| There has been a long-running debate on (and increasing interest in) the effects of infrastructure on regional growth and economic performance. A conventional line in this research has been to empirically examine the association between them, applying a Cobb-Douglas production function to different geographic scales. Controversies, however, persist and it is difficult to find a consensus due to the use of different data, varying estimation techniques and peculiar geographic scales of analysis.; Distinct from conventional production function approaches, I explore the association of highway infrastructure and regional economic growth using a labor market model of net migration. I revise a net migration model, adding variables that denote demand and supply indicators of highway infrastructure. I also apply revised net migration models to examine effects of highway infrastructure at the U.S. state- and metropolitan areas. At the state-level analysis, I test the models with a carefully constructed 30-year (1971-2000) time series data over 51 regions. At the MSA-level, I elaborate the revised net migration models with an additional education amenity variable and test it with a 19-year (1982-2000) time series data over 81 selected MSAs.; Focusing on highway demand and supply indicators, the state-level and the MSA-level results only partially match. I found positive effects of highway infrastructure on state economic performance; both, the highway services demand indicator and the highway supply indicator performed as expected. Elasticity of net in-migration with respect to the per capita lanemiles of supply measure was between 0.129 and 0.454 and the elasticity with respect to vehicle-miles-traveled per lanemile of congestion measure was between -0.511 and -0.015. The effects of the highway indicators are, however, weak at the MSA-level analysis, suggesting that highway infrastructure benefits spill over metro area boundaries and are experienced at a wider geographic scale. |
