# **3.1 Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS)**

LSMS surveys are conducted by the World Bank in association with country statistical offices. We use 26 LSMS surveys from 7 sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Cˆote d’Ivoire, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, and Uganda. All the surveys and their corresponding years are listed in Table 9. The collection of information and follow-up across subsequent surveys vary across countries. In our sample, 54 percent of respondents are women, and 86 percent of respondents reside in rural areas. Roughly 55 percent of individuals who responded to the survey were working at that time. Among these individuals, around 44 percent were working in the agricultural sector. Over 50 percent of individuals have at least a secondary level education.<sup>1</sup> The average age of a respondent is 36. Around 78 percent of sampled individuals are between 20 and 45; around 22 percent of individuals are between 46 and 66.

We primarily use data on respondents’ occupation. Following Hjort and Poulsen (2019), we categorize employed individuals as being either high-skilled or low-skilled workers. Also, given the importance of agriculture in African economies, agricultural employment is distinguished from other types of employment in part of the analysis. Respondents were classified as low-skilled workers if they worked in any of the following occupation types: farming, fishing, domestic employment. At the time of the survey, 55 percent of the sample reported being employed. Among employed individuals, 26 percent are classified as high-skilled workers, and 74 percent are classified as low-skilled workers. Farmers represented 42 percent of workers.

Using the geo-referenced information (latitude and longitude) associated with these surveys, we combine them with the roads and electricity datasets. An average household is located 14.6 km away from a main road and 7.9 km away from an electric grid.

# **3.2 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)**

Demographic and Health Surveys are repeated, cross-section surveys that have been conducted in most developing and middle-income countries since the mid-1980s. These surveys are representative at the national and subnational levels. Information on demographic and socioeconomic status (e.g., age, education, occupation) is collected for all household members. In addition, selected women and men provide information on a wide range of other variables, including matters concerning health status, fertility history, migration, and children. The DHS Program routinely collects geo-reference data (longitude and latitude) in selected surveyed countries, making it possible to combine these surveys with a wide range of external data and information. DHS have been used in recent studies to analyze the economic and social impacts of infrastructure in developing countries (Okoye et al., 2019; Hjort and Poulsen, 2019; Moneke, 2020; Canning et al., 2020; Herrera Dappe and Lebrand, 2021; Lebrand, 2022).

We use data from 73 surveys that cover 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The combined sample includes 900,229 women and 405,142 men.<sup>2</sup> We look at the DHS data in 20km-by-20km grill-cell panels. Table 2 summarizes the characteristics of the individuals in the sample.

We categorize employed individuals as being either high-skilled or low-skilled workers. We also distin-

> 1Details are displayed in Table 2.

> 2The number of observations is greater for women than for men because women are oversampled in the DHS.

9