The Permanent Effects of Transportation Revolutions in Poor Countries: Evidence from Africa

Remi Jedwab and Alexander Moradi

No 31, CEH Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University

Abstract: We exploit the construction and eventual demise of the colonial railroads in Africa to study the impact of transportation investments in poor countries. Using Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, we assembled new data on railroads and cities spanning over one century to show that: (i) Railroads had large effects on the spatial distribution and aggregate level of economic activity during the colonial period, as they constituted a transportation revolution in a context where no modern transportation technology previously existed. (ii) These effects have persisted to date, although railroads collapsed and road networks expanded considerably in the post-independence period. The analysis contributes to our understanding of the heterogeneous impact of transportation investments. It shows that initial investments may have a large effect in poor countries with basic infrastructure. As the countries develop, increasing returns may then solidify their spatial distribution, and subsequent investments may have a smaller effect on local economic development.

Keywords: Transportation; Railroads; Development; Cities; Path Dependence; Roads (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N97 O1 O18 O3 R1 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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https://cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEH/WP201501.pdf

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Journal Article: The Permanent Effects of Transportation Revolutions in Poor Countries: Evidence from Africa (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auu:hpaper:031

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