Re-Examining Linkages between Surface Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Performance : A Panel Granger Causality Test on the Northeast Corridor

This paper investigates causal linkages between surface transportation infrastructures and economic performance in the northeast corridor in the United States. To improve the validity of estimation, financial data of highways, public rail and transit are measured in real dollar values. The panel Granger causality test shows that the endogeneity between transportation input and the regional economic output does not exist with statistical significance in this analysis. Transportation infrastructures are found to “Granger cause” the change of employment and personal income per capita whereas the reversed effects are not found