Data and Code for: "Spatial Integration and Agricultural Productivity: Quantifying the Impact of New Roads"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Tasso Adamopoulos, York University

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Project Citation:

Adamopoulos, Tasso. Data and Code for: “Spatial Integration and Agricultural Productivity: Quantifying the Impact of New Roads.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-11-22. https://doi.org/10.3886/E195703V1

Project Description

Summary: I study the effects of Ethiopia's 1996-2014 road expansion program on agricultural productivity and structural change. I combine a quantitative spatial framework of structural change with a novel district-level panel data set on agricultural production and transport costs. I estimate transport costs between districts and domestic crop markets accounting for the road network, and the topography of the terrain. The model features multiple rural locations, where delivering crops to market, as well as accessing intermediate inputs is subject to location-good-specific transport costs and local land frictions. The spatial heterogeneity of transport costs affects the distribution of production and mobile inputs across locations and sectors, and the allocation of land across crops within locations. I calibrate the model to the 1996 spatial agricultural production structure of Ethiopia, and then change transport costs alone to their 2014 levels. The model implies a decrease in the share of labor in agriculture by 5.5 percentage points and an increase in the aggregate real yield of 14.7 percent, about 1/10 of the overall yield gain in the data over 1996-2014. The model also delivers a U-shaped pattern of yield gains across districts with respect to transport cost changes, similar to the one observed in the data. This pattern across districts is attributed to the extent of alignment of districts' changes in absolute and comparative advantage implied by the transport cost changes.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: productivity; agriculture ; spatial allocation; structural change; distortions; transportation costs; road infrastructure

JEL Classification:
      O11 Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
      O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
      O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
      O40 Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General
      O55 Economywide Country Studies: Africa
      Q10 Agriculture: General
      R12 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity

Geographic Coverage: Ethiopia, Africa

Time Period(s): 1996 – 2014

Universe: Agricultural households surveyed through Agricultural Sample Surveys.

Universe of roads in Ethiopia (administrative data).

Methodology

Data Source: Agricultural Sample Survey, Ethiopia
Ethiopian Roads Authority

Unit(s) of Observation: Districts in Ethiopia

Geographic Unit: District

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-11-22]

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