Assessing socioeconomic impacts of transport infrastructure projects in the Greater Mekong Subregion

This working paper attempts to quantify the links between infrastructure investment and poverty reduction using a multi-region general equilibrium model, supplemented with household survey data for the Greater Mekong Subregion. The authors concentrate on quantifying the effects of key linkages between upgraded infrastructure, economic growth, and poverty reduction. They model the impact of both reducing transport costs and improving trade facilitation in the GMS. Their findings suggest strong gains to the GMS countries as a result of infrastructure development and trade facilitation with national poverty reduced throughout the region. However, the impact on various segments of these populations differs, depending in part on factor returns.