Full Citation
Title: Perhaps the Sky’s the Limit? Airports and Employment in Local Economies
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2015
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Abstract: This paper considers the effects of small and mid-size commercial airports on their local economies over the post World War II period, specifically 1950-2010. To estimate these effects, I use a detailed, novel dataset of Census Based Statistical Area (CBSA) level employment outcomes, geographic, transportation, and city characteristics, along with previously unexploited historical aviation data. Using an instrumental variables approach with three instruments – the locations of collection points on the Air Mail system of 1938, a network of Federally constructed emergency air fields in the early years of aviation, and a 1922 plan of airways for national defense, as well as two alternative estimators – one-to-one Mahalanobis distance matching with caliper and pooled synthetic controls – I show that airports have had substantial effects on CBSA population and employment over time. Specifically, I find that relative to non-airport cities, the presence of an airport in a CBSA has caused population growth ranging between 14.6 percent and 29 percent, total employment growth of between 17.4 percent and 36.6 percent, tradable industry employment growth of between 26.6 percent and 42.6 percent, and non-tradable industry employment growth of between a non-statistically significant 2.7 percent and 16.1 percent. These effects vary by region, city size, and traffic levels. Most of these growth effects occurred over two periods: first, at the beginning of the post-war period, 1950-1960, and then, during the formative years of the jet age, 1970-1980, after which the effects of aviation remained constant. The larger effect on tradable industry employment implies that the overall employment and population effects may result from direct effects on tradable sector industry productivity, perhaps by facilitating information flows. Effects vary by initial city size and region, and are generally robust to the choice of instruments and/or estimator.
Url: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/48d7/c4c8d5855dabebdebd231bc80fecdaf89781.pdf
User Submitted?: No
Authors: McGraw, Marquise, J
Publisher: Middlebury College
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other
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