Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP10494
Authors: Thierry Mayer; Corentin Trevien
Abstract: Evaluating the impact of transport infrastructure meets a major challenge since rail lines are not randomly located. We use the natural experiment offered by the opening and progressive extension of the Regional Express Rail (RER) between 1970 and 2000 in the Paris metropolitan region, and in particular the deviation from original plans due to budgetary constraints and technical reasons, in order to identify the causal impact of urban rail transport on firm location, employment and population growth. We use a difference-in-differences approach on a specific subsample, selected to avoid endogeneity bias which occurs when evaluating transportation effects. We find that the increase in employment is 12.8\% higher in municipalities connected to the new network compared to the existing suburban rail network between 1975 and 1990. Places located within 20 km from Paris are the only affected. While we find no effect on overall population growth, our results suggest that the commissioning of the RER may have increased the competition for land high-skilled households are more likely to locate in the vicinity of a RER station.
Keywords: impact evaluation; location choice; transport infrastructure; urban structure
JEL Codes: D04; H43; R42
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Opening of the RER (Y20) | Increase in employment (J23) |
| Opening of the RER (Y20) | Increase in employment for foreign firms (F23) |
| One-minute decrease in travel time to Paris (R41) | Increase in employment (J23) |
| Opening of the RER (Y20) | Employment growth in municipalities within 20 km of Paris (R11) |
| Opening of the RER (Y20) | Population growth (J11) |
| Improved access due to RER (R50) | Increase in high-skilled populations (R23) |