Farther on Down the Road : Transport Costs, Trade and Urban Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Storeygard, Adam

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS ROADS;    AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES;    AGGREGATES;    AGRICULTURAL TRANSPORT;    AIR;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6444
RP-ID  :  WPS6444

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Transport costs are widely considered animportant barrier to local economic activity but theirimpact in developing countries is not well-studied. Thispaper investigates the role of inter-city transport costs indetermining the income of Sub-Saharan African cities, usingtwo new data sources. Specifically, it asks how importantaccess to a large port city is for the income of hinterlandcities in 15 countries. Satellite data on lights at nightproxy for city economic activity, and shortest routesbetween cities are calculated using new road network data.Cost per unit of distance is identified by world oil prices.The results show that an oil price increase of the magnitudeexperienced between 2002 and 2008 induces the income ofcities near a major port to increase by 6 percent relativeto otherwise identical cities 500 kilometers farther away.Cities connected to the port by paved roads are chieflyaffected by transport costs to the port, while citiesconnected to the port by unpaved roads are more affected byconnections to secondary centers. These are importantfindings for economic development in Sub-Saharan Africasince the majority of its population growth over the nextfew decades is expected to be in urban areas.