This study investigates the role of transportation infrastructure in driving regional economic growth in Central Java Province, Indonesia. Infrastructure, especially in transportation, is identified as a critical enabler of regional development, facilitating structural transformation from low to higher-productivity sectors. Employing a quantitative associative approach and secondary data from 35 Regencies/Cities for the period of 2023 to 2024, this research analyzes the impact of four key transportation indicators: road length (RL), road density (RD), number of motor vehicles (MV), and station availability (SA), on the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) per capita. The Random Effect Model (REM) was selected as the most suitable estimation model after conducting Chow, Hausman, and LM tests, and the model successfully passed classical assumption tests, ensuring statistical validity. The empirical results indicate that the number of motor vehicles, road density, and station availability all have a significant positive influence on GRDP per capita. This suggests that enhanced mobility, intensive road network utilization, and the presence of integrated transport facilities such as terminals, stations, ports, or airports are crucial drivers of economic activity. In contrast, road length demonstrates a negative impact, implying that simply expanding the road network quantitatively does not guarantee increased economic output if not strategically utilized or built in low-productivity areas. The findings underscore the critical importance of quality, strategic utilization, and connectivity in transport infrastructure development for sustainable regional economic growth.
Wicaksana et al. (Tue,) studied this question.