Access to infrastructure and poverty in Brazil: An empirical investigation

Abstract

The present study seeks to study the relationship between access to infrastructure and poverty in Brazil. The objective is to include contextual features that may be important to explain the relationship between access to infrastructure and poverty, in addition to the microeconomic household characteristics. We estimated multilevel logistic models at household and municipal levels to reach the proposed objectives. The main results of the study indicated that access to infrastructure reduces the level of household poverty. In turn, the effects of the access to infrastructure on poverty are heterogeneous, while they are reinforced in municipal contexts with a greater proportion of residents in rural areas as well as working in the agricultural sector; high-income inequality; high population, and; lower fertility rate.