaldson and Hornbeck (2016) for the USA; Donaldson (2018) for India; Banerjee et al (2012) for China; andBird and Straub (2014) andMorten and Oliveira (2014) for Brazil. However, these studies focus on economic growth, trade flows, and prices, as opposed to household responses via labour choices and migration.…”