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

Elodie Djemai, Andrew Clark and D’Ambrosio, Conchita

World Development, 2024, vol. 183, issue C

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, via access to four basic needs and the subjective evaluation of living conditions respectively. Our instrumental-variable analysis suggests that roads reduce material deprivation, by improving access to basic needs, but that there is no causal relation between the distance to a road and subjective living conditions. The benefit of roads in providing basic needs then seems to be offset by worse outcomes in other 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: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
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 (2021)
Working Paper: Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:183:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x2400161x

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106691

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