Roads and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This paper assesses the relation between access to markets and cultivated land in Sub-Saharan Africa. Making use of a geo-referenced panel over three decades (1970-2005) during which the road network was significantly improved, the analysis finds a modest but significant positive association between increased market accessibility and local cropland expansion. It also finds that cropland expansion, in turn, is associated with a small but significant increase in local gross domestic product. These results are suggestive of agricultural activities that develop at the extensive margin, which are mostly to serve local demand, but are not indicative of commercial agriculture that serves external markets.

Document type: Book

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2018.1430772

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-7729

• http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5923564 under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

• http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5923564.v1 under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

• http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5923564.v2 under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

• http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24646 under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/

• http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29662 under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo

• https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/10986/29662/1/fjds-2016-may-0112.pdf under the license cc-by-nc-nd

• https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/10986/29662/1/fjds-2016-may-0112.pdf under the license cc-by-nc-nd

DOIS: 10.1080/00220388.2018.1430772 10.6084/m9.figshare.5923564.v1 10.6084/m9.figshare.5923564 10.6084/m9.figshare.5923564.v2 10.1596/1813-9450-7729