Estimating the Social Profitability of India's Rural Roads Program: A Bumpy Ride

29 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Clive Bell

Clive Bell

University of Heidelberg - South Asia Institute (SAI)

Date Written: August 1, 2012

Abstract

India's rural roads program, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, aims to draw villagers into the mainstream by improving not only their terms of trade, but also their educational attainments and health. Treating each all-weather feeder road as an isolated element within the larger network, and using shadow prices to value the main components of costs and benefits, the paper demonstrates that further investments in the program are, with high probability, socially profitable, especially in poorer and more densely settled regions. Taking the entire set of new individual roads together, qualitative arguments suggest that their external and spill-over effects on the system as a whole probably generate some net additional benefits, but of very uncertain magnitude.

Keywords: Transport Economics Policy & Planning, Economic Theory & Research, Environmental Economics & Policies, Health Monitoring & Evaluation, Rural Roads & Transport

Suggested Citation

Bell, Clive, Estimating the Social Profitability of India's Rural Roads Program: A Bumpy Ride (August 1, 2012). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6168, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2129610

Clive Bell (Contact Author)

University of Heidelberg - South Asia Institute (SAI) ( email )

Grabengasse 14
Heidelberg, D-69117
Germany

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