Authors: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue and Dr. Theo Notteboom
The development of transportation systems takes place in a socioeconomic context. While development policies and strategies focus on physical capital, recent years have seen a better balance by including human capital issues. Irrespective of the relative importance of physical versus human capital, development cannot occur without both interacting as infrastructures cannot remain effective without proper operations and maintenance. At the same time, economic activities cannot take place without an infrastructure base. The highly transactional and service-oriented functions of many transport activities underline the complex relationship between its physical and human capital needs. For instance, effective logistics rely on infrastructures and managerial expertise. Because of its intensive use of infrastructures, the transport sector is an important component of the economy and a common tool used for development. This is even more so in a global economy where economic opportunities have been increasingly related to the mobility of people and freight, including information and communication technologies. A relation between the quantity and quality of transport infrastructure and the level of economic development is apparent. High-density transport infrastructure and highly connected networks are commonly associated with high levels of development. When transport systems are efficient, they provide economic and social opportunities and benefits that result in positive multiplier effects such as better accessibility to markets, employment, and additional investments. When transport systems are deficient in terms of capacity or reliability, they can have an economic cost such as reduced or missed opportunities and lower quality of life. At the aggregate level, efficient transportation reduces costs in many economic sectors, while inefficient transportation increases these costs. Besides, the impacts of transportation are not always intended and can have unforeseen or unintended consequences. For instance, congestion is often an unintended consequence in providing free or low-cost transport infrastructure to the users. However, congestion is also an indication of a growing economy where capacity and infrastructure have difficulties keeping up with the rising mobility demands. Transport carries an important social and environmental load, which cannot be neglected.
Assessing the economic importance of transportation requires the categorization of the types of impacts it conveys. These involve core (the physical characteristics of transportation), operational and geographical dimensions:
The economic importance of the transportation industry can thus be assessed from a macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective:
The added value and employment effects of transport services usually extend beyond those generated by that activity; indirect effects are salient. For instance, transportation companies purchase a part of their inputs (fuel, supplies, maintenance) from local suppliers. The production of these inputs generates additional value-added and employment in the local economy. In turn, the suppliers purchase goods and services from other local firms. There are further rounds of local re-spending, which generate additional value-added and employment. Similarly, households that receive income from employment in transport activities spend some of their income on local goods and services. These purchases result in additional local jobs and added value. Some of the household income from these additional jobs is spent on local goods and services, thereby creating further jobs and income for local households. As a result of these successive rounds of re-spending in the framework of local purchases, the overall impact on the economy exceeds the initial round of output, income, and employment generated by passenger and freight transport activities. Thus, from a general standpoint, the economic impacts of transportation can be direct, indirect, and induced:
Transportation links together the factors of production in a complex web of relationships between producers and consumers. The outcome is commonly a more efficient division of production by the exploitation of comparative geographical advantages, as well as the means to develop economies of scale and scope. The productivity of space, capital, and labor is thus enhanced with the efficiency of distribution and personal mobility. Economic growth is increasingly linked with transport developments, namely infrastructures, but also with managerial expertise, which is crucial for logistics. Thus, although transportation is an infrastructure intensive activity, hard assets must be supported by an array of soft assets, namely labor, management, and information systems. Decisions must be made about how to use and operate transportation systems to optimize benefits and minimize costs and inconvenience. 2. Transportation and Economic OpportunitiesTransportation developments that have taken place since the beginning of the industrial revolution have been linked to growing economic opportunities. At each development stage of the global economy, a particular transport technology has been developed or adapted with an array of impacts. Economic cycles are associated with a variety of innovations, including transportation, influencing economic opportunities for production, distribution, and consumption. Historically, six major waves of economic development where a specific transport technology created new economic, market, and social opportunities can be suggested:
