Take the highway? Paved roads and well-being in Africa

Andrew Clark, Conchita D'Ambrosio and Elodie Djemai

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Public Goods aim to improve individual welfare. We investigate the causal consequences of roads on well-being in 24 African countries, instrumenting paved roads by 19th Century hypothetical lines between major ports and cities. We have data on over 32000 individuals, and consider both their objective and subjective well-being. Roads reduce material deprivation, in terms of access to basic needs, but at the same time there is no relation between roads and subjective living conditions. The benefit of roads in providing basic needs then seems to be offset by worse outcomes in non basic-needs domains.

Keywords: roads; subjective well-being; basic needs; material deprivation; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I32 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev, nep-hap, nep-ltv and nep-tre
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https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1761.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Take the Highway? Paved roads and well-being in Africa (2024)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved roads and well-being in Africa (2024)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved roads and well-being in Africa (2024)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa (2023)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa (2023)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa (2021)
Working Paper: Take the highway? Paved roads and well-being in Africa (2021)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa (2020)
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