Résumé
Transportation infrastructure is associated with economic development, but it can also be used for social control and to benefit the governing elite. We explore the connection between the construction of road networks, state-led repression, and illegal land allocations in the longest dictatorship in South America: Alfredo Stroessner’s military regime in Paraguay. Using novel panel data from the truth and reconciliation commission, we show that proximity to newly constructed roads facilitated state-led repression, illegal allocation of agricultural plots to dictatorship allies, and hindered sustainable economic development in the following decades.
Codes JEL
- H54: Infrastructures • Other Public Investment and Capital Stock
- N46: Latin America • Caribbean
- N76: Latin America • Caribbean
- O18: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis • Housing • Infrastructure
Remplace
Felipe Gonzalez, Stéphane Straub, Josepa Miquel-Florensa et Mounu Prem, « The Dark Side of Infrastructure: Roads, Repression, and Land in Authoritarian Paraguay », TSE Working Paper, n° 23-1440, mai 2023.
Référence
Felipe Gonzalez, Josepa Miquel-Florensa, Mounu Prem et Stéphane Straub, « The Dark Side of Infrastructure: Roads, Repression, and Land in Authoritarian Paraguay », The Economic Journal, 2024, à paraître.
Publié dans
The Economic Journal, 2024, à paraître