The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of lane kilometers of roads on vehicle-kilometers traveled (VKT) in US cities and conclude that increased provision of roads or public transit is unlikely to relieve congestion.Abstract:
We investigate the effect of lane kilometers of roads on vehicle-kilometers traveled (VKT) in US cities. VKT increases proportionately to roadway lane kilometers for interstate highways and probably slightly less rapidly for other types of roads. The sources for this extra VKT are increases in driving by current residents, increases in commercial traffic, and migration. Increasing lane kilometers for one type of road diverts little traffic from other types of road. We find no evidence that the provision of public transportation affects VKT. We conclude that increased provision of roads or public transit is unlikely to relieve congestion. (JEL R41, R48)read more
Figures
Table 4: VKT as a function of lane kilometers, IV. 
Figure 5: Second best surplus from change in vkt. 
Figure 1: Supply and demand for interstate traffic. 
Table 6: Time cost of driving as a function of VKT, pooled regressions. 
Table 8: VKT as a function of lane kilometers and buses, pooled regressions. 
Table 1: Summary statistics for our main HPMS and public transportation variables (averaged over MSAs, means and standard deviations between brackets).
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence
TL;DR: This article developed an extension of the theory that connects bias explicitly to coefficient stability and showed that it is necessary to take into account coefficient and R-squared movements, and showed two validation exercises and discuss application to the economics literature.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Origins of Scaling in Cities
TL;DR: All cities may evolve according to a small set of basic principles that operate locally, which are shown to be independent of city size and might be a useful means to evaluate urban planning strategies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Urban Growth and Transportation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the role of interstate highways in the growth of U.S. cities and find that a 10% increase in a city's initial stock of highways causes about a 1 ∙5% increase of its employment over this 20-year period.
Posted Content
Two-way fixed effects estimators with heterogeneous treatment effects
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that linear regression with period and group fixed effects can be significantly different from the linear regression estimator and propose another estimator that solves this issue.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Determinants and Welfare Implications of US Workers' Diverging Location Choices by Skill: 1980-2000
TL;DR: In this paper, a structural spatial equilibrium model was proposed to determine causes and welfare consequences of this increased skill sorting, which was further fueled by endogenous increases in amenities within higher skill cities.
References
More filters
Book
Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data
TL;DR: This is the essential companion to Jeffrey Wooldridge's widely-used graduate text Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data (MIT Press, 2001).
Book ChapterDOI
Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression
James H. Stock,Motohiro Yogo +1 more
TL;DR: This paper proposed quantitative definitions of weak instruments based on the maximum IV estimator bias, or the maximum Wald test size distortion, when there are multiple endogenous regressors, and tabulated critical values that enable using the first-stage F-statistic (or, for instance, the Cragg-Donald (1993) statistic) to test whether give n instruments are weak.
Book
Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies
TL;DR: Bartik as mentioned in this paper reviewed evidence on whether state and local policies affect job growth and presented empirical data supporting the intentions of such programs, showing that job growth may lead to a number of positive long-term effects including: lower unemployment, higher labor force participation, higher real estate values, and better occupational opportunities.
Journal ArticleDOI
Are Ghettos Good or Bad
TL;DR: This article examined the effects of segregation on outcomes for blacks in schooling, employment, and single parenthood, and found that blacks in more segregated areas have significantly worse outcomes than blacks in less segregated areas.
Journal ArticleDOI
Economic growth in a cross-section of cities☆
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between urban characteristics in 1960 and urban growth between 1960 and 1990, and found that both types of growth are positively related to initial schooling, negatively associated with initial unemployment, and negatively related to the initial share of employment in manufacturing.