Format du dépôt |
Fichier |
Type de dépôt |
Pré-publication, Document de travail |
Titre |
en
Transportation Infrastructure and Development in Ghana
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Résumé |
en
We study the impact of transportation infrastructure on agriculture and development in colonial Ghana. Two railway lines were built between 1901 and 1923 to connect the coast to mining areas and the large hinterland city of Kumasi. This unintendedly opened vast expanses of tropical forest to cocoa cultivation, allowing Ghana to become the world's largest producer. This attracted migrants to producing areas and the economic surplus drove urbanization. Using data at a very fine spatial level, we find a strong effect of railroad connectivity on cocoa production due to reduced transportation costs. We then show that the economic boom in cocoa-producing areas was associated with demographic growth and urbanization. We _nd no spurious effect from lines that were not built yet, and lines that were planned but never built. We show that our results are robust to considering nearest neighbor estimators. Lastly, railway construction has durably transformed the economic geography of Ghana, as railway districts are more developed today, despite thirty years of marked decline in rail transportation.
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Auteur(s)
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Rémi Jedwab
1, 2, 3
, Alexandre Moradi
4
1
PSE -
Paris School of Economics
( 301309 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
-
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ( 7550 )
;
-
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
-
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
;
-
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
-
École des Ponts ParisTech ( 301545 )
;
-
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( 441569 )
;
-
Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement ( 577435 )
2
LSE -
London School of Economics and Political Science
( 328453 )
- Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
- Royaume-Uni
3
PSE -
Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques
( 139754 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
-
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
-
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
;
-
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique USC1336 ( 92114 )
;
-
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
-
École des Ponts ParisTech ( 301545 )
;
-
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR8545 ( 441569 )
4
University of Sussex
( 364331 )
- Brighton BN1 9RH
- Royaume-Uni
|
Langue du document |
Anglais
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Date de production/écriture |
2011-07
|
Mots-clés (JEL) |
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F - International Economics/F.F1 - Trade/F.F1.F10 - General
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N - Economic History/N.N7 - Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services/N.N7.N70 - General, International, or Comparative
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N - Economic History/N.N9 - Regional and Urban History/N.N9.N90 - General, International, or Comparative
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O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O18 - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis • Housing • Infrastructure
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O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O5 - Economywide Country Studies/O.O5.O55 - Africa
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Référence interne |
-
PSE Working Papers n°2011-24
|
Domaine(s) |
-
Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Economies et finances
|
Mots-clés |
en
Africa, Urbanization, Trade Costs, Railroads
|