| dc.description.abstract | This thesis studies the impacts of investments on urban highways and
subway stations on a city’s structural density. I use data from Santiago,
Chile, to analyze the effects of the inaugurations of six urban highways
and several subway stations between 2001 and 2010 on built-up land. As
treatment variables, I use the variation in a network-based accessibility
index, which controls for the non-random location of transport infrastructure. Results show that inaugurations of subway stations decrease
overall construction density in the neighboring areas by -0,75 percent. In
contrast, the opening of urban highways increases square meters built by
1,72 percent. The effects of urban highways on residential and industrial
land use are also positive and statistically significant, with coefficients
of 1,64 and 1,55 percent. The interacted effect of both infrastructures
on the overall construction, services, and commercial purposes suggests
a crowding-out type of dynamic. At the same time, for residential and
industrial land use purposes, this relation is positive, which indicates complementary dynamics of improvement in infrastructures. | |
