Data for: Migration, congestion externalities, and the evaluation of spatial investments

Abstract of associated article: The direct benefits of infrastructure in developing countries can be large, but if new infrastructure induces in-migration, congestion of other local publicly provided goods may offset the direct benefits. Using the example of rural household electrification in South Africa, we demonstrate the importance of accounting for migration when evaluating welfare gains of spatial programs. We also provide a practical approach to computing welfare gains that does not rely on land prices. We develop a location choice model that incorporates missing land markets and allows for congestion in local land. Using this model, we construct welfare bounds as a function of the income and population effects of the new electricity infrastructure. A novel prediction from the model is that migration elasticities and congestion effects are especially large when land markets are missing. We empirically estimate these welfare bounds for rural electrification in South Africa, and show that congestion externalities from program-induced migration reduced local welfare gains by about 40%.

相关文章摘要：发展中国家基础设施的直接效益可能非常显著，然而，若新建基础设施引发人口迁移，则可能抵消其他本地公共商品的直接效益。以南非农村家庭电气化为例，我们阐述了在评估空间项目福利收益时考虑人口迁移的重要性。此外，我们提出了一种计算福利收益的实用方法，该方法不依赖于土地价格。我们构建了一个包含缺失土地市场并允许当地土地出现拥堵的选址模型。利用此模型，我们将福利界限构建为新的电力基础设施收入和人口效应的函数。模型的一个新颖预测是，当土地市场缺失时，迁移弹性和拥堵效应尤其显著。我们对南非农村电气化进行了实证估计，并表明由项目诱导的迁移产生的拥堵外部性使当地福利收益降低了约40%。