Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads

We estimate households’ willingness-to-pay for rural feeder roads in Ethiopia. Using a quasi-experimental setting, we find that the benefits of reducing transportation costs by 50 US dollars per metric ton of goods (agricultural surplus, purchased consumption goods, purchased agricultural inputs) wo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stifel, David, Minten, Bart, Koru, Bethlehem
Formato: Brief
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154067
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author Stifel, David
Minten, Bart
Koru, Bethlehem
author_browse Koru, Bethlehem
Minten, Bart
Stifel, David
author_facet Stifel, David
Minten, Bart
Koru, Bethlehem
author_sort Stifel, David
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description We estimate households’ willingness-to-pay for rural feeder roads in Ethiopia. Using a quasi-experimental setting, we find that the benefits of reducing transportation costs by 50 US dollars per metric ton of goods (agricultural surplus, purchased consumption goods, purchased agricultural inputs) would result in benefits worth roughly 35 percent of household consumption. A hypothetical gravel road of 21 km (a road built halfway through the survey site) that lasts 10 years will have an internal rate of return (a measure for the profitability of an investment) that ranges from 12 to 34 percent, using conservative assumptions. These results suggest that investments in rural feeder roads are cost-effective ways to help reduce widespread poverty even in unfavorable settings where small-scale farmers have low levels of marketed agricultural surplus, nonfarm earnings opportunities are negligible, and the provision of motorized transport services is not guaranteed.
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spelling CGSpace1540672025-11-06T04:38:40Z Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads Stifel, David Minten, Bart Koru, Bethlehem transport costs infrastructure welfare households models We estimate households’ willingness-to-pay for rural feeder roads in Ethiopia. Using a quasi-experimental setting, we find that the benefits of reducing transportation costs by 50 US dollars per metric ton of goods (agricultural surplus, purchased consumption goods, purchased agricultural inputs) would result in benefits worth roughly 35 percent of household consumption. A hypothetical gravel road of 21 km (a road built halfway through the survey site) that lasts 10 years will have an internal rate of return (a measure for the profitability of an investment) that ranges from 12 to 34 percent, using conservative assumptions. These results suggest that investments in rural feeder roads are cost-effective ways to help reduce widespread poverty even in unfavorable settings where small-scale farmers have low levels of marketed agricultural surplus, nonfarm earnings opportunities are negligible, and the provision of motorized transport services is not guaranteed. 2012 2024-10-01T13:59:17Z 2024-10-01T13:59:17Z Brief https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154067 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Stifel, David; Minten, Bart; Koru, Bethlehem 2012. Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154067
spellingShingle transport
costs
infrastructure
welfare
households
models
Stifel, David
Minten, Bart
Koru, Bethlehem
Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
title Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
title_full Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
title_fullStr Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
title_full_unstemmed Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
title_short Economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
title_sort economic benefits and returns to rural feeder roads
topic transport
costs
infrastructure
welfare
households
models
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154067
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