To evaluate the impact of the rehabilitation of the project roads on the socioeconomic development of the communities along the roads, the study will use a combination of propensity score matching and difference-in-differences regression. Communities along the roads scheduled for upgrades (the treatment communities) will be matched with other communities that have similar characteristics but will not benefit from the road upgrades (the comparison communities). This will result in two comparable groups of communities: one group that is situated along the roads and will receive the (benefits of) road upgrades and another group that will not. The study will obtain pre-treatment and post-treatment data on both groups of communities and compare values of key outcome variables, such as travel time, travel cost, and income.
