American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Rural Roads and Local Economic Development
American Economic Review
vol. 110,
no. 3, March 2020
(pp. 797–823)
Abstract
Nearly one billion people worldwide live in rural areas without access to national paved road networks. We estimate the impacts of India's 40 billion USD national rural road construction program using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and comprehensive household and firm census microdata. Four years after road construction, the main effect of new feeder roads is to facilitate the movement of workers out of agriculture. However, there are no major changes in agricultural outcomes, income, or assets. Employment in village firms expands only slightly. Even with better market connections, remote areas may continue to lack economic opportunities.Citation
Asher, Sam, and Paul Novosad. 2020. "Rural Roads and Local Economic Development." American Economic Review 110 (3): 797–823. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20180268Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J43 Agricultural Labor Markets
- O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
- O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
- R42 Transportation Economics: Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance, Transportation Planning