Publication: Creating Pro-Poor Transport: Connecting the Dots - Transport, Growth, and Poverty Reduction
Date
2015-10
ISSN
Published
2015-10
Author(s)
Alam, Muneeza Mehmood
Abstract
Transport plays a crucial role in
connecting people to goods and services and fostering
sustainable development. The literature links improved
transport infrastructure to economic growth and poverty
reduction through five key mechanisms: (1) reducing
transport and production costs, (2) creating jobs, (3)
expanding productive capacity, (4) improving access to
markets and basic services like health and education, and
(5) reducing prices of final goods and services. These
benefits depend on supportive conditions in other sectors,
such as access to credit, functioning land markets, low
trade barriers, and so on. Therefore, any assessment of
potential gains from transport infrastructure and services
should also account for the interaction with complementary
markets. However, the analysis of such interactions,
assessing how and when transport infrastructure can help
reduce poverty and income inequality, is largely missing
from the literature, leaving significant knowledge gaps
across the spectrum of transportation settings. This note
highlights existing findings and some limitations in the
literature on three basic types of transport infrastructure:
large projects such as regional or national highways and
railroads; rural transport; and transport in urban areas.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Alam, Muneeza Mehmood. 2015. Creating Pro-Poor Transport: Connecting the Dots - Transport, Growth, and Poverty Reduction. Connections;No. 24. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25003 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”