Estimating the short-run effect on market-access of the construction of better transportation infrastructure in Mexico

We calculate the short-run effect that the construction of the 230km-long Durango-Mazatlán highway in 2013 and of the 290km-long Mexico City-Tuxpan highway in 2014 produced on market-access in every location in Mexico. Our estimates suggest that the former highway produced benefits not only in the region where the new highway is located, but in vast regions in the north of the country. Analogous estimates show that the latter highway mostly benefited regions near Tuxpan, but these focalized benefits were larger than any of the benefits derived from the construction of the Durango-Mazatlán highway.