The Average and Heterogeneous Effects of Transportation Investments: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa 1960-2010
Remi Jedwab and
Adam Storeygard
Working Papers from The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy
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 0.06--0.18. 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; Internal Migration; Heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 F16 O18 O20 R11 R12 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)
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http://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2019WP/JedwabIIEP2019-8.pdf (application/pdf)
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 (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2019-8
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