The Economic Benefits Of Road Transport Projects

This report sets out several of the recent advances, and suggests the most promising approaches, to the quantification and valuation of some of the wider economic benefits that flow from transport-related development. Economic appraisal can offer decision-makers important insights into the ...

Roads are the arteries through which the economy pulses. They connect sellers to markets, workers to jobs, students to education, and the sick to hospitals. Yet much of the developing world, Africa in particular, lacks adequate transportation infrastructure. Accordingly investments in transportation remain a cornerstone of the development agenda. Sub-Saharan Africa spends roughly $6.8 billion per year on paving roads, and the World Bank invests more on roads than on education, health, and social services combined. Despite the development focus on transportation, methodologies for evaluating which road projects to fund are often dis-jointed and unreliable. This report hopes to improve upon the current approaches by establishing a new methodology for prioritization which can be applied to a diverse set of scenarios, regions, and projects. This book demonstrates how modern econometrics and geospatial techniques can be combined to analyze the latest available geo-referenced datasets at the smallest possible scale to answer some of the most important questions in development. Uniquely this report attempts to shed light on some of the most profound puzzles in determining the impacts of roads and where to locate these. Does road infrastructure unleash a virtuous growth cycle? Is it advisable to improve roads in conflict prone zones? What is the effect of improving market access on farming practices? And what are the impacts of roads on forests and biodiversity? It is envisioned that the approach used in this book can be a reference guide to researchers from across the spectrum of international development, who are seeking new tools and insights into the many issues (technical and non-technical) of this important field.

This timely book puts transport cost benefit analysis in a wider, institutional perspective, relating it in particular to decision making. The book will be of interest to practitioners, consultants and academics who are active in the evaluation of transport projects. Erik T. Verhoef, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands This is an important piece of work on project evaluation. An attractive feature is the balanced treatment of theory and application. The book provides very useful information on efforts of national governments in various countries to increase the quality of project evaluation studies by formulating guidelines for project evaluation. One of the strong points of the book is that it does not only address technical aspects of project evaluation tools, but also the institutional structures within which decisions are taken. Piet Rietveld, Vrije Universiteit and Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands This book revisits traditional evaluation methods, such as cost benefit analysis, to try and find a balance between the ever-increasing demand for transport, the search for sustainable mobility and green transport solutions, and the limited financial resources that governments are able to invest in transport infrastructure projects. In this respect, the effects of transport policy need to be measured and evaluated based on multiple criteria and the need to take into consideration a larger group of stakeholders and investors in transport projects. The book illustrates, methodologically and empirically, why and how the institutional and multi-actor environment impacts upon the analysis, evaluation and decision-making of transport projects in Europe. Including contributions from scholars with considerable expertise in the field, this book will be of great interest to consultants, policymakers and researchers.

An introduction to the application of cost-benefit analysis to transportation investments in developing countries.

This book makes a major contribution to the debate and is directed at researchers, decision makers and students who are interested in the wider economic development impacts of transport.

This book discusses the full economic benefits - and costs - of transport infrastructure and explores ways to make good estimates of the full impact of planned investments on regional and national economies. It argues for proper account to be taken of all relevant economic weaknesses -- those the project is designed to address such as local monopoly pricing, those associated with use of the infrastructure such as environmental externalities, and possible unintended consequences such as impacts on local labour markets. Care must also be taken to verify that net benefits are likely to accrue to those that the project was intended to benefit. Building on recent groundbreaking work in the United Kingdom this publication suggests ways to improve traditional cost-benefit assessments, overcoming reservations that have inhibited the use of CBA in many countries. The main report is completed with examinations of transport project assessment approaches in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and across Europe together with a discussion of an approach to determining optimal levels of investment in transport infrastructure for maximising socio-economic welfare.