The Fast, the Slow, and the Congested: Urban Transportation in Rich and Poor Countries / Prottoy A. Akbar, Victor Couture, Gilles Duranton, Adam Storeygard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Akbar, Prottoy A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Couture, Victor.

Duranton, Gilles.

Storeygard, Adam.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31642.

NBER working paper series no. w31642

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.

Summary:

We assemble a new global database on motor vehicle travel speed in over 1,200 large cities in 152 countries. We then estimate comparable city-level indices of travel speed and congestion. Most of the variation in urban travel speed is across countries, not within. National income per capita explains most of this cross-country variation in speed. In rich countries, urban travel is roughly 50% faster than in poor countries. To investigate the link between economic development and mobility, we develop an urban model with endogenous travel, road infrastructure, and land area. The model provides an exact decomposition of how city size, infrastructure, and topography contribute to explaining why urban travel is faster in richer countries. We find that richer countries are faster, mainly because their cities have more major roads and wider land areas. These effects operate by increasing uncongested speed, not by reducing congestion.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2023.