Pricing And Spatial Conditional Cash Transfer Experiments To Understand The Labor Market Impact Of Public Transport Investments In Dar Es Salaam

To be productive, firms need to be able to employ reliable workers with the right skills for their industry. In theory, urbanization facilitates this process: a dense market means workers and firms can more easily match and form high-productivity partnerships. However, in many developing countries, the “demons of density”, especially congestion, restrict the ability of cities to operate well. For example, in our study area, Dar es Salaam, the average commute to travel to the Central Business District is over one hour, a factor that may dissuade many potential workers from working in the CBD, and for those who do have a job, it may increase turnover because of the high costs of commuting. Our project studies the causal effect on the labor market of having access to better commuting technology (a new high-speed bus line, the Dar es Salaam Bus Rapid Transit, BRT), by providing ride and rental subsidies for workers to be able to live in the catchment area of the BRT and to use the BRT.