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The Impact of Infrastructure on Development Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

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Date
2023-03
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2023-03
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Jain, Dhruv
Straub, Stéphane
Vagliasindi, Maria
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Abstract
This paper presents a meta-analysis of the infrastructure research done over more than three decades, using a database of over a thousand estimates from 221 papers reporting outcome elasticities. The analysis casts a wide net to include the transport, energy, and digital or information and communication technology (ICT) sectors, and the whole set of outcomes covered in the literature, including output, employment and wages, inequality and poverty, trade, education and health, population, and environmental aspects. The results allow for an update of the underlying parameters of interest, the “true” underlying infrastructure elasticities, accounting for publication bias, as well as for heterogeneity stemming from both study design and context, with a particular focus on developing countries.
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Gorgulu, Nisan; Foster, Vivien; Jain, Dhruv; Straub, Stéphane; Vagliasindi, Maria. 2023. The Impact of Infrastructure on Development Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis. Policy Research Working Papers; 10350. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39534 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
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