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on Africa |
| By: | Camelia Minoiu (International Monetary Fund); Olga N. Shemyakina (Georgia Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of the 2002-2007 civil conflict in Côte d'Ivoire on children's health status using household surveys collected before, during, and after the conflict, and information on the exact location and date of conflict events. Our identification strategy relies on exploiting both temporal and spatial variation across birth cohorts to measure children's exposure to the conflict. We find that children from regions more affected by the conflict suffered significant health setbacks compared with children from less affected regions. We further examine possible war impact mechanisms using rich data on households' experience of war from the post-conflict survey. Our results suggest that conflict-induced economic losses, health impairment, displacement, and other forms of victimization are important channels through which conflict negatively impacts child health. |
| Keywords: | child health, conflict, height-for-age, sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | I12 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2012-245&r=afr |
| By: | Strobl, Eric (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Valfort, Marie-Anne (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Relying on census data collected in 2002 and historical weather data for Uganda, we estimate the impact of weather-induced internal migration on the probability for non-migrants living in the destination regions to be employed. Our results reveal a significant negative impact. Consistent with the prediction of a simple theoretical model, they further show that this negative impact is significantly stronger in regions with lower road density and therefore less conducive to capital mobility: a 10 percentage points increase in the net in-migration rate in these areas decreases the probability of being employed of non-migrants by more than 20 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | weather shocks, internal migration, labor market, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J61 Q54 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6923&r=afr |
| By: | Kudo, Yuya |
| Abstract: | In a traditional system of exogamous and patrilocal marriage prevalent in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, when she marries, a rural woman typically leaves her kin to reside with her husband living outside her natal village. Since a village that allows a widow to inherit her late husband's land can provide her with old age security, single females living outside the village are more likely to marry into the village. Using a natural experimental setting, provided by the longitudinal household panel data drawn from rural Tanzania for the period from 1991 to 2004, during which several villages that initially banned a widow's land inheritance removed this discrimination, this study provides evidence in support of this view, whereby altering a customary land inheritance rules in a village in favor of widows increased the probability of males marrying in that village. This finding suggests that providing rural women with old age protection (e.g., insurance, livelihood protection) has remarkable spatial and temporal welfare effects by influencing their decision to marry. |
| Keywords: | Tanzania, Social security, Women welfare, Land tenure, Aged, Migration, Demography, Gender empowerment, Land ownership, Social custom, Widowhood |
| JEL: | J12 J14 K11 Q15 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper368&r=afr |
| By: | Karlan, Dean S.; Osei, Robert; Osei-Akoto, Isaac; Udry, Christopher |
| Abstract: | The investment decisions of small-scale farmers in developing countries are conditioned by their financial environment. Binding credit market constraints and incomplete insurance can reduce investment in activities with high expected profits. We conducted several experiments in northern Ghana in which farmers were randomly assigned to receive cash grants, grants of or opportunities to purchase rainfall index insurance, or a combination of the two. Demand for index insurance is strong, and insurance leads to significantly larger agricultural investment and riskier production choices in agriculture. The salient constraint to farmer investment is uninsured risk: when provided with insurance against the primary catastrophic risk they face, farmers are able to find resources to increase expenditure on their farms. Demand for insurance in subsequent years is strongly increasing in a farmer’s own receipt of insurance payouts, and with the receipt of payouts by others in the farmer’s social network. Both investment patterns and the demand for index insurance are consistent with the presence of important basis risk associated with the index insurance, and with imperfect trust that promised payouts will be delivered. |
| Keywords: | agriculture; credit markets; insurance markets; misallocation; risk; underinvestment |
| JEL: | C93 D24 D92 G22 O12 O13 O16 Q12 Q14 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9173&r=afr |
| By: | Guglielmo Maria Caporale; Luis A. Gil-Alana; Robert Mudida |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the Marshall-Lerner (ML) condition for the Kenyan economy. In particular, we use quarterly data on the log of real exchange rates, export-import ratio and relative (US) income for the time period 1996q1 - 2011q4, and employ techniques based on the concept of long memory or long-range dependence. Specifically, we use fractional integration and cointegration methods, which are more general than standard approaches based exclusively on integer degrees of differentiation. The results indicate that there exists a well-defined cointegrating relationship linking the balance of payments to the real exchange rate and relative income, and that the ML condition is satisfied in the long run although the convergence process is relatively slow. They also imply that a moderate depreciation of the Kenyan shilling may have a stabilizing influence on the balance of payments through the current account without the need for high interest rates. |
| Keywords: | Marshall-Lerner condition, fractional integration, fractional cointegration |
| JEL: | C22 C32 F32 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1247&r=afr |