Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral Project for the Location and Performance of Indian Manufacturing

38 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2012

See all articles by Syed Ejaz Ghani

Syed Ejaz Ghani

World Bank

Arti Grover

World Bank

William Kerr

Harvard University - Entrepreneurial Management Unit

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 8, 2012

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Highways, roads, infrastructure, India, development, manufacturing, density, rent

JEL Classification: L10, L25, L26, L60, L80, L90, L91, L92, M13, O10, R00, R10, R11, R14

Suggested Citation

Ghani, Ejaz and Grover, Arti and Kerr, William R., Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral Project for the Location and Performance of Indian Manufacturing (November 8, 2012). Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Working Paper No. 13-040, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2172892 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2172892

Ejaz Ghani

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Arti Grover

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

William R. Kerr (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Entrepreneurial Management Unit ( email )

Soldiers Field Road
Morgan 270C
Boston, MA 02163
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
175
Abstract Views
2,512
Rank
284,996
PlumX Metrics