The increase in market access that the expansion of the road network and the growth of Europe created between 1990 and 2012 raised GDP, employment and attracted population. An increase in market access by 1% increases GDP in a region, on average, by 0.2%, employment by 0.7% and population by 0.6%. The positive effect of market access appears to be the strongest over long-distances, most likely based on trade links that are aided by better access to regions in other countries. Predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural regions benefit equally from improvements in access, however, the investment required to create the same degree of improvement in the three types of regions varies substantially. Northern, Western and Central Europe benefited consistently from market access improvements. Southern European regions with better market access gained population and employment but lacked clear GDP improvements. Conversely, Eastern Europe lost employment and population for market access improvements that occurred in a 3-hour travel time radius but had the highest economic gains in GDP and GDP per capita, 1.7% and 2.2% respectively.
