[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wii/bpaper/121.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Introducing Railway Time in the Balkans: Economic effects of railway construction in Southeast Europe and beyond since the early 19th century until present days

Author

Listed:
  • Eduard Alvarez
  • Mario Holzner

    (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw)

  • Stefan Jestl

    (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw)

  • Jordi Marti-Henneberg
Abstract
In this paper we analyse the economic effects of railway infrastructure at the national level for European countries as well as at the local level for Southeast European cities based on a novel railway database capturing decades of the 19th century up to the early 21th century. A panel fixed effects regression analysis at the country level indicates a positive economic impact emanating from railway infrastructure, whereby the effect appears to be even stronger for less developed Southeast European countries. In addition, a linear spatially augmented multilevel model at the city level sheds light on the positive effects resulting from railway infrastructure on urban development. Its positive spillover effects occur within countries as well as across borders.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduard Alvarez & Mario Holzner & Stefan Jestl & Jordi Marti-Henneberg, 2016. "Introducing Railway Time in the Balkans: Economic effects of railway construction in Southeast Europe and beyond since the early 19th century until present days," wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers 121, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    • Handle: RePEc:wii:bpaper:121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://wiiw.ac.at/introducing-railway-time-in-the-balkans-economic-e-ects-of-railway-construction-in-southeast-europe-and-beyond-since-the-early-19th-century-until-present-days-dlp-3904.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dave Donaldson & Richard Hornbeck, 2016. "Railroads and American Economic Growth: A "Market Access" Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 799-858.
    2. Jeremy Atack & Michael R. Haines & Robert A. Margo, 2008. "Railroads and the Rise of the Factory: Evidence for the United States, 1850-70," NBER Working Papers 14410, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Philippe Aghion & Mark Schankerman, 1999. "Competition, entry and the social returns to infrastructure in transition economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 7(1), pages 79-101, March.
    4. Antonio Estache & Marianne Fay, 2009. "Current Debates on Infrastructure Policy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 27762.
    5. Stephen J. Redding & Daniel M. Sturm, 2008. "The Costs of Remoteness: Evidence from German Division and Reunification," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1766-1797, December.
    6. Luisa Corrado & Bernard Fingleton, 2012. "Where Is The Economics In Spatial Econometrics?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 210-239, May.
    7. Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2012. "Urban Growth and Transportation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1407-1440.
    8. Jutta Bolt & Jan Luiten Zanden, 2014. "The Maddison Project: collaborative research on historical national accounts," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 627-651, August.
    9. Timothy Besley & Miguel Coelho & John Van Reenen, 2013. "Investing for Prosperity: Skills, Infrastructure and Innovation," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 224(1), pages 1-13, May.
    10. Gabriel M Ahlfeldt & Arne Feddersen, 2018. "From periphery to core: measuring agglomeration effects using high-speed rail," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 355-390.
    11. Murphy, Kevin M & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1989. "Industrialization and the Big Push," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1003-1026, October.
    12. Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther & Qian, Nancy, 2020. "On the road: Access to transportation infrastructure and economic growth in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    13. Edward Christie & Vladimir Gligorov & Mario Holzner, 2004. "Infrastructural Needs & Economic Development in Southeastern Europe: The Case of Rail and Road Transport Infrastructure," wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers 60, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    14. Canning, David & Bennathan, Esra, 2000. "The social rate of return on infrastructure investments," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2390, The World Bank.
    15. Riccardo Crescenzi & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2012. "Infrastructure and regional growth in the European Union," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(3), pages 487-513, August.
    16. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    17. Koopmans, Carl & Rietveld, Piet & Huijg, Aart, 2012. "An accessibility approach to railways and municipal population growth, 1840–1930," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 98-104.
    18. David Canning & Peter Pedroni, 2008. "Infrastructure, Long‐Run Economic Growth And Causality Tests For Cointegrated Panels," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 76(5), pages 504-527, September.
    19. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    20. Felis-Rota, Marta, 2014. "A VAR Analysis of the Transportation Revolution in Europe," Working Papers in Economic History 2014/01, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    21. John G. Fernald, 1999. "Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link between Public Capital and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 619-638, June.
    22. Collins, William J., 1999. "Labor Mobility, Market Integration, and Wage Convergence in Late 19th Century India," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 246-277, July.
