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The impact of roads and agricultural extension on consumption growth and poverty in fifteen Ethiopian villages Stefan Dercon, CSAE, University of Oxford Daniel O. Gilligan, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC John Hoddinott, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC Tassew Woldehanna, Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University WPS/2007-01 Download the Paper (PDF format) - February 14, 2007 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing. ABSTRACT: This paper investigates whether public investments that led to improvements in road quality and increased access to agricultural extension services led to faster consumption growth and lower rates of poverty in rural Ethiopia. Using a Generalized Methods of Moments – Instrumental Variables – Household Fixed Effects estimator, we find evidence of positive impacts with meaningful magnitudes. Access to all-weather roads increases consumption growth by 16 per cent and, reduces the incidence of poverty by 6.7 per cent. Receiving at least one visit from an extension agent raises consumption growth by 7 per cent and reduces poverty incidence by nearly 10 per cent. These results are robust to changes in model specification and estimation methods SUGGESTED CITATION: Stefan Dercon, Daniel O. Gilligan, John Hoddinott, and Tassew Woldehanna, "The impact of roads and agricultural extension on consumption growth and poverty in fifteen Ethiopian villages " (February 14, 2007). The Centre for the Study of African Economies Working Paper Series. Working Paper 260. http://www.bepress.com/csae/paper260