ScholarXIV Journal

How Addis Ababa's Infrastructure Boom Priced Out Its Readers

Dawit Sh.

Between 2022 and 2025, Addis Ababa underwent one of its largest road reconstruction campaigns in decades simultaneously disrupting supply chains, displacing vendors, and reshaping foot traffic across the city's book retail districts. This case study maps six major bookstore clusters (Mexico Square, Arada Giorgis, 4 Kilo, 6 Kilo, Piazza, Merkato), quantifies average retail price movements of 68--92% over three years, and decomposes those increases across structural drivers: birr depreciation, fuel costs, import duties, road disruption premiums, and the growing custom binding economy. We find that road disruption alone accounts for approximately 14 percentage points of the observed increase modest relative to macroeconomic forces, yet locally decisive for street vendors operating on thin margins.