Abstract:
This paper explores the impact of increasing openness and connectivity of rural areas to
the outside world on health outcomes and awareness levels. The focus is on in rural
Pakistan with outcomes being examined over a fifteen year period. In particular, the
paper studies whether improved access to markets for rural areas through a widening
(and/or upgraded) road network has had a positive impact on child nutritional status as
measured by height-for-age and incidence of illness. Moreover, the paper also studies if
awareness regarding health practices, including immunization and breastfeeding has
improved as accessibility to villages has bettered. The analysis uses the IFPRI-PIDE panel
data where the IFPRI data covers the 1986 – 1991 period while the PIDE Pakistan Rural
Household Survey was conducted in 2001-2002 and 2003-2004. I use the panel aspect
of the data to isolate inter-generational changes in health-related outcomes. I estimate a
linear regression to examine the effect of increased access to urban markets. I also
estimate a family fixed effects model so as to inspect differences in health outcomes at
the intra-household level. The results suggest that as roads improve and rural markets
become more integrated with urban ones, health outcomes witness a positive affect at
the aggregate level with differences at the intra-household level, particularly those
between the genders, declining.
