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Economic Benefits of Rural Feeder Roads: Evidence from Ethiopia

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  • David Stifel
  • Bart Minten
  • Bethlehem Koru

Abstract

We estimate households’ willingness-to-pay for rural feeder roads in Ethiopia. Using purposefully collected data, we compare the economic behaviour of households by remoteness to estimate the benefits of access to feeder roads. Although we cannot definitively assert a causal relationship, we cautiously estimate that gravel roads have internal rates of return of 12–35 per cent. These results suggest that rural feeder roads may have relatively high rates of return even in unfavourable settings where (a) small-scale farmers have low levels of marketed agricultural surplus, (b) non-farm earning opportunities are negligible, and (c) motorised transport services are not guaranteed.

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  • David Stifel & Bart Minten & Bethlehem Koru, 2016. "Economic Benefits of Rural Feeder Roads: Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(9), pages 1335-1356, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:52:y:2016:i:9:p:1335-1356
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2016.1175555
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    Cited by:

    1. Derek Headey & David Stifel & Liangzhi You & Zhe Guo, 2018. "Remoteness, urbanization, and child nutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 765-775, November.
    2. Krishnan, Pramila & Zhang, Peng, 2020. "Restricting trade and reducing variety: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Abate, Gashaw T. & Dereje, Mekdim & Hirvonen, Kalle & Minten, Bart, 2020. "Geography of public service delivery in rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    4. Yalew, Amsalu W. & Hirte, Georg & Lotze-Campen, Hermann & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2017. "General equilibrium effects of public adaptation in agriculture in LDCs: Evidence from Ethiopia," CEPIE Working Papers 11/17, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    5. Stifel, David & Minten, Bart, 2017. "Market Access, Well-being, and Nutrition: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 229-241.
    6. Amsalu Woldie Yalew & Georg Hirte & Hermann Lotze-Campen & Stefan Tscharaktschiew, 2018. "Climate Change, Agriculture, and Economic Development in Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-23, September.
    7. Hirvonen, Kalle & Sohnesen, Thomas Pave & Bundervoet, Tom, 2020. "Impact of Ethiopia’s 2015 drought on child undernutrition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Banick, Robert & Heyns, Andries M. & Regmi, Suraj, 2021. "Evaluation of rural roads construction alternatives according to seasonal service accessibility improvement using a novel multi-modal cost-time model: A study in Nepal's remote and mountainous Karnali," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. Noah Kaiser & Christina K. Barstow, 2022. "Rural Transportation Infrastructure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Impacts, Implications, and Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-48, February.
    10. Bell, Clive, 2023. "Rural Roads and National Welfare: Are 'Local' Methods of Evaluation Satisfactory?," Working Papers 0740, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    11. Elena Perra, 2022. "Road to Division: Ethnic Favouritism in the Provision of Road Infrastructure in Ethiopia," Working Papers - Economics wp2022_01.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    12. Yalew, Amsalu W. & Hirte, Georg & Lotze-Campen, Hermann & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2017. "Economic effects of climate change in developing countries: Economy-wide and regional analysis for Ethiopia," CEPIE Working Papers 10/17, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    13. Gebresilasse, Mesay, 2023. "Rural roads, agricultural extension, and productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    14. Ben Brunckhorst, 2020. "Rural Mobility and Climate Vulnerability: Evidence from the 2015 Drought in Ethiopia," CSAE Working Paper Series 2020-17, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    15. 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.
    16. Benevenuto, Rodolfo & Caulfield, Brian, 2022. "Examining the socioeconomic outcomes of transport interventions in the Global South," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 56-66.
    17. Dylan Fitz & Shyam Gouri Suresh, 2021. "Poverty traps across levels of aggregation," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(4), pages 909-953, October.
    18. Pieter Rutsaert & Jordan Chamberlin & Kevin Ong’are Oluoch & Victor Ochieng Kitoto & Jason Donovan, 2021. "The geography of agricultural input markets in rural Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1379-1391, December.

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