A brief review of different methods for evaluating the impacts of rural road improvements will be followed by an assessment of the impacts of rural road rehabilitation on market development in rural Vietnam.

The presentation will focus on the different kinds of impacts and the geographic, community, and household factors that explain them. A key question from a policy standpoint is whether the explanatory factors are consistent and universal across project areas and outcome indicators. We find evidence of considerable impact heterogeneity, with a tendency for poorer areas to have conditions favoring higher impacts, although impacts remain highly context specific.

Dominique van de Walle is a Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Gender and Development Group. Shenggen Fan is Division Director, Development Strategy and Governance, at the International Food Policy Research Institute.