Sep 24, 2021
Jet aircraft at the 11th ifo Dresden Workshop on Regional Economics
The now 11th edition of the workshop "Regional Economics" was organized by Prof. Dr. Felix Rösel and Prof. Dr. Christian Leßmann on 10.09.2021. One focus of the presented papers was in the area of infrastructure productivity. For example, the paper by Fernando Stipanicic of the Toulouse School of Economics shows that the introduction of jet engines in civil aviation significantly reduced travel times in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s. Innovation activity, as measured by patent citations, increased significantly along faster air routes compared to routes served by propeller-driven aircraft. Research on rail transit or the impact of bike-sharing services on air quality in New York City were also presented and discussed. Prof. Dr. Leßmann summarizes his experiences from the conference: "Overall, the current research shows that fine-scale data and new econometric methods increasingly offer new opportunities in economic research.