Regional borders, commuting and transport network integration

Arbeitspapier

I study how and why economic activity varies around regional borders. Spatial quasi-experimental variation around French departmental borders reveals discontinuous commuting and residential patterns. To tackle the endogenous border placement problem, I exploit a geometric border design proposed during the French Revolution. I then calibrate a spatial quantifiable general equilibrium framework to structurally match the quasi-experimental estimates. The commuting and residential discontinuities are well explained by a 7km bilateral distance penalty when crossing regional borders, which is the consequence of the decentralized planning and development of local transport networks. Policy simulation shows that integrating local transport networks leads to a 11.7% average growth in real per capita residential income.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: KOF Working Papers ; No. 489

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity ; Transportation Economics: Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance, Transportation Planning ; Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
• Subject: Border ; Commuting ; Discontinuity ; Transport network ; Decentralization

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Loumeau, Gabriel
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute
• (where): Zurich
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000458728
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/235103
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET