Transport Investment and Economic Development

A major concern of all decision makers has been to ensure that there are clear benefits from transport investment proposals. The travel time savings are clear, but the wider economic developments have presented enormous difficulty in terms of both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence. This book reviews the history of the debate and argues that the agenda has changed. These issues are presented together with a major analytical investigation of macroeconomic models, evaluation in transport and microeconomic approaches. The final part of the book presents a series of case studies for road, rail and airport investment schemes, particularly focusing on the economic development aspects.

David Banister is Professor of Transport Planning at University College London. He has produced twelve books on all aspects of transport policy and planning analysis. Joseph Berechman is a Professor and Chairman of the Public Policy Department at Tel Aviv University, Israel. His major academic interests include Transportation Economics, Transportation and Land Use Systems Planning and Policy Analysis. He has published extensively in these fields and was a faculty member and visiting scholar in a number of American and European universities and research institutes. Presently he is also a Senior Research Associate at the University Transportation Research Center in New York.