Transport and Economic Development

Dear Colleagues,

A basic conviction supporting the viewpoint of an infrastructure-led growth policy is the theory that transport, and particularly transport infrastructure, is growth-enhancing. Empirical support for this viewpoint is often provided by referring to the statistical link between growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or other economic indicator, and growth in goods and passenger’s traffic, transport network size, road length, road density or other transport measure.

While there is no doubt that the transport infrastructure and transport operations can support economic development, the issue is exactly how this would come about. Several matters should be addressed before this question can be answered, including but not limited to:

• How adequate is GDP, GNP or other indicator as a measure of economic growth due to transports improvements?
• Should the focus be on economic growth or economic development?
• Should mobility be viewed as an indicator of welfare and a goal of transport policy?
• What economic and other requirements should be in place for transport to be able to support economic development?
• Are these impacts, long-, medium- or short-term, direct, indirect or secondary impacts?
• Is the relationship between transport and economic development the same for developing and developed countries?
• New technology such as electrical propulsion and self-driving cars are altering our understanding of the conventional benefits (time and fuel savings) associated with transport infrastructure investments.

While transport infrastructure and in fact transport operations may support economic growth and development, the above, and other reservations should be addressed before the factual relationship between transport and economic development can be fully understood. Once this relationship is understood, transport policies may be more supportive of economic growth and less likely to result in unintended consequences. The purpose of this call is to invite papers to explore the hypothesized role in light of new developments and trends.

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