They argued that congestion is negatively associated with employment growth in the U.S. Metropolitan areas. This is probably because we analyzed data in different time periods. As compared to congestions in different time periods, congestion growth is not substantial during the 2000s, although it has increased continuously. From this difference, we suggest that the effect of congestion growth on employment growth is time-sensitive. But, it’s not enough to explain the …show more content…
Using these results, we also predict how growth of population and employment density change when the congestion growth changes. Figure 4 shows interesting results that congestion has different effects on employment growth in two different groups. Specifically, the effects of congestion on employment growth in cities with population less than 1,000,000 is similar to the analysis with entire sample. However, cities with population over 1,000,000 have experienced decline in employment growth during the period. These results imply that congestion deters employment growth in much larger cities, but congestion may be an indicator of vibrant economic activities in larger cities. This result partially supports the previous studies that argue severe congestion growth deteriorates economic growth in metropolitan areas (Hymel, 2009; Sweet, 2014). This provides important policy implications that congestion policy should be differentiated across the U.S. metropolitan areas and so it is suggested that more region-specific policies are