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 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.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Collier, Paul, Kirchberger, Martina, Söderbom, Måns
Format:	Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2015-09
Subjects:	AUCTION, TERRORISM, ROAD DEVELOPMENT, AVERAGE COSTS, SUPERVISION, EQUIPMENT, PRICE LEVELS, MATERIALS, SEARCH, INCOME, CONSUMER PRICE INDICES, TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORTATION COSTS, ROAD BUILDING, GDP PER CAPITA, INFORMATION, JOINT VENTURE, MONITORING, POLITICAL ECONOMY, WELFARE, RISK PREMIUM, INCENTIVES, VARIABLES, ROAD COSTS, ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE, HIGHWAY SYSTEM, PRICE, RETURNS TO SCALE, MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, PC, PAYMENTS, PRODUCTION βα FUNCTION, MAINTENANCE COSTS, TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE, TRENDS, DRIVERS, OPEN ACCESS, INCREASING RETURNS TO SCALE, ECONOMIC ACTIVITY, DEVELOPMENT, INSTITUTIONS, VEHICLE, TIME PERIODS, LINK, DATA, ROAD, COLLUSION, COSTS, DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, ROAD NETWORK, ROAD SECTOR, TRANSPORT, COMMERCIAL BUSINESS, ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY, EXCHANGE RATES, TARGETS, SCALE EFFECT, PRODUCTIVITY, INDUSTRIALIZATION, INCREASING RETURNS, PROCUREMENT PROCESS, DRAINAGE, CONNECTIVITY, TRUE, WEB, INFORMATION NETWORK, BUSINESS INFORMATION, RURAL ROADS, ROAD QUALITY, PROCUREMENT PROCESSES, ECONOMIC RESEARCH, INFRASTRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AUCTIONS, DRIVING, CONGESTION, LEGAL ENFORCEMENT, TRANSPORTATION, FRAUD, INSPECTION, PRICE AUCTIONS, PROCUREMENT, WAGES, TRANSPARENCY, ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS, RESETTLEMENT, TRANSPORT RESEARCH, RESULTS, VALUE, CONGESTION COSTS, CREDIT, NETWORKS, POPULATION DENSITY, INFORMATION PROVIDERS, BUSINESS INDICATORS, MEASUREMENT, PRICE TAKERS, ROAD PROJECTS, INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS, PUBLIC WORKS, HIGHWAYS, ECONOMICS, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, ROAD EXPENDITURES, ROADS, RESULT, FUNCTIONAL FORMS, OVERHEAD COSTS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, HIGHWAY, TRADE, ICT, RAILWAYS, GDP, THEORY, COST OF TRANSPORT, SECURITY, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, BUSINESS, INVESTMENT, NETWORK, RAILROADS, PERFORMANCE, BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, FUEL, LANES, INVESTMENTS, CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, MISSING VALUES, COSTS OF TRANSPORT, ROAD CONDITIONS, DATABASE, TRANSPORT COSTS, HIGH TRANSPORTATION, OUTCOMES, VEHICLE DRIVERS, OUTSOURCING, MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES, PRICES, MISSING DATA, USER, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, FUTURE RESEARCH,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/09/24989040/cost-road-infrastructure-low-middle-income-countries https://hdl.handle.net/10986/22664
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