Disentangling regional economic and environmental impacts of transportation costs in Morocco: an inter-province CGE approach

This Paper was originally published on tandfonline.com

This paper examines how reductions in transportation costs reshape regional economic and environmental outcomes in Morocco. We simulate a reduction in delivered (purchasers’) costs via a transport-margin efficiency improvement – implemented as a margin-saving technical change in the transport sector – within a province-level Spatial Computable General Equilibrium (SCGE) framework. Simulating a 1% decline in transport costs, we assess the marginal impacts across regions. Results reveal uneven gains: coastal areas along the Casablanca-Tangier axis and emerging hubs like Béni Mellal-Khénifra and Dakhla-Oued Ed Dahab benefit from growth and lower emissions, while traditional centers such as Fès-Meknès and Marrakech-Safi experience stagnation and rising carbon intensity. The findings highlight a partial decoupling of economic and environmental convergence, driven by both production structure and scale effects. Our analysis stresses the importance of territorially differentiated infrastructure policies that balance spatial equity with sustainability, offering insights for place-based development and green transformation strategies.