Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia

Rural access is among the most important infrastructure elements to stimulate economic growth in rural and remote areas. The sustainability of feeder road maintenance is a challenge in many developing countries. Many feeder roads are unpaved and ne...

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Main Authors:	Iimi, Atsushi, Gericke, Ben
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSPORT POLICY RURAL ACCESS TRANSPORT CONNECTIVITY FEEDER ROADS FARM-TO-MARKET ROADS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/138501505917842425/Output-and-performance-based-road-contracts-and-agricultural-production-evidence-from-Zambia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28379

id	okr-10986-28379
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-283792021-06-08T14:42:48Z Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia Iimi, Atsushi Gericke, Ben AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSPORT POLICY RURAL ACCESS TRANSPORT CONNECTIVITY FEEDER ROADS FARM-TO-MARKET ROADS Rural access is among the most important infrastructure elements to stimulate economic growth in rural and remote areas. The sustainability of feeder road maintenance is a challenge in many developing countries. Many feeder roads are unpaved and need to be maintained frequently, but they are often neglected under budget pressure. Output- and performance-based road contracts are an instrument to ensure the sustainability of road maintenance. Contractors are required not only to improve roads, but also to maintain them. Using micro data from household surveys in Zambia, the paper examines the impacts of output- and performance-based road contracts on agricultural production. It shows that the contracts have a significant impact on crop production, especially maize and groundnuts, two major crops grown in the study area. The paper also finds that the measured impacts are associated with actual road maintenance works, regardless of contractual methods. Any road work can improve people's connectivity, even if it is not an output- and performance-based road contracts. The impact of the contracts is catalytic: more road works were implemented on contract roads than non-contract roads, holding everything else constant. This is an important contribution to the sustainability of road maintenance. Finally, road improvement works are found to facilitate farmers' market participation, but the impact seems weak. There may be other constraints. Transport service costs are found to have a negative impact on farmers' market sales. Thus, although roads are improved, transport services may be not available or too expensive, which still hamper farmers' market participation. 2017-09-21T21:23:11Z 2017-09-21T21:23:11Z 2017-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/138501505917842425/Output-and-performance-based-road-contracts-and-agricultural-production-evidence-from-Zambia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28379 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8201 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Zambia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSPORT POLICY RURAL ACCESS TRANSPORT CONNECTIVITY FEEDER ROADS FARM-TO-MARKET ROADS
spellingShingle	AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSPORT POLICY RURAL ACCESS TRANSPORT CONNECTIVITY FEEDER ROADS FARM-TO-MARKET ROADS Iimi, Atsushi Gericke, Ben Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia
geographic_facet	Africa Zambia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8201
description	Rural access is among the most important infrastructure elements to stimulate economic growth in rural and remote areas. The sustainability of feeder road maintenance is a challenge in many developing countries. Many feeder roads are unpaved and need to be maintained frequently, but they are often neglected under budget pressure. Output- and performance-based road contracts are an instrument to ensure the sustainability of road maintenance. Contractors are required not only to improve roads, but also to maintain them. Using micro data from household surveys in Zambia, the paper examines the impacts of output- and performance-based road contracts on agricultural production. It shows that the contracts have a significant impact on crop production, especially maize and groundnuts, two major crops grown in the study area. The paper also finds that the measured impacts are associated with actual road maintenance works, regardless of contractual methods. Any road work can improve people's connectivity, even if it is not an output- and performance-based road contracts. The impact of the contracts is catalytic: more road works were implemented on contract roads than non-contract roads, holding everything else constant. This is an important contribution to the sustainability of road maintenance. Finally, road improvement works are found to facilitate farmers' market participation, but the impact seems weak. There may be other constraints. Transport service costs are found to have a negative impact on farmers' market sales. Thus, although roads are improved, transport services may be not available or too expensive, which still hamper farmers' market participation.
format	Working Paper
author	Iimi, Atsushi Gericke, Ben
author_facet	Iimi, Atsushi Gericke, Ben
author_sort	Iimi, Atsushi
title	Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia
title_short	Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia
title_full	Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia
title_fullStr	Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia
title_full_unstemmed	Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia
title_sort	output- and performance-based road contracts and agricultural production : evidence from zambia
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/138501505917842425/Output-and-performance-based-road-contracts-and-agricultural-production-evidence-from-Zambia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28379
_version_	1764466752119373824

Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts and Agricultural Production : Evidence from Zambia

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