    23. Bogart, Dan, 2005. "Turnpike trusts and the transportation revolution in 18th century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 479-508, October.
    24. Daniel Stegmueller, 2013. "How Many Countries for Multilevel Modeling? A Comparison of Frequentist and Bayesian Approaches," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(3), pages 748-761, July.
    25. Bellemare, Marc F. & Masaki, Takaaki & Pepinsky, Thomas B., 2015. "Lagged Explanatory Variables and the Estimation of Causal Effects," MPRA Paper 62350, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Feb 2015.
    26. Mario Holzner & Robert Stehrer & Hermine Vidovic, 2015. "Infrastructure Investment in the Western Balkans," wiiw Research Reports 407, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    27. John Elder & Peter E. Kennedy, 2001. "Testing for Unit Roots: What Should Students Be Taught?," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 137-146, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philipp Heimberger & Mario Holzner & Stefan Jestl & David Kiefer & Leon Podkaminer & Codrina Rada, 2017. "Monthly Report No. 2/2017," wiiw Monthly Reports 2017-02, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Konno, Akio & Kato, Hironori & Takeuchi, Wataru & Kiguchi, Riku, 2021. "Global evidence on productivity effects of road infrastructure incorporating spatial spillover effects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 167-182.
    2. Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2015. "The Impacts of Infrastructure in Development: A Selective Survey," ADBI Working Papers 511, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    3. Philipp Heimberger & Mario Holzner & Stefan Jestl & David Kiefer & Leon Podkaminer & Codrina Rada, 2017. "Monthly Report No. 2/2017," wiiw Monthly Reports 2017-02, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    4. Stephan Maurer & Ferdinand Rauch, 2023. "Economic geography aspects of the Panama Canal," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(1), pages 142-162.
    5. Swisher IV, S. N., 2017. "Reassessing Railroads and Growth: Accounting for Transport Network Endogeneity," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1718, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Talebian, Ahmadreza & Zou, Bo & Hansen, Mark, 2018. "Assessing the impacts of state-supported rail services on local population and employment: A California case study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 108-121.
    7. Braun, Sebastian Till & Franke, Richard, 2022. "Railways, Growth, and Industrialization in a Developing German Economy, 1829–1910," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 1183-1221, December.
    8. Gibbons, Stephen & Lyytikäinen, Teemu & Overman, Henry G. & Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa, 2019. "New road infrastructure: The effects on firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 35-50.
    9. Minhaj Mahmud & Yasuyuki Sawada, 2018. "Infrastructure and well-being: employment effects of Jamuna bridge in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 327-340, July.
    10. Wang, Xu & Xie, Zhuan & Zhang, Xiaobo & Huang, Yiping, 2018. "Roads to innovation: Firm-level evidence from People's Republic of China (PRC)," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 154-170.
    11. Fretz Stephan & Gorgas Christoph, 2015. "Regionaler Nutzen von Verkehrsinfrastruktur-Erweiterungen: Evidenz vom Schweizer Autobahnnetz," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 57-71, March.
    12. Anna Bottaso & Carolina Castagnetti & Maurizio Conti, 2011. "And Yet they Co-Move! Public Capital and Productivity in OECD: A Panel Cointegration Analysis with Cross-Section Dependence," Quaderni di Dipartimento 154, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods.
    13. Wu, Guiying Laura & Feng, Qu & Wang, Zhifeng, 2021. "A structural estimation of the return to infrastructure investment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Zou, Wei & Chen, Liangheng, 2024. "The impact of high-speed railway on firms’ productivity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1374-1394.
    15. Wan, Guanghua & Zhang, Yan, 2018. "The direct and indirect effects of infrastructure on firm productivity: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 143-153.
    16. Alexandru Pavel & Bogdan Moldovan & Bogdana Neamtu & Cristina Hintea, 2018. "Are Investments in Basic Infrastructure the Magic Wand to Boost the Local Economy of Rural Communities from Romania?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-32, September.
    17. Yoshifumi Konishi & Akari Ono, 2024. "Do Winners Win More from Transport Megaprojects? Evidence from the Great Seto Bridges in Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-003, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    18. Mitra, Arup & Sharma, Chandan & Véganzonès-Varoudakis, Marie-Ange, 2016. "Infrastructure, information & communication technology and firms’ productive performance of the Indian manufacturing," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 353-371.
    19. Xu Wang & Xiaobo Zhang & Zhuan Xie & Huang Yiping, 2016. "Roads to Innovation: Firm-Level Evidence from China," Working Papers id:11121, eSocialSciences.
    20. Holl, Adelheid, 2016. "Highways and productivity in manufacturing firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 131-151.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Railway; infrastructure; Balkans; Southeast Europe; backwardness; urban development; economic development; railway accessibility; infrastructural spillovers; multilevel model; historical analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N74 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N94 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: 1913-
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wii:bpaper:121. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Customer service (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wiiwwat.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.