Quantifying the agglomeration effects of Swiss public transport between 2000 and 2010

Abstract

This conference contribution deals with the economic effects of public transport supply improvements on productivity, generally referred to as agglomeration effects. To the knowledge of the authors, there has not been a systematic study regarding these effects in Switzerland. To enable that, the development of productivity on a municipal level between 2000 and 2010 is regressed on variables, such as private and public transport accessibility, and variables describing the local economic structure. Productivity is operationalized by the average amount of salaries paid at the location of their generation. Different regression models are tested to account for the spatial and temporal character of the data. We conclude that agglomeration effects are present, quantifiable, and for the case of public transport supply they are found to take values between 1 and 3% for the nationwide spatial analysis level, while for the agglomeration areas the effects are significantly higher and take values between 2 and 4%. Moreover, elasticity values exhibit variation over the analysis period reflecting a differentiated dynamic of the externalities that can result due to the public transport improvements.