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Activity Number:
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342
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Type:
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Contributed
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Date/Time:
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
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Sponsor:
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Section on Survey Research Methods
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| Abstract - #310315 |
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Title:
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Economic Evaluation of Road Improvements Using GIS and Propensity Score Matching: Case Example from the Republic of Georgia
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Author(s):
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John Felkner*+ and Fritz Scheuren and Celeste Tarricone and Mamuka Shatirishvili and Temur Paksashvili
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Companies:
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NORC at the University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago and Millennium Challenge Corporation and Millennium Challenge Georgia and Republic of Georgia
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Address:
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1155 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637,
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Keywords:
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GIS ; Economic Development ; Developing Countries ; Access Indices ; Propensity Score Matching ; Double Differences
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Abstract:
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The improvement of road and infrastructure networks is crucial for economic development worldwide. The authors present an innovative approach to rigorous statistical evaluation of infrastructure economic impacts by combining indices of city/town travel-times to infrastructure derived from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with "before" and "after" comparisons using statistical matching techniques and double-differences. The variance between treatment and comparison groups is continuous, while matching and double differences removes selection bias due to the observed differences between treated/comparison, and corrects for possible bias from differences in time-invariant unobserved characteristics. The authors are currently using this approach in the Republic of Georgia, as part of a US $100 million major highway upgrade, sponsored by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
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