Evaluating the Equity Impacts of Rural Road Investment Projects on Household Welfare Based on a Quantile Regression Approach: Evidence from Fujian Province

摘要

The basic purpose of public investment in rural roads is to increase the social benefits in rural areas. However, it has been difficult to precisely quantify the size and especially the distribution of benefits of rural road investments, due to methodological constraints and data limitations. This paper develops and implements a method for nonparametrically estimating whether the impact of Rural Roads Improvement Projects (RRIP) is equitable. Furthermore, a panel data surveying project and control villages before and after program implementation from Fujian Province is applied to estimate the welfare gain as an empirical approach. It is shown that the proposed quantile nonparametric regression approach can examine whether the rural road projects efficiently reduce inequity in the targeted population.