Transportation Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity
Organized by Stephen J. Redding and Myrto Kalouptsidi
Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
October 17-18, 2025
Royal Sonesta Hotel, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd.,Cambridge, MA
Break
Friday, October 17

Does Benefit-Cost Analysis ‘Miss All the Important Stuff?’ Wider Economic Impacts from Investing in Infrastructure

Don Pickrell, U.S. Department of Transportation

Discussant:
TBA
9:00 am
Continental Breakfast
9:30 am

Shipping to America

Xiwen Bai, Tsinghua University
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, University of Pennsylvania and NBER
Yiliang Li, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE)
Ricardo Marto, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Francesco Zanetti, University of Oxford

Discussant:
Theodore Papageorgiou, Boston College
10:30 am
Break
11:00 am

Foreign Ships in U.S. Waters

Simon Fuchs, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Fernando Leibovici, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Woan Foong Wong, University of Oregon and NBER

Discussant:
Myrto Kalouptsidi, Harvard University and NBER
12:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 pm

Clearing the Air on the Benefits and Costs of Road Infrastructure

Clare A. Balboni, London School of Economics
Aaron Berman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Johannes Boehm, Geneva Graduate Institute
Lorenzo Marzano, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Mazhar Waseem, University of Manchester

Discussant:
Allan Hsiao, Stanford University and NBER
2:00 pm
Break
2:15 pm

Strategic Transportation Investment And Policies: Evidence From the U.S. Highway System

Yuyang Jiang, Princeton University

Discussant:
Gabriel Kreindler, Harvard University and NBER
3:15 pm
Break
3:30 pm

Opportunity in Motion: Equilibrium Effects of a Place-Based Policy on Economic Mobility

Laura Weiwu, University of California, Berkeley

Discussant:
Gilles Duranton, University of Pennsylvania and NBER
4:30 pm
Break
4:45 pm

Panel on Cost-Benefit Evaluation of Transport Infrastructure
Chair: Myrto Kalouptsidi, Harvard University and NBER
Treb Allen, Dartmouth College
Stephen Redding, Stanford University and NBER
6:30 pm
Dinner, Royal Sonesta
Saturday, October 18
8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
9:00 am

Public and Private Transit: Evidence from Lagos

Daniel Björkegren, Columbia University
Alice Duhaut, The World Bank
Geetika Nagpal, The World Bank
Nick Tsivanidis, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

Discussant:
Lucas Conwell, University College London
10:00 am
Break
10:15 am

Value Pricing or Lexus Lanes? The Distributional Effects of Dynamic Tolling

Cody Cook, Yale University
Pearl Z. Li, Yale University

Discussant:
Nicholas Buchholz, Princeton University
11:15 am
Break
11:30 am

The Spatial Distribution of Income in Cities: New Global Evidence and Theory

Peter Deffebach, Boston University
David Lagakos, Boston University and NBER
Yuhei Miyauchi, Boston University

Discussant:
Dave Donaldson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
12:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm

Economies of Scale and Scope in Railroading

Pedro G. Degiovanni, Charles River Associates
Ron Yang, University of British Columbia

Discussant:
Thomas J. Holmes, University of Minnesota and NBER
2:30 pm
Adjourn