Transport connectivity is among the most important factors in increasing firm productivity and accelerating economic development. The literature generally supports the idea of agglomeration economies, although there is little evidence of their effectiveness in Africa.
... See More + There are often empirical challenges, such as spatial externalities and endogeneity of infrastructure development. Using firm registry data in Liberia, this study used the instrumental variable spatial autoregressive model to examine the effects of transport connectivity on firms' decisions on where to locate. The study found significant spatial autocorrelation and possible endogeneity related to transport infrastructure, and that firms are more likely to be located where market accessibility is better. The data indicated strong agglomeration economies, indicating that the primary city, Monrovia, is likely to continue to grow and attract more people and firms, and that secondary cities can also grow with greater transport connectivity between populated areas, such as district centers.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8411 APR 18, 2018
Health care access is an important policy concern, especially in rural areas. It is especially challenging in developing countries, where rural residents are poorer and less likely to be insured than those living in urban areas.
... See More + Using the case of Liberia, this paper examines the effects of transport connectivity on health care access. The Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015 clearly revealed the vulnerability of the country's transport and health systems to unexpected external shocks. Paying particular attention to the possible challenge of endogeneity associated with infrastructure investment, the study found that transport connectivity, especially greater road density, can increase access to health care, but there was no significant effect of road quality. This may be because of significantly skewed underlying data. The vast majority of roads in Liberia are in poor condition. The study also found that the statistical effect of road density varies depending on distance from a health facility. The effect is particularly significant within a 30- to 50-kilometer radius. Not only rural accessibility, but also broader transport connectivity needs to be developed to increase health care access.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8413 APR 18, 2018
Ratings for the Electricity System Enhancement Project for Liberia were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, Bank performance was highly satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) quality was high.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: Cooperation and coordination amongst development partners are critical particularly in the fragile country context.Long Term Strategic Engagement is important for impact.Grid and Off-grid Solutions in one project enhances impacts. Better knowledge of consumption patterns helps improve design of access projects.Arranging for pre-financing is critical for success of Global Partnership on Output Based Aid (GPOBA) Program in Fragile Countries.The minimum amount of credit allowed for customers to purchase per transaction is critical for the success of the GPOBA program.The definition of poor-customer for the purpose of targeting for connection subsidies need to be flexible and country-context specific. Strengthening capacity of Planning or Engineering Departments of utilities are critical for project success.Project Supervision is essential in the context of weak implementing agency.Private sector participation should not be launched prematurely.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3784 MAR 30, 2018
Using surveys and administrative data from post-war Liberia, the hypothesis that peacekeeping deployments build peace "from the bottom up" through contributions to local security and local economic and social vitality was tested.
... See More + The hypothesis reflects official thinking about how peacekeeping works via "peacebuilding." A quasi-experiment was created by applying coarsened exact matching to administrative data used in mission planning, identifying sets of communities that were similarly likely to receive peacekeeping bases. The analysis finds nothing to support claims that deployments increase local security and finds only modest effects on economic or social vitality. Nongovernmental organizations tend to work in areas where deployments are not present, contrary to the hypothesis. Thus, it is less likely that peacekeepers build peace from the bottom up, leaving mechanisms such as signaling and deterrence at the level of leaders as worthy of more attention. For policy, peacekeeping missions should reevaluate their methods for providing local security.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8389 MAR 29, 2018
