597/2021 Sylvain Barde and Alexander Klein

This paper examines the temporal and spatial evolution of road freight transportation costs between 1955 and 2010. For that purpose, we have constructed a new data set of minimal road transport costs for freight transport in every decade between 1955 and 2010 for 3105×3105 county-pairs. We use a methodology which combines the time-evolution of the road network’s layout with spatially disaggregated transport-related costs: average driving speeds, fuel consumption, fuel prices, labour costs, and vehicle operating costs. The new data set allows to document main facts about the development of county-pair transport costs since the 1950s and examine their temporal as well as spatial changes.

Economic History