No single transport mode has been solely responsible for economic growth. Instead, modes have been linked with the economic functions they support and the geography in which growth was taking place. The first trade routes established a rudimentary system of distribution and transactions that would eventually be expanded by long-distance maritime shipping networks and the setting of the first multinational corporations managing these flows. Major flows of international migration that occurred since the 18th century were linked with the expansion of international and continental transport systems that radically shaped emerging economies such as North America and Australia. Transport played a catalytic role in these migrations, transforming the economic and social geography of many nations. Transportation has been a tool of territorial control, particularly during the colonial era, where resource-based transport systems supported the extraction of commodities in the developing world and forwarded them to the industrializing nations of the time. The goal to capture resource and market opportunities was a strong impetus in the setting and structure of transport networks. More recently, port development, particularly container ports, has been of strategic interest as a tool of integration to the global economy, as the case of China illustrates. There is a direct relationship, or coordination, between foreign trade and container port volumes, so container port development is commonly seen as a tool to capture the opportunities brought by globalization. The growth of container shipping has systematically been 3 to 4 times the GDP growth rate, underlining a significant multiplier effect between economic growth and container trade. However, this multiplying effect has substantially receded since 2009, underlining the maturity of the diffusion of containerization and its dissociation from economic growth. Due to demographic pressures and urbanization, developing economies are characterized by a mismatch between the limited supply and growing demand for transport infrastructure. While some regions benefit from the development of transport systems, others are often marginalized by a set of conditions in which inadequate transportation plays a role. Transport by itself is not a sufficient condition for development. However, the lack of transport infrastructures can be a constraining factor in development. The lack of transportation infrastructures and regulatory impediments are jointly impacting economic development by conferring higher transport costs, but also delays rendering supply chain management unreliable. A poor transport service level can negatively affect the competitiveness of regions and their economic activities and thus have a negative impact on the regional added value, economic opportunities, and employment. Tools and measures are being developed to assess and compare the performance of national transportation systems. For instance, the World Bank published in 2007 its first-ever report, which ranked nations according to their logistics performance based on the Logistics Performance Index. Logistic performance is commonly associated with economic opportunities.
3. Economic Returns of Transport InvestmentsA common expectation is that transport investments will generate economic returns, which in the long run, should justify the initial capital commitment. Like most infrastructure projects, transportation infrastructure can generate a 5 to 20% annual return on the capital invested, with such figures often used to promote and justify investments. However, transport investments tend to have declining marginal returns (diminishing returns). While initial infrastructure investments tend to have a high return since they provide an entirely new range of mobility options, the more the system is developed, the more likely additional investment would lower returns. At some point, the marginal returns can be close to zero or even negative. A common fallacy assumes that additional transport investments will have a similar multiplying effect than the initial investments had, which can lead to capital misallocation. The most common reasons for the declining marginal returns of transport investments are:
Therefore, each transport development project must be considered independently and contextually. Since transport infrastructures are capital intensive fixed assets, they are particularly vulnerable to misallocations and malinvestments. The standard assumption is that transportation investments tend to be more wealth-producing as opposed to wealth consuming investments such as services. Still, several transportation investments can be wealth consuming if they merely provide conveniences, such as parking and sidewalks, or service a market size well below any possible economic return, with, for instance, projects labeled “bridges to nowhere”. In such a context, transport investment projects can be counterproductive by draining the resources of an economy instead of creating wealth and additional opportunities. Since many transport infrastructures are provided through public funds, they can be subject to pressure by special interest groups, which can result in poor economic returns, even if those projects are often sold to the public as strong catalysts for growth. Further, large transportation projects, such as public transit, can have inadequate cost control mechanisms, implying systematic budget overruns. Infrastructure projects in the United States are particularly prone to these engineered fallacies. Efficient and sustainable transport markets and systems play a key role in regional development, although the causality between transport and wealth generation is not always clear. To better document and monitor the economic returns of transport investments, a series of indicators can be used, such as transportation prices and productivity. Investment in transport infrastructures is thus seen as a tool of regional development, particularly in developing countries.
