Providing quality infrastructure in rural villages : the case of rural roads in China
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Journal of Development Economics
Publication Date
7-1-2013
Volume
103
First Page
262
Last Page
274
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Keywords
Decentralization, Quality infrastructure, Project finance, Project management, Road quality, Rural China
Abstract
When seeking to build high quality and cost-effective infrastructure in rural villages, a fundamental question is: Who is better at doing so? Should the village leadership or a government agency above the village finance and/or manage the construction of the infrastructure project? To answer this question, we surveyed all rural road projects in 101 villages in rural China between 2003 and 2007 and measured the quality and per kilometer cost of each road. According to our analysis, road quality was higher when more of the project funds came from the government agency above. Moreover, projects had lower cost per kilometer when the village leaders managed the road construction. Overall, our findings suggest that to build high quality and cost-effective rural roads village leaders and government agencies should collaborate and each specialize in a specific project role.
DOI
10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.03.002
Print ISSN
03043878
E-ISSN
18726089
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V.
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Wong, H. L. A., Luo, R., Zhang, L., & Rozelle, S. (2013). Providing quality infrastructure in rural villages: The case of rural roads in China. Journal of Development Economics, 103, 262-274. doi: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.03.002