Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa

[en] Public Goods aim to improve individual welfare. We investigate the causal consequences of roads on well-being in 24 African countries, instrumenting paved roads by 19th Century hypothetical lines between major ports and cities. We have data on over 32000 individuals, and consider both their objective and subjective well-being, via access to four basic needs and the subjective evaluation of living conditions respectively. Our instrumental-variable analysis suggests that roads reduce material deprivation, by improving access to basic needs, but that there is no causal relation between the distance to a road and subjective living conditions. The benefit of roads in providing basic needs then seems to be offset by worse outcomes in other domains.

Disciplines :

Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...)

Author, co-author :

Djemaï, Elodie; Universite Paris-Dauphine

Clark, Andrew; Paris School of Economics - CNRS and University of Luxembourg

D'AMBROSIO, Conchita ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Health and Behaviour

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Take the Highway? Paved Roads and Well-Being in Africa

Publication date :

2024

Journal title :

World Development: the Multi-Disciplinary International Journal Devoted to the Study and Promotion of World Development

ISSN :

0305-750X

eISSN :

1873-5991

Publisher :

Elsevier, United Kingdom

Volume :

183

Pages :

106691

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBilu :

since 10 August 2024

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