We present the results of a rigorous quasi-experimental design economic impact evaluation of
3 the more the US$ 200 million improvement of approximately 220 km of highway in the
4 Republic of Georgia by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, constructed between 2008 and
5 2010. The evaluation methods were implemented: a treatment-control difference-in-difference,
6 a dose-response continuous treatment approach that estimated project impacts across geography,
7 and a matched difference-in-difference using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Data sources
8 included a 12-round traffic count and speed survey, a village-level survey of 960 settlements, and
9 36 rounds of a quarterly household-level survey, as well as high-resolution GIS road network
10 data. it is found that the roads improvements increased the volume of traffic by an average of
11 44.2 vehicles per day (4.2%), while the average speed increased by 13.6 km/h (24.4%). The
12 project also led to a 26.9% increase in the number of industrial facilities (i.e. canneries, factories,
13 agricultural processing facilities, and similar enterprises) near the project roads. We do not
14 observe changes in cropping patterns or land use at the community level. The project had
15 impacts on the prices of a number of food products on local markets, but in a complex way. No
16 strong evidence is observed on income, consumption, asset ownership, employment, or
17 utilization of health and education services. The study contributes to the literature by presenting
18 the results of rigorous quasi-experimental design methodology that further utilizes highly
19 accurate GIS data to improve the precision and allow for the estimation of impacts across
20 geography.