Transport Infrastructure and Income Inequality: Evidence from China’s province data

We use China’s province-level data over the period 1995-2014 to examine the role of infrastructure in shaping income inequality, with special emphasis on transport infrastructure, the land network system. Several findings come out of the analysis. Transport infrastructure alleviates income inequality. Moreover, this inequality-decreasing effect operates partly through improvements in employment conditions and holds for provinces with sufficient levels of transport infrastructure. Despite so, transport infrastructure eventually rises income inequality in the long run.