DDI_NIC_2007_MCC-T_v01_M Millennium Challenge Corporation 2014-10-14 NADA Version 1.0 (October 2014) Version 2.0 (April 2015). Edited version based on Version 01 (DDI-MCC-NIC-IND-TRANS-2014-v1) that was done by Millennium Challenge Corporation. Transportation 2007-2011 MCC-T 2007-11 NIC_2007_MCC-T_v01_M Jonathan E. Alevy, Ph.D NADA Millennium Challenge Corporation Monitoring & Evaluation Division Independent Impact Evaluation Anonymized dataset for public distribution Transportation Nicaragua Retail establishments Enterprise survey The evaluation examines impacts of the Transportation Project in three ways. First, we calculate economic rates of return associated with reduced user costs for each rehabilitated road - and for the project in aggregate - making use of the before and after measures of road use, detailed data on project implementation and costs, and models that project changes in usage, costs, and benefits over time. We also examine changes in the availability and cost of common consumption goods that can be attributed to the transportation project. This component of the analysis relies on a survey of retail establishments that targets goods in the Cansta Basica or basic basket that is used in Nicaragua to track consumer prices. Data was collected both before and after construction in communities both on and away from rehabilitated roads. The survey design therefore facilitates measurement of changes in price and availability of goods relative to a relevant comparison group. The evaluation also examines changes in household consumption using a similar pre- and post- rehabilitation data collection methodology. The consumption measures for this component of the evaluation are derived from responses to household surveys implemented for the Rural Business Development (RBD) portion of the Nicaragua compact. While the bulk of the respondents to this survey are outside the zone of influence of the road rehabilitation, we identify more than one-hundred households within the zone of influence of the rehabilitated roads. It is important to recognize that the data for this component of the report was collected for a different purpose and respondents are not a representative sample of households in the treatment and control areas. Thus these results are intended to be suggestive and provide some insight on the robustness of results from the survey of retail establishments. These surveys do not provide unbiased estimates of the transportation project on the affected population. Nicaragua Departments of Leon and Chinandega Retail establishments Departments of Leon and Chinandega Sample survey data [ssd] FIDEG Establishment surveys in thirty communities were conducted to collect data on price and availability of a basket of consumer goods to shed light on whether the rehabilitated roads provide significant nonuser benefits. The establishment survey contains information on fifty-three items that comprise the Canasta Basica - or basic basket - from which the Central Bank constructs its cost of living index. The fifty-three items in the Canasta Basica are segregated into eight categories that include food items, household costs, and clothing. The evaluation process is data intensive and data from a wide variety of sources are used to evaluate the Transportation Project. Data collected specifically for the project include traffic counts and origin and destination surveys that allow the tracking of travel costs and estimation of benefits. Administrative data from official sources that includes wages, and fuel costs and use is also a critical input in the ERR calculation. Establishment surveys in thirty communities were conducted to collect data on price and availability of a basket of consumer goods to shed light on whether the rehabilitated roads provide significant nonuser benefits. Annual average daily traffic (AADT) for the road was calculated as the weighted average based on the length of both segments Millennium Challenge Corporation Millennium Challenge Corporation http://data.mcc.gov/evaluations/index.php/catalog/132 Cost: None Alevy, Jonathan E. 2014. Impacts of the MCC Transportation Project in Nicaragua. The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.