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Urban transport infrastructure and household welfare: evidence from Colombia

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Abstract

The effects of urban transport policies on household welfare are a broadly understudied topic in developing countries. This paper analyzed the distributional effects of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Barranquilla, Colombia. Using geocoded household survey data over 2008-15 and a difference in differences approach, it showed that, in proximity to newly opened stations, poor households were replaced by non-poor households. These results suggested that the designers of such systems, despite the generally positive assessment of the systems, may have overlooked distributional consequences. Moreover, it showed that results in studies that do not control for the observed changes will be biased.

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Notes

  1. See Global BRT Data (database), World Resources Institute’s Ross Center, Brasil Sustainable Cities, Porto Alegre, Brazil, https://brtdata.org/.

  2. Papers that studied intra-city transport infrastructures most notably include (Gibbons and Machin 2005; Baum-Snow and Kahn 2005; Baum-Snow 2007; Billings 2011; Ahlfeldt et al. 2015; Tyndall 2017; Tsivanidis 2018), Scholl et al. (2019), (Heblich et al. 2020; Gaduh et al. 2021; Balboni et al. 2021), and (Zarate 2021). Studies that examined these impacts with an inter-city or region lens include (Duranton et al. 2014; Donaldson and Hornbeck 2016; Gonzalez-Navarro and Turner 2018; Fajgelbaum and Schaal 2017; Donaldson 2018; Monte et al. 2018; Donaldson 2018; Allen and Arkolakis 2019) and (Baum-Snow et al. 2020)

  3. This is similar to the attrition bias in randomized control trials.

  4. The remainder of the literature on BRT systems focused on performance metrics, such as operating costs, financial sustainability, or changes in ridership (Alpkokin and Ergun 2012; Deng and Nelson 2013). A number of studies compared the performance of BRT systems to other transport infrastructure considering these factors (see, for instance, Cervero 2013). Studies in this line have found positive impacts of Bogotá’s TransMilenio system in Colombia  (Chaparro 2002; Hidalgo et al. 2013), while others found negative effects among users in areas further away Echeverry et al. (2005), as well as negative externalities-specifically, the expansion of criminality associated with the greater mobility of criminals, as a boomerang effect of the BRT Olarte-Bacares (2014). Alternatively, in a survey of BRT systems across the world, (Hidalgo and Gutiérrez 2013) highlighted the substantial associated positive externalities. Other research took an equity lens, in addition to assessing the impact of BRT systems on employment, ridership distribution, accessibility, and health. Venter et al. (2018) and Venter et al. (2013) provided excellent reviews.

  5. This effect was found in locations already serviced; values did not rise in areas previously lacking a BRT station but that were serviced by the extension.

  6. The effect of BRT infrastructure was not significant and, negative in some cases.

  7. Few studies who found different results are (Mulley and Tsai 2016; Mulley et al. 2016) and (Mulley and Tsai 2017).

  8. Redding and Rossi-Hansberg (2017) provided a comprehensive review of this literature.

  9. For these and other data on the system, see ’Te une a Barranquilla’ Transmetro S.A., Barranquilla, Colombia, http://www.transmetro.gov.co/.

  10. The survey covers all of the country’s 13 major metropolitan areas on a quarterly basis.

  11. While a few blocks enter with a single household, the maximum number of households per block is 77. The average is close to the median at 19.34.

  12. The figure is only a schematic representation and not based on actually observed blocks.

  13. The 2016 round of the GEIH was not yet available in December, but other information on the transportation network was available and allow us to control for the characteristics of the neighborhoods that are close to a station.)

  14. To be more specific 121 are sampled three times; 27, four times; 7, five times; 2, six times, and one 19 times.

  15. The number of households in some other arrangement is negligible, at an average 0.13.

  16. All estimations shown here were implemented in Stata.

  17. These categories followed the official definitions used by DANE, putting homes inhabited in usufruct into the same broader category as homeowners.

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  1. All authors have contributed equally to this work.

  2. All authors have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. World Bank, 1818 H Street, Washington, DC, 20433, USA

    Tobias Pfutze, Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán & Daniel Valderrama

  2. Department of Economics, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Tobias Pfutze

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The authors would like to thank Erich Battistin, Samantha Lach, Nancy Lozano, Ambar Narayan, Sergio Olivieri, Lourdes Rodriguez-Chamussy, Paul Rodriguez-Lesmes, Tara Vishwanath, Robert Zimmerman, and participants of the 2015 Learning Days of the Poverty Global Practice at the World Bank, the 2016 Summer University of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank, and the FAD Seminar at the International Monetary Fund for their thoughtful and useful comments. The authors would also like to acknowledge Sarah Knob and Luz Karine Ardila Vargas for their outstanding research assistance. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

The authors would like to thank Erich Battistin, Samantha Lach, Nancy Lozano, Ambar Narayan, Sergio Olivieri, Lourdes Rodriguez-Chamussy, Paul Rodriguez-Lesmes, Tara Vishwanath, Robert Zimmerman, and participants of the 2015 Learning Days of the Poverty Global Practice at the World Bank, the 2016 Summer University of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank, and the FAD Seminar at the International Monetary Fund for their thoughtful and useful comments. The authors would also like to acknowledge Sarah Knob and Luz Karine Ardila Vargas for their outstanding research assistance. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

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Pfutze, T., Rodríguez-Castelán, C. & Valderrama, D. Urban transport infrastructure and household welfare: evidence from Colombia. Empir Econ 65, 1409–1432 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-023-02385-y

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