Investments in Transport: Effects of the Metropolitan Arch on Fluminense Economic Growth

Abstract

The objective of the present research was to identify the effects of the Metropolitan Arch on the economic growth of the municipalities of the State of Rio de Janeiro. To this end, this research proposes a methodological procedure capable of measuring the impact of a public policy with a regional focus, such as investments in transport infrastructure, on socioeconomic variables of interest. This procedure consisted of a quasi-experiment integrating entropy matching with the classic and spatial differences-in-differences approach. The results show positive effects on the economic growth of the municipalities affected by the Arco. That is, the fact that a municipality benefited from access to the Metropolitan Arch, contributed, on average, to increase economic growth by 21.6\%. It is concluded that the access of peripheral regions to central and more developed regions, facilitated by AMRJ, may have contributed to expand the opportunities of the population in the search for jobs and to better paid jobs, having significant impacts on regional economic growth.