The implications of the New Silk Road Railways on local development

Abstract

"This paper studies the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on local development in Europe. In particular, we analyze regional treatment effects of the introduction of the China Railway Express on economic growth, employment, and intermodal transport volumes. The commissioning of rail connections under the umbrella of the BRI provides a natural experiment that can be evaluated empirically using causal inference techniques. On the aggregate level, our results show that establishing a new railway connection with China is not systematically associated with short-run economic growth. However, the new railway connections spurred local employment and road freight, i.e. boost intermodal transport. These aggregate findings are supplemented by additional evidence on sector-specific and regional spillover effects. These findings shed light on the increased relevance of BRI infrastructure projects for its future expansions." (Author's abstract, © Elsevier) ((en))

Cite article

Fang, L., Kleimann, M., Li, Y. & Schmerer, H. (2021): The implications of the New Silk Road Railways on local development. In: Journal of Asian economics, Vol. 75. DOI:10.1016/j.asieco.2021.101326