Transport infrastructures and employment growth in the Paris metropolitan margins

The role played by transport infrastructures such as motorways, railway stations and airports on local employment growth remains debated and partially inconclusive, especially for small municipalities located in metropolitan margins. This paper examines the case of the Paris region. Based on a logistic regression model using municipal-level employment data (1993–2008), it aims at assessing whether municipalities with small amounts of employment are likely to experience high employment growth depending on their location vis-à-vis transport infrastructures. Motorways are found to have an influence for very small areas and airports for bigger ones. However, the role of transport infrastructures is rather limited when the analysis is differentiated according to economic sectors.