On the inclusiveness of rural road improvement: Evidence from Morocco

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