Cross-Border Trade and Infrastructure: A Gender Analysis of Welfare Outcomes in Nigeria

Abstract

This study provides an ex ante analysis of the welfare effect from the improvement of border road infrastructure in Nigeria. It assesses how changes in the price of food commodities induced by border road improvements would affect different types of households. Finally, we also examine how simulated changes in local transportation costs, stemming from road improvements, would affect local prices of imported rice, and taking into consideration the effect of simulated price changes on household welfare across household head, gender, and household location (rural and urban households). Results indicate that policies aiming to improve border roads and thereby lower transportation costs, and subsequently the price of the regularly consumed household commodity, would be more beneficial to rural than urban households. Such policies would likely produce larger welfare gain for poorer households than richer households and would be more beneficial for the poorest female-headed households than their male counterparts.