Aims of the research

This research will help improve our understanding of the role transport plays in supporting competitiveness and productivity in localities through the exploration of the impact of transport investments on workers and firms.

Researchers: Dr Steve Gibbons (Geography and Environment and CEP, LSE), Dr Dan Graham (CTS, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial), Professor Steve Machin (CEP, LSE) and Dr Henry Overman (Geography and Environment and CEP, LSE).

Lead institution: LSE

Technical Summary

This research seeks to understand the implications of transport investments for the spatial economy by identifying effects on workers and firms.

It looks at the influence of the accessibility and cost of transport on the wages and other employment outcomes for workers (e.g. hours, full/time part time), and on the occupational structure of firms. It investigates the role that transport provision and costs play in the productivity of firms and in the distribution of agglomeration externalities that arise from clustering and localisation patterns. The research also assesses how estimates of the productivity effects arising from changes in the generalised costs of transport could be used for scheme appraisal.

Data, Methods and Planned Outputs

Research Team Biographies to follow.