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Impacts of improvements in rural roads on household income through the enhancement of market accessibility in rural areas of Cambodia

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  • Shin Takada

    (The University of Tokyo)

  • So Morikawa

    (The University of Tokyo)

  • Rika Idei

    (The University of Tokyo)

  • Hironori Kato

    (The University of Tokyo)

Abstract

Rural areas in low-income countries often face severe poverty typically caused by insufficient accessibility to basic facilities. Improvements in rural roads are expected to reduce poverty although the mechanism has not been investigated sufficiently. This study empirically analyzes the impacts of rural road improvements implemented from 2012 to 2014 in Cambodia, highlighting local residents’ accessibility to local markets. This study assumes two causal relationships: rural road improvements have upgraded the accessibility and travel frequency to local markets, and the upgraded accessibility and travel frequency to local markets have led to a growth in local residents’ income. The hypotheses are statistically tested with a dataset developed through a questionnaire survey conducted in three areas in 2016. The dataset contains responses from 400 local residents to questions concerning their social attributes, livelihoods, travel modes, travel frequency, and time/cost of travels to the basic facilities. The quasi-experimental design incorporating a difference-in-differences design and an inverse possibility of treatment weighting approach revealed that the improvements in rural roads did not affect travel time nor travel cost but significantly enhanced travel frequency to local markets, and that an increase in the travel frequency to local markets and travel time savings significantly contributed to the households’ income growth. The results suggest that the improvement of seasonal reliability in accessing local markets through an introduction of all-weather roads could be critical to enhance household income, particularly in areas where agriculture is a leading industry and weather conditions are unstable across seasons.

Suggested Citation

  • Shin Takada & So Morikawa & Rika Idei & Hironori Kato, 2021. "Impacts of improvements in rural roads on household income through the enhancement of market accessibility in rural areas of Cambodia," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2857-2881, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:48:y:2021:i:5:d:10.1007_s11116-020-10150-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11116-020-10150-8
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    2. Bell, Clive, 2023. "Rural Roads and National Welfare: Are 'Local' Methods of Evaluation Satisfactory?," Working Papers 0740, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    3. Liu, Jie & He, Mingwei & Schonfeld, Paul M. & Kato, Hironori & Li, Anjun, 2022. "Measures of accessibility incorporating time reliability for an urban rail transit network: A case study in Wuhan, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 471-489.
    4. Clive Bell, 2022. "The social profitability of rural roads in a small open economy: Do urban agglomeration economies matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(2), pages 373-397, April.
    5. Yuanyuan Zhu & John Aloysius Zinda & Qin Liu & Yukuan Wang & Bin Fu & Ming Li, 2023. "Accessibility of Primary Schools in Rural Areas and the Impact of Topography: A Case Study in Nanjiang County, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Jing Fan & Hironori Kato & Xinghua Liu & Ye Li & Changxi Ma & Liang Zhou & Mingzhang Liang, 2022. "High-Speed Railway Network Development, Inter-County Accessibility Improvements, and Regional Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, October.
    7. Qi Sun & Yunli Bai & Chao Fu & Xiangbo Xu & Mingxing Sun & Baodong Cheng & Linxiu Zhang, 2022. "Heterogeneous Effects of Skill Training on Rural Livelihoods around Four Biosphere Reserves in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-22, September.

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