EXPRESSWAYS AND POVERTY REDUCTION: EVIDENCE FROM RURAL CHINA

Wuke Zhang (), Qingen Gai, Xi Zhu () and Qinghua Shi ()
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Wuke Zhang: Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, P. R. China
Qingen Gai: ��Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China
Xi Zhu: Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, P. R. China
Qinghua Shi: Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, P. R. China

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2025, vol. 70, issue 05, 1295-1324

Abstract: Combining rural household data and China’s expressway network, this paper estimates the causal effect of expressway access on rural household income using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences method. Our empirical results showed that access to expressways does not, on average, benefit rural households, but further evidence revealed a heterogeneous effect. Improved expressway access can promote poor rural households’ per capita net income by 23.0%, in comparison to the non-poor. Supporting evidence suggests that expressway access encourages rural–urban migration, especially for the poor rural workers, which ultimately leads to higher income for this group. These findings highlight the effects of expressway access on the reduction of rural poverty.

Keywords: Transportation infrastructure; migration; poverty reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J43 O13 O18 R23 R42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1142/S0217590823500315

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