Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This study considers the effects of commercial airports on local economies over the post-World War II period (specifically, 1950–2010). To overcome endogeneity concerns, a pooled synthetic control event study strategy is employed on newly digitized historical aviation data to estimate treatment effects on a variety of employment, population, and wage outcomes. I find that airports have led to, on average, 3.9 percent growth in total employment (and 3.4% growth in population) per decade. Over the 30-year period for which wage and air traffic data are available, earnings per worker increased by 2%, and per-capita personal income increased by 3%, corresponding to growth rates of up to 1.2 percent per decade, respectively.