Planning Ahead for Better Neighborhoods: Long Run Evidence from Tanzania

68 Pages Posted: 26 Oct 2017

See all articles by Guy Michaels

Guy Michaels

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Dzhamilya Nigmatulina

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE); Swiss Finance Institute - HEC Lausanne; University of Lausanne - School of Economics and Business Administration (HEC-Lausanne)

Ferdinand Rauch

University of Oxford

Tanner Regan

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Neeraj Baruah

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Amanda Dahlstrand-Rudin

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2017

Abstract

What are the long run consequences of planning and providing basic infrastructure in neighborhoods, where people build their own homes? We study “Sites and Services” projects implemented in seven Tanzanian cities during the 1970s and 1980s, half of which provided infrastructure in previously unpopulated areas (de novo neighborhoods), while the other half upgraded squatter settlements. Using satellite images and surveys from the 2010s, we find that de novo neighborhoods developed better housing than adjacent residential areas (control areas) that were also initially unpopulated. Specifically, de novo neighborhood are more orderly and their buildings have larger footprint areas and are more likely to have multiple stories, as well as connections to electricity and water, basic sanitation and access to roads. And though de novo neighborhoods generally attracted better educated residents than control areas, the educational difference is too small to account for the large difference in residential quality that we find. While we have no natural counterfactual for the upgrading areas, descriptive evidence suggests that they are if anything worse than the control areas.

Keywords: Urban Economics, Economic Development, Slums, Africa

JEL Classification: R310, O180, R140

Suggested Citation

Michaels, Guy and Michaels, Guy and Nigmatulina, Dzhamilya and Rauch, Ferdinand and Regan, Tanner and Baruah, Neeraj and Dahlstrand-Rudin, Amanda, Planning Ahead for Better Neighborhoods: Long Run Evidence from Tanzania (September 2017). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 6680, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3059487 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3059487

Guy Michaels (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Dzhamilya Nigmatulina

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Swiss Finance Institute - HEC Lausanne ( email )

Chavannes-près-Renens
Switzerland

University of Lausanne - School of Economics and Business Administration (HEC-Lausanne) ( email )

Unil Dorigny, Batiment Internef
Lausanne, 1015
Switzerland

Ferdinand Rauch

University of Oxford ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

Tanner Regan

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Neeraj Baruah

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Amanda Dahlstrand-Rudin

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

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