This article examines the effects of road tolls on economic growth in China. Using a provincial panel data and pool mean group method, we find that a 1% rise in road tolls leads to 0.005% and 0.03% reduction in GDP growth and GDP per capita, respectively. Moreover, it shows that although more road tolls may contribute to financing local transportation networks, they hinder inter-regional trade thus result in more serious market segmentation.

Keywords: toll roads; economic growth; pool mean group method;China