Urban transport infrastructure and household welfare: evidence from Colombia

The effects of urban transport policies on household welfare are a broadly understudied topic in developing countries. This paper analyzed the distributional effects of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Barranquilla, Colombia. Using geocoded household survey data over 2008-15 and a difference in differences approach, it showed that, in proximity to newly opened stations, poor households were replaced by non-poor households. These results suggested that the designers of such systems, despite the generally positive assessment of the systems, may have overlooked distributional consequences. Moreover, it showed that results in studies that do not control for the observed changes will be biased.