Transport and regional economic integration: Evidence from the Chang-Zhu-Tan region in China

Better transport and regional economic integration are correlated. However, the relationship between them is still ambiguous. This study selects the Chang-Zhu-Tan region, one of the most important manufacturing areas in the Yangtze River economic belt, as a study area. It analyzes regional economic integration using economic linkage and urban flow intensity models and examines transport investment and mobility levels. Finally, autoregressive distributed lag and autoregressive distributed lag-error correction model approaches are applied to estimate the long-run and short-run relationships among the three variables, respectively. The results indicate transport investment and mobility have significant positive effects both in the short and long run and that investment contributes more to economic integration than mobility. In addition, regional economic integration and mobility can promote transport investment and transport investment can promote mobility. Further, there are short-run dynamic adjustments among them. This study, therefore, determines that it is crucial to understand effective transport investment and mobility in promoting regional economic integration.