Evaluation of the Trans-Texas Corridor Proposal: Application and Enhancements of the Random-Utility-Based Multiregional Input–Output Model1

Abstract

The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) projects a vision of 6,400 centerline km of new roadways and railways, intended to provide a faster, safer and more reliable means of transport for people and freight, while fostering economic growth of Texas’s rural regions. This work enhances and then applies a random-utility-based multiregional input–output model to assess project impacts on trade, production, and worker locations. Driven by foreign exports and domestic demands, the enhanced model endogenously generates monetary trade flows for 18 economic sectors across Texas’ 254 counties, equilibrating explicit labor and land markets, along with capacity-constrained networks. The model predicts a slight redistribution of economic activities, increasing the supremacy of counties located closer to export zones, and an 8% reduction in the traffic volumes on existing highways. It also suggests a greater diversification of economic activity/production and moderate changes in the distribution of wages, floorspace rents and population, following the production trends. These effects are most noticeable in counties traversed by the TTC, especially in those previously inadequately connected to the State’s transportation network.