Replication data and code for: Rural Roads and Local Economic Development

These files contain the data and code for the journal article "Rural Roads and Local Economic Development," American Economic Review. Please start with the readme, which contains a detailed description of all files in this repository and instructions for the replication of results in the article. <br><br>Abstract<br>Nearly one billion people worldwide live in rural areas without access to national paved road networks. We estimate the impacts of India’s $40 billion national rural road construction program using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and comprehensive household and firm census microdata. Four years after road construction, the main effect of new feeder roads is to facilitate the movement of workers out of agriculture. However, there are no major changes in agricultural outcomes, income or assets. Employment in village firms expands only slightly. Even with better market connections, remote areas may continue to lack economic opportunities.<br><br>