Marco Gonzalez-Navarro Climent Quintana-Domeque: Paving Streets for the Poor: Experimental Analysis of Infrastructure Effects:
"This study is the first providing experimental evidence on the role of infrastructure in reducing poverty for the urban poor. We do so by means of a first-time street asphalting randomized experiment. Within two years of the intervention, households whose streets were finally paved, and were present both before and after its implementation, increased their consumption of durable goods and acquired more motor vehicles. These impacts were driven in part by street pavement boosting housing wealth, which fueled a rise in collateralized credit use, but also by an increase in the marginal utility of vehicles. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that the economic returns to street pavement in this developing urban context are at least as large as the construction costs."
