IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevef/v8y2016i2p266-286.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of infrastructure on rural household income and inequality in Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Lindy C. Charlery
  • Matin Qaim
  • Carsten Smith-Hall

Abstract

Weak public infrastructure may contribute to poverty and inequality. Studies have found that roads are a key factor affecting rural incomes in developing countries. Yet, there is relatively scant evidence of the economic impacts of rural roads at the individual household level. This study contributes to the literature by empirically analysing the effects of rural road construction on household income and income inequality in Nepal. Using a quasi-experimental design, a difference-in-difference approach is developed and employed to analyse household ( n = 177) data before and after road construction. We find that the new road had a significantly positive impact on mean household income of USD 235 (28%). Contrary to expectations, we do not find an increase in income inequality. Compared to the counterfactual site, it appears that the road has rather contributed to decreasing income inequality. The poorest households gained most from the road construction, making it a pro-poor development intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindy C. Charlery & Matin Qaim & Carsten Smith-Hall, 2016. "Impact of infrastructure on rural household income and inequality in Nepal," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 266-286, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevef:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:266-286
    DOI: 10.1080/19439342.2015.1079794
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19439342.2015.1079794
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/19439342.2015.1079794?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yasuharu Shimamura & Satoshi Shimizutani & Eiji Yamada & Hiroyuki Yamada, 2023. "On the inclusiveness of rural road improvement: Evidence from Morocco," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1721-1745, August.
    2. Julio Aguirre & Elmer Guerrero & Yohnny Campana, 2021. "How effective are protected natural areas when roads are present? An analysis of the Peruvian case," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 831-859, October.
    3. Shahid Hussain & Fangwei Zhu & Zaigham Ali & Xiaohang Xu, 2017. "Rural Residents’ Perception of Construction Project Delays in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-16, November.
    4. Wanglin Ma & Hongyun Zheng & Amaka Nnaji, 2023. "Cooperative membership and adoption of green pest control practices: Insights from rice farmers," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(3), pages 459-479, July.
    5. Lindy Charlery & Martin R. Nielsen & Henrik Meilby & Carsten Smith-Hall, 2016. "Effects of New Roads on Environmental Resource Use in the Central Himalaya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Zhou, Qiang & Liu, Yong & Qu, Shen, 2022. "Emission effects of China's rural revitalization: The nexus of infrastructure investment, household income, and direct residential CO2 emissions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Xiao, Han & Zheng, Xinye & Xie, Lunyu, 2022. "Promoting pro-poor growth through infrastructure investment: Evidence from the Targeted Poverty Alleviation program in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. Khosla, Sunil & Jena, Pradyot Ranjan & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2023. "Can rural livelihood programs enhance capabilities and reduce vulnerability to poverty? Evidence from a tribal region of eastern India," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 85-98.
    9. Deyou Chen & Lei Wang & Tao Su & Youtao Zhang, 2018. "Canonical Correlation Analysis Between Residents’ Living Standards and Community Management Service Levels in Rural Areas: An Empirical Analysis Based on Municipal Data in Anhui Province," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 52(4), pages 1053-1068, December.
    10. Wanglin Ma & Hongyun Zheng & Yueji Zhu & Jianling Qi, 2022. "Effects of cooperative membership on financial performance of banana farmers in China: A heterogeneous analysis," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 5-27, March.
    11. Huang, Ruting & Yao, Xin, 2023. "The role of power transmission infrastructure in income inequality: Fresh evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    12. Lili Li & Zhonggen Zhang & Changluan Fu, 2020. "The subjective well-being effect of public goods provided by village collectives: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-16, March.
    13. Sun, Mingxing & Xu, Xiangbo & Wang, Le & Li, Chang & Zhang, Linxiu, 2021. "Stable energy, energy inequality, and climate change vulnerability in Pan-Third Pole regions: Empirical analysis in cross-national rural areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    14. Ina-Kathrin Spey & Denis Kupsch & Kadiri Serge Bobo & Matthias Waltert & Stefan Schwarze, 2019. "The Effects of Road Access on Income Generation. Evidence from An Integrated Conservation and Development Project in Cameroon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, June.
    15. Suchi Kapoor Malhotra & Howard White & Nina Ashley O. Dela Cruz & Ashrita Saran & John Eyers & Denny John & Ella Beveridge & Nina Blöndal, 2021. "Studies of the effectiveness of transport sector interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevef:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:266-286. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJDE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.