The contribution of road construction to economic development

Topics

• Mobility

Abstract

There are four general conclusions: Not only is a producer in a peripheral area able to serve the more central market better. So is a centrally located producer better able to market his goods at the periphery. Road infrastructure tends to excercise greater influence over the citing of economic activity at the local level than over its inter-regional distribution. Its effectiveness as a planning and development tool appears greatest at the sub-regional level. Road improvement is seldom in itself a panacea. Strategic infrastructures are a necessary condition for economic development though are not by themselves sufficient for that purpose. Only if properly planned within a package of regional incentives are they likely to yield significant economic benefit. Once a certain level of accessibility has been reached, a peripheral region's economic performance and attractiveness to inward investors is thereafter determined mainly by factors other than transport. When a region is already well provided with infrastructure, adding infrastructure of the same type of little use. Continued upgrading of a region's road links may divert financial resources away from other activities, such as training, research and development and environmental improvement, which can have much greater impact on regional competitiveness. The available evidence casts doubt on the ability of large-scale road construction projects to stimulate regional economic development.

Reference to the original publication

The paper was presented at the seminar "Roads and Economy - the link between road building and economic development" organised by the European Federation for Transport and Environment, 8 December 1995 in Brussels