On the inclusiveness of rural road improvement: Evidence from Morocco

This paper explores the heterogeneous impact of a rural road improvement project on the economic activities and living standards of households in Morocco. Road pavement improvements are expected to promote better market access, encourage the transformation of traditional agricultural activities, and create opportunities for new economic activities. However, benefits may not extend evenly across different groups, and the distributional consequences call for careful empirical investigation. We employ a difference-in-differences (DID) estimation using a household-level panel dataset collected under a quasi-experimental setting in the 2010s. We classify households into three groups based on asset holdings (rich, middle, and poor). We provide several new findings. First, there was no significant transformation of agricultural production or sales for all groups. Second, rich households increased hired agricultural labor and began paid employment while middle households started new family businesses. Poor households, however, did not enjoy these new employment opportunities except for a marginal increase in family businesses. Third, due to shifts in employment, the rural road renewal project improved household consumption 3%–4% annually for rich and middle households, an impact not clearly seen among poor households. Thus, our findings show that the economic benefits of rural road improvement might not be well-inclusive.     

Transformation of international migrants in head wind: Evidence from Tajikistan in the 2010s

Tajikistan has relied on remittances by international migrants that have exceeded a quarter of annual GDP to date, despite a series of exogenous adverse events in the mid-2010s. We use a nationally representative panel dataset collected in 2013 and 2018 to explore the socio-economic characteristics of households with international migrants and migrants themselves. We provide several new findings. First, the prevalence of households with international migrants is 40%, with a substantial transition in migrant status during the research period. Second, households with international migrants are not poor, have Russian-speaking members, and are supported by an intense migration network. Third, younger, single, and more educated males comprise most of Tajikistan's international migrants. Fourth, households without Russian-speaking members or migration networks in 2013 had begun to send international migrants by 2018, while households in the richest group had exited from migration, suggesting s transition of the socio-economic composition of migrant-sending households during the mid-2010s.