The relationship between poverty incidence and road development is analyzed econometrically in this paper, in the context of rural Laos. Between 1997–1998 and 2002–2003, rural poverty incidence in Laos declined by 9.5% of the rural population. Approximately 13% of this decline can be attributed to improved road access. There is now a high return to providing dry weather access to the most isolated households of Laos, those with no road access at all. They constitute 31.6% of all rural households in Laos and are being left behind by the development of the market economy.