Working Paper #752
Roads and Trade: Evidence from the U.S.
Gilles Duranton · Peter M. Morrow · Matthew A. Turner
Development Macroeconomics United States
We estimate the effect of interstate highways on the level and composition of trade for U.S. cities. Highways within cities have a large effect on the weight of city exports with an elasticity of approximately 0.5. We find little effect of highways on the total value of exports. Consistent with this, we find that cities with more highways specialize in sectors producing heavy goods.