THE CONTRIBUTION OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURES TO THE ECONOMIC AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A REVIEW OF THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK.

Transport infrastructures are a major drive for achieving economic development at all geographical scales, and particularly at the regional and local level, at which the units of the spatial economic systems are usually configured. In the current literature, a great number of studies have dealt with the relationship between transportation and economic development and a considerable amount of them have revealed different aspects of the transport infrastructures' contribution to the local and regional development, highlighting the complexity and the importance of this symbiotic relationship. Within this context, this paper discusses, in a theoretical context, this contribution and it develops an integrated framework for the conceptualization of how transport infrastructures contribute to the economic and regional development. This is achieved, first, by distinguishing the main categories of transport infrastructures and, secondly, by reviewing the established regional development and economics theories that build on the relationship between transport infrastructures and regional development. Further, the paper reviews the main factors affecting, either directly or indirectly, this contribution and the determinants of the size and direction of the effects transport infrastructures contribute to the economic and regional development. Overall, the paper highlights the importance of transport infrastructures policy as a tool of regional and economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]