Transport, economic competitiveness and competition: A city perspective

Abstract

Stimulating the economy is a dominant policy objective, but on what basis are decisions being taken around transport and growth? We describe how transport studies and political geography offer two related, but poorly connected, theoretical approaches purporting to explain the relationship between transport and the economy. Yet in what ways does it matter that two different world views exist? We test these questions through an empirical case study of how city and regional officials use transport in attempting to realise economic objectives. Echoing theoretical approaches based in political geography, we find officials own reasoning places emphasis on supply side improvements, especially connectivity within regions and on a high quality urban environment hoped to attract high GVA jobs. The decision-support tools are not well aligned to this reasoning, focussing on time savings and the justification of the value for money of proposed schemes relative to other investments in the region and nationally. In contrast to much theoretical work on competitiveness, employment growth is treated as exogenous with less emphasis given to which areas win and lose in the region. It is competition between weaker regional towns and cities that is prominent in officials discourse Such a gap between the thinking by officials, and the types of available transport investment decisionsupport tools, is of international significance. Given the centrality of the economy to where and what we invest in, the paper suggests a need for better knowledge about the efficacy of urban realm and other supply side improvements on job creation and on the influence of local autonomy in decision-making on investment selection and outcomes.

Project characteristics and performance in Europe: An empirical analysis for large transport infrastructure projects

“…the extension of labour market catchment areas, reorganisation of production and the enhancement of employment,) concluding that light rail encourages inward investment by widening labour catchment areas and boosting property prices. Mullen & Marsden (2015) explore the role of TIPs in economic development and city competitiveness, and state that the a high benefit-to-cost ratio which will typically be dominated by large volumes of relatively small scale time savings M . (2013) conduct an empirical analysis based on the output elasticity of transport infrastructure: they analyse a sample of 563 estimates obtained from 33 studies, drawing the conclusions that the existing estimates of the productivity effect of transport infrastructure can be very different.…”

The interplay of formal and informal institutions between local and regional authorities when creating well-functioning public transport systems

“…It produced a particular power dynamic that does not necessarily benefit those who are said to benefit. The evidence base that supported the perception that a well-functioning regional system can spread economic growth from larger to smaller conurbations is unclear, as is often the case with these types of ideas about economic correlations (see for example Mullen & Marsden, 2015).…”

Parking Policy

“…However, a recent study exploring the role of travel demand restraint policies in economic development has found that employers locating to areas with good accessibility do not expect local authorities to agree to high levels of free parking. Whilst authorities were all able to discuss the potential for employers to locate elsewhere for better parking, none were able to provide examples of when this had happened (Marsden and Mullen, 2014). It appears that other factors such as the availability of skilled employees and proximity to markets are more important in the business location decision (McQuaid et al, 2004).…”

“…Mullen and Marsden (2014) interviewed 31 stakeholders as part of a study examining whether, and if so how, cities compete with each other. The study looked at a small sample of major English cities outside London and, for each, a smaller local town or city that sits within the same functional economic area.…”

“…First, there are real political concerns about the impacts of parking restraint on the local economy, even if the evidence base appears to suggest this is overstated or, in some circumstances wrong (Marsden and Mullen, 2014). Political commitment, local network conditions and organizational capacities are all important in the choice of approach to parking policy (Dijk and Montalvo, 2011).…”