Identifying the Impact of Highway Accessibility on Manufacturing Firm Location in Korea

摘要

The location of industrial firms is an important matter of freight transport for the economical movement of goods in reducing transport costs and travel distance. This study suggests strategies for freight transport management, investigating the impact of transport infrastructure on the location choice of firms in the manufacturing industry by sector at the micro-spatial level using a time-fixed/region-random effects two-way error component model. The estimated models consider manufacturing firms classified into four sectors (i.e., high, medium-high, medium-low, and low technology). Different types of transport infrastructure variables were found to influence the location choice of firms, depending on the transport accessibility and cost-efficiency needs of each manufacturing sector. The findings presented in this paper provide evidence useful to establish geographical policy strategies towards infrastructure planning for smart growth.