The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh

A rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural opportunities to employ labor and capital more efficiently. Significant knowledge gaps persist, however, as to how opportunities provided by roads actually filter back into househo...

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Main Authors: Khandker, Shahidur R., Bakht, Zaid, Koolwal, Gayatri B.
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4627
id okr-10986-4627
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-46272021-04-23T14:02:18Z The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh Khandker, Shahidur R. Bakht, Zaid Koolwal, Gayatri B. Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development O120 Economic Development: Agriculture Natural Resources Energy Environment Other Primary Products O130 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses Transportation O180 Agriculture: Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis Prices Q110 Transportation Systems: Government and Private Investment Analysis Road Maintenance, Transportation Planning R420 A rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural opportunities to employ labor and capital more efficiently. Significant knowledge gaps persist, however, as to how opportunities provided by roads actually filter back into household outcomes as well as distributional consequences. This study examines the impacts of two rural road-paving projects in Bangladesh using a new quasi-experimental household panel data set surveying project and control villages before and after program implementation. A household panel fixed-effects methodology controlling for initial area conditions is used to estimate the impact of paved roads on household and individual outcomes and account for potential bias in program placement at the village level. Rural road investments are found to reduce poverty significantly through higher agricultural production, lower input and transportation costs, and higher agricultural output prices at local village markets. Rural road development has also led to higher secondary schooling enrollment for boys and girls, as compared to primary school enrollment. We find that road investments have also benefited the poor, meaning the gains are significant for the poor and in some cases disproportionately higher than for the nonpoor. 2012-03-30T07:28:54Z 2012-03-30T07:28:54Z 2009 Journal Article Economic Development and Cultural Change 00130079 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4627 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Bangladesh
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development O120
Economic Development: Agriculture
Natural Resources
Energy
Environment
Other Primary Products O130
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses
Transportation O180
Agriculture: Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis
Prices Q110
Transportation Systems: Government and Private Investment Analysis
Road Maintenance, Transportation Planning R420
spellingShingle Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development O120
Economic Development: Agriculture
Natural Resources
Energy
Environment
Other Primary Products O130
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses
Transportation O180
Agriculture: Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis
Prices Q110
Transportation Systems: Government and Private Investment Analysis
Road Maintenance, Transportation Planning R420
Khandker, Shahidur R.
Bakht, Zaid
Koolwal, Gayatri B.
The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
geographic_facet Bangladesh
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description A rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural opportunities to employ labor and capital more efficiently. Significant knowledge gaps persist, however, as to how opportunities provided by roads actually filter back into household outcomes as well as distributional consequences. This study examines the impacts of two rural road-paving projects in Bangladesh using a new quasi-experimental household panel data set surveying project and control villages before and after program implementation. A household panel fixed-effects methodology controlling for initial area conditions is used to estimate the impact of paved roads on household and individual outcomes and account for potential bias in program placement at the village level. Rural road investments are found to reduce poverty significantly through higher agricultural production, lower input and transportation costs, and higher agricultural output prices at local village markets. Rural road development has also led to higher secondary schooling enrollment for boys and girls, as compared to primary school enrollment. We find that road investments have also benefited the poor, meaning the gains are significant for the poor and in some cases disproportionately higher than for the nonpoor.
format Journal Article
author Khandker, Shahidur R.
Bakht, Zaid
Koolwal, Gayatri B.
author_facet Khandker, Shahidur R.
Bakht, Zaid
Koolwal, Gayatri B.
author_sort Khandker, Shahidur R.
title The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_short The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_full The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_fullStr The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
title_sort poverty impact of rural roads: evidence from bangladesh
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4627
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