Working paper

The Dark Side of Infrastructure: Roads, Repression, and Land in Authoritarian Paraguay

Felipe Gonzalez, Stéphane Straub, Josepa Miquel-Florensa, and Mounu Prem

Abstract

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 land allocations in the longest dicta­torship in South America: Alfredo Stroessner military regime in Paraguay. Using novel panel data from the truth and reconciliation commission, we show that proximity to roads facilitated state-led repression and the illegal allocation of agricultural plots to dictatorship allies. These results suggest that infrastructure projects can also hinder economic development.

Keywords

roads, repression, land allocations, dictatorship, Paraguay, Alfredo Stroessner.;

Replaced by

Felipe Gonzalez, Josepa Miquel-Florensa, Mounu Prem, and Stéphane Straub, “The Dark Side of Infrastructure: Roads, Repression, and Land in Authoritarian Paraguay”, The Economic Journal, 2024, forthcoming.

Reference

Felipe Gonzalez, Stéphane Straub, Josepa Miquel-Florensa, and Mounu Prem, “The Dark Side of Infrastructure: Roads, Repression, and Land in Authoritarian Paraguay”, TSE Working Paper, n. 23-1440, May 2023.

See also

Published in

TSE Working Paper, n. 23-1440, May 2023