TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ghani,Ejaz
AU  - Goswami,Arti Grover
AU  - Kerr,William R.
TI  - Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral Project for the Location and Performance of Indian Manufacturing
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18524
PY  - 2012
Y2  - November 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18524
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18524.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ejaz Ghani
South Asia PREM
The World Bank
Washington D.C.
E-Mail: Eghani@worldbank.org

Arti Grover Goswami
World Bank
Washington, DC
E-Mail: agrover1@worldbank.org

William R. Kerr
Harvard Business School
Rock Center 212
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/496-7021
E-Mail: wkerr@hbs.edu
AB  - We investigate the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on the Indian organized manufacturing sector using enterprise data. The GQ project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. We use a difference-in-difference estimation strategy to compare non-nodal districts based upon their distance from the highway system. We find several positive effects for non-nodal districts located 0-10 km from GQ that are not present in districts 10-50 km away, most notably higher entry rates and increases in plant productivity. These results are not present for districts located on another major highway system, the North-South East-West corridor (NS-EW). Improvements for portions of the NS-EW system were planned to occur at the same time as GQ but were subsequently delayed. Additional tests show that the GQ project’s effect operates in part through a stronger sorting of land-intensive industries from nodal districts to non-nodal districts located on the GQ network. The GQ upgrades further helped spread economic activity to moderate-density districts and intermediate cities.
ER  -