Transportation Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity

Transportation infrastructure projects, such as the US Interstate Highway network, involve some of the largest public investment programs undertaken. Recent years have seen the development of new theoretical models and the emergence of new sources of geographic information systems data to analyze the impact of these investments. At a time of renewed public policy interest in transportation infrastructure and rapid technological change in the transportation sector, there is an urgent need to deepen our understanding of the economic benefits of these investments relative to their costs.

To promote research on these issues, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), with the support of the Sloan Foundation, plans to convene an in-person research conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 17, 2025. The conference will be organized by Myrto Kalouptsidi (Harvard University and NBER) and Stephen Redding (Princeton University and NBER). The conference will be concerned with developing improved methods for the evaluation of transport infrastructure investments, taking into account the industrial organization of the transport sector, the network structure of transport investments, and the endogenous response of the spatial distribution of economic activity. Papers that present theoretical or empirical research, as well as papers that combine the two, are welcome. 

Upload submissions by midnight EST on Monday, June 30, 2025.

Submissions from authors with and without NBER affiliations, from early career scholars, and from researchers from under-represented groups are welcome. Please do not submit published papers or those that will be published by October 2025. Decisions about which papers will be included on the program will be announced by early August, 2025. The NBER will cover the cost of two authors per paper attending the research conference; all co-authors will be invited. Questions may be addressed to confer@nber.org.