Research 350 - NZ Transport Agency

4. APPROACHES TO ASSESSING REGIONAL ECONOMIC AND OTHER DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS
4. Approaches to assessing regional
economic and other distributional
effects
4.1 Scope of chapter
Much of the recent debate on the economic impact of transport investment is connected with
the distribution of the economic benefits of such investment to particular regions and/or
socio-economic groups. This chapter seeks to address the following, interconnected, key
questions:
• Question 4.1: Is the upgrading of transport links within or to/from a particular
(‘disadvantaged’) region likely to be an effective means of enhancing the economic
development of that region, and in what circumstances?
• Question 4.2: How are the distributional impacts of transport investment on
particular regions/areas best assessed; and how do the results of such assessments
relate to SCBA assessments of national economic costs and benefits?
• Question 4.3: How are the other (non-geographic) distributional impacts of transport
investment on different social/demographic and market segments best assessed?
• Question 4.4: Would the assessments of distributional (geographic,
socio/demographic etc) impacts of transport investments provide useful additional
information (additional to the overall impact assessment) for decision-makers?
4.2 Effectiveness of transport investment in
promoting regional development
4.2.1 Regional development themes
If transport has no ‘special role’ in regional development, to what extent does it have a role
of any sort in fostering such development and what are its distributional effects?
A common theme in literature on the provision of transport infrastructure to regional areas is
the need to alleviate some perceived form of regional ‘disadvantage’ in relation to other
regions and the national economy as a whole. In particular, the concept of improving regional
‘accessibility’ (variously defined) and of promoting ‘regional employment’ in areas identified
as suffering from high unemployment (or ‘depressed’) dominate the literature. The provision
of new transport links is often assumed to lay the basis for new investment (and, particularly,
jobs) to flow into the identified region. (Presumably this increased economic activity will also
be reflected in higher regional output measures such as Gross State Product (GSP) or Gross
Regional Product (GRP).)
Thus, Ockwell’s (2002) review of the OECD Working Group‘s study of the impacts of transport
investment on regional development noted that ‘region’ was defined by the Working Group
not by geography but ‘as an area requiring specific policy initiatives to meet broader socioeconomic
objectives of government’ (Ockwell 2002, p. 3). In reaching this definition the
Working Group referred to the work of several authors including that of Diamond (1974) who
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