The Cost of Road Infrastructure in Low and Middle Income Countries
The connections between transport infrastructure and economic development have been extensively analyzed in previous research, but little is known about the cost of infrastructure investments in poor countries. This paper examines drivers of unit c...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/09/24989040/cost-road-infrastructure-low-middle-income-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22664 |
| Summary: | The connections between transport
infrastructure and economic development have been
extensively analyzed in previous research, but little is
known about the cost of infrastructure investments in poor
countries. This paper examines drivers of unit costs of
construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure in
low and middle income countries and documents that: (i)
there is a large dispersion in unit costs for comparable
road work activities; (ii) after accounting for
environmental drivers of costs, residual unit costs are
significantly higher in conflict countries; (iii) there is
evidence that costs are higher in countries with higher
levels of corruption; (iv) these effects are robust to
controlling for a country’s public investment capacity and
business environment. Our findings have implications for
governments aiming to increase connectivity in poor countries. |
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