The Impact of Highway Infrastructure on Population Mobility: Evidence from a Sample of 800 Counties and Districts (2000–2019) in China

Abstract

Modern transport infrastructure plays an important role in shaping urban areas, yet the impact on population distribution and mobility remains uncertain. The aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of road infrastructure on population mobility through a sample of 800 counties and districts in China covering the period from 2000 to 2019 using panel fixed-effects regression models. We find that the improvement in highway infrastructure density can significantly increase the inflow of the population, which is robust to the different measures of the intensity of population mobility and highway infrastructure and to the estimation of 2SLS. This impact has regional and administrative hierarchy heterogeneity. We also investigate the moderating effects of distance from high-order centers, human capital, and digital economic development on the nexus of highway infrastructure and population migration. Our results reveal policy implications for road planning and new rural construction.