Impact Evaluation of Rural Road Investment Projects on Household Welfare in Rural Area: Evidence from Fujian Province, China

The basic rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can achieve better transport access which supplies the opportunities to increase the welfare efficiently. But it has been difficult to know how opportunities provided by rural roads actually filter back into household welfare outcomes a, due to methodological constraints and data limitations. This paper examines the impacts Rural Roads Improvement Projects using a quasi-experimental household-level panel data from Fujian Province, China, surveying treatment and control villages before and after project implementation. Rural road investments are found to improve the life quality of treatment villages in income, political life and the relationship with relatives and friends.