4. Types of Transportation ImpactsThe relationship between transportation and economic development is difficult to formally establish and has been debated for many years. In some circumstances, transport investments appear to be a catalyst for economic growth, while in others, economic growth puts pressures on existing transport infrastructures and incite additional investments. Transport markets and related transport infrastructure networks are key drivers in the promotion of more balanced and sustainable development, particularly by improving accessibility and the opportunities of less developed regions or disadvantaged social groups. Initially, there are different impacts on transport providers (transport companies) and transport users. There are several layers of activity that transportation can valorize, from a suitable location that experiences the development of its accessibility through infrastructure investment to better usage of existing transport assets through more efficient management. This is further nuanced by the nature, scale, and scope of possible impacts:
Cycles of economic development provide a revealing conceptual perspective about how transport systems evolve in time and space as they include the timing and the nature of the transport impact on economic development. This perspective underlines that after a phase of introduction and growth, a transport system will eventually reach a phase of maturity through geographical and market saturation. There is also the risk of overinvestment, particularly when economic growth is credit driven, which can lead to significant misallocations of capital. The outcome is surplus capacity in infrastructures and modes, creating deflationary pressures that undermine profitability. In periods of recession that commonly follow periods of expansion, transportation activities may experiment with a setback, namely in terms of lower demand and a scarcity of capital investment. Because of their characteristics, several transport activities are highly synchronized with the level of economic activity. For instance, if rail freight or maritime rates were to decline rapidly, this could be an indication of deteriorating economic conditions. Transport, as a technology, typically follows a path of experimentation, introduction, adoption, and diffusion and, finally, obsolescence, each of which has an impact on the rate of economic development. The most significant benefits and productivity gains are realized in the early to mid diffusion phases while later phases are facing diminishing returns. Containerization is a relevant example of such a diffusion behavior as its productivity benefits were mostly derived in the 1990s and 2000s when economic globalization was accelerating. If relying upon new technologies, transportation investments can go through what is called a “hype phase” with unrealistic expectations about their potential and benefits. Some projects are eventually abandoned as the technology proves ineffective at addressing market or operational requirements or is too expensive for the benefits it conveys. Since transportation is capital intensive, operators tend to be cautious before committing to new technologies and the significant sunk costs they require. This is particularly the case where transportation is capital intensive and has a long lifespan. In addition, transport modes and infrastructures are depreciating assets that continuously require maintenance and upgrades. At some point, their useful lifespan is exceeded, and the vehicle must be retired or the infrastructure rebuilt. Thus, the amortization of transport investments must consider the lifespan of the concerned mode or infrastructure.
5. Transportation as an Economic FactorContemporary trends have underlined that economic development has become less dependent on relations with the environment (resources) and more dependent on relations across space. While resources remain the foundation of economic activities, the commodification of the economy has been linked with higher levels of material flows of all kinds. Concomitantly, resources, capital, and even labor have shown increasing levels of mobility. This is particularly the case for multinational firms that can benefit from transport improvements in two significant markets:
Transportation provides market accessibility by linking producers and consumers so that transactions can take place. A common fallacy in assessing the importance and impact of transportation on the economy is to focus only on transportation costs, which tend to be relatively low; in the range of 5 to 10% of the value of a good. Transportation is an economic factor of production of goods and services, implying that it is fundamental in their generation, even if it accounts for a small share of input costs. This means that irrespective of the cost, an activity cannot take place without the transportation factor and the mobility it provides. Thus, relatively small changes in transport cost, capacity, and performance can have substantial impacts on dependent economic activities. An efficient transport system with modern infrastructures favors many economic changes, most of them positive. The major impacts of transport on economic factors can be categorized as follows:
Transport also contributes to economic development through job creation and its derived economic activities. Accordingly, many direct (freighters, managers, shippers) and indirect (insurance, finance, packaging, handling, travel agencies, transit operators) employment are associated with transport. Producers and consumers make economic decisions on products, markets, costs, location, prices, which are based on transport services, availability, costs, capacity, and reliability. Related Topics
Bibliography
Which of the following developments helped to explain the rise in exports from the West coast depicted in the graph?Which of the following developments helps to explain the rise in exports from the West Coast depicted in the graph? An expansion in the railroad network led to greater access of western farmers to eastern markets.
Which of the following best explains a connection between the economic productivity of the United States?Strengthened the position of big business. Which of the following best explains a connection between the economic productivity of the United States in the mid-1800s and in the late 1800s? The application of new technologies expanded large-scale industrial manufacturing.
How was the West transformed economically and socially in this period?How was the West transformed economically and socially in this period? Farming and improved farming, More Land, Small farmers oriented to national and international markets, and giant agricultural enterprises. Cowboys a symbol of free life. Technology encouraged by eastern and European companies.
Which of the following explains a connection between the ability of Americans to gain access to natural resources in the early 1800s and in the late 1800s?Which of the following explains a connection between the ability of Americans to gain access to natural resources in the early 1800s and in the late 1800s? In both periods, the expansion of power over western North America gave the United States control over more natural resources.
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