Road to productivity: effects of roads on total factor productivity in Indian manufacturing

Kailthya, S. and Kambhampati, U. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5906-2394 (2022) Road to productivity: effects of roads on total factor productivity in Indian manufacturing. Journal of Comparative Economics, 50 (1). pp. 174-195. ISSN 0147-5967 doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2021.08.001

Abstract/Summary

A denser road network lowers transport costs and stimulates manufacturing total factor productivity (TFP). The placement of roads, however, is likely to be non-random. For identification, we exploit cross-state variation in the strength of centre-state partisan alignment that asymmetrically affects road building in aligned states. Using panel data on manufacturing establishments in India from 1998 to 2012, we find that, a 1% increase in road density raises value-added TFP by about 0.25%, on average. A closer examination reveals that the effect varies by plant characteristics and road type. Younger establishments are more likely to gain from a denser road network with highways playing a prominent role. The results are robust to imperfections in the instrument and to other sensitivity checks.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/100079
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.jce.2021.08.001
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Economics
Publisher	Elsevier
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