交通基础设施建设对经济发展和收入差距的影响

This research project aims to examine the impacts of transport infrastructure on economic development and income inequality in China, with special attention to the impacts on regional economic growth, firm productivity, industrial clustering, and urban-rural income inequality. We will also explore the political determinants of transport investment and geographical distribution. More specifically, we will explore four highly related issues: 1) Using county-level economic data and detailed transport map data, we will investigate the impacts of transport infrastructure access on economic growth and the potential mechanisms by which infrastructure causes regional economic growth; 2) Using firm-level data, we will analyze the impacts of transport access and driving time reduction on firm productivity, industrial clustering and regional specialization; 3) Using county-level data, we will examine the impacts of transport access on urban-rural income inequality and its mechanisms; and 4) We will explore how the political incentives and connections of government officials affect transport investment and location decisions and also look at the linkage between transport investment and corruption incidence...Based on a very unique, micro-level dataset on transport access, regions and firms, this project will make important contributions to the existing literature by several respects: First, we study the impacts of transport infrastructure on income inequality and the political economy aspect of infrastructure investment decisions, which are very important research issues in China's context but largely ignored by the existing literature; Second, the unique nature of the dataset enables us to measure transport access (or driving time), firm clustering, and regional growth and inequality at much more micro-level and thus much more accurately, which substantially improves the precision of our estimates. Third, we focus more on the identification issues in our econometric analysis of the causality between infrastructure and its economic outcomes, such as searching for valid IVs and robustness checks.This research project has important policy implications for designing China's transport investment and location strategy.

本课题试图从理论和实证的角度系统研究交通基础设施建设对我国经济发展和收入差距的影响，尤其侧重在对区域经济增长、企业生产率、产业集聚和城乡收入差距演化的影响，同时还将考察交通投资和布局的政治经济学。本课题基于非常独特的微观层面的交通、区划和企业数据，一方面开拓了关于交通基础设经济社会影响的新视角、新思路，如研究交通基础设施发展对城乡收入差距的影响以及交通投资和布局决策背后的政治激励和相关因素，另一方面在重要变量测度、计量方法和稳健性检验等方面弥补了现有文献的不足。本课题的研究对于评估我国交通基础设施政策的效果以及优化交通投入和布局具有重要的政策含义。

本课题从理论和实证的角度系统研究交通和通讯基础设施建设对我国经济发展和收入差距的影响，尤其侧重在对区域经济增长、企业生产率、产业集聚和城乡收入差距演化的影响，同时还考察交通投资和布局的政治经济学。本课题基于非常独特的微观层面的交通、区划和企业数据，一方面开拓了关于交通和通讯基础设经济社会影响的新视角、新思路，如研究交通基础设施发展对城乡收入差距的影响以及交通投资和布局决策背后的政治激励和相关因素，另一方面在重要变量测度、计量方法和稳健性检验等方面弥补了现有文献的不足。本课题的研究对于评估我国交通基础设施政策的效果以及优化交通投入和布局具有重要的政策含义。