The Average and Heterogeneous Effects of Transportation Investments: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa 1960-2010

Remi Jedwab and Adam Storeygard

No 822, Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University from Department of Economics, Tufts University

Abstract: Previous work on transportation investments has focused on average impacts in high- and middle-income countries. We estimate average and heterogeneous effects in a poor continent, Africa, using roads and cities data spanning 50 years in 39 countries. Using changes in market access due to distant road construction as a source of exogenous variation, we estimate an 30-year elasticity of city population with respect to market access of 0.05-0.20. Our results suggest that this elasticity is stronger for small and remote cities, and weaker in politically favored and agriculturally suitable areas. Access to foreign cities matters little.

Keywords: Transportation Infrastructure; Paved Roads; Urbanization; Cities; Africa; Market Access; Trade Costs; Highways; InternalMigration; Heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-his, nep-tre and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Average and Heterogeneous Effects of Transportation Investments: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa 1960–2010 (2022)
Working Paper: The Average and Heterogeneous Effects of Transportation Investments: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa 1960-2010 (2020)
Working Paper: The Average and Heterogeneous Effects of Transportation Investments: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa 1960-2010 (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0822

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