|
on Development |
| By: | Christian Bjørnskov; Nicolai J. Foss |
| Abstract: | While much attention has been devoted to analyzing how the institutional framework and entrepreneurship impact growth, how economic policy and institutional design affect entrepreneurship appears to be much less analyzed. We try to explain cross-country differences in the level of entrepreneurship by differences in economic policy and institutional design. Specifically, we use measures of economic freedom from the Economic Freedom of the World database to examine which elements of economic policy making and the institutional framework are responsible for the supply of entrepreneurship. Our data on entrepreneurship are derived from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The combination of these two datasets is unique in the literature. We find that the size of government is negatively correlated with entrepreneurial activity but that sound money is positively correlated with entrepreneurial activity. Other measures of economic freedom are not significantly correlated with entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Economic freedom; entrepreneurship; cross-country variation |
| JEL: | M13 O31 O50 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-18&r=dev |
| By: | Gandhi Vasant P. |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the rural land and labour markets in the context of economic liberalization in India. Land and labour are the two fundamental resources available to the rural people for income generation. The access to land and to employment for labour become basic determinants of well-being for the rural households. Reforms are often seen as hostile to rural areas and the poor, although they should be beneficial not only for overall growth, but also rural growth and poverty alleviation. The study based on primary household data examines the land and labour markets in the reform period and the underlying linkages of these to different characteristics of the household. The study finds that over the reform period in India the land markets are leading to less landlessness rather than more, and growth in marginal and medium farm sizes rather than large. Lease markets are leading to operated land in more hands. Land purchase behaviour is related to less land, more education, greater crop diversification, and higher crop and livestock revenues. Leasing-in is also related to many of the same variables and is showing great diversity in lease agreements involving outputs, inputs and rent. Labour-employment is showing diversity of occupations but the primary dependence on agriculture is still about 80 percent. There has been some change in the occupational structure. Non-farm employment is associated with higher overall employment. Own-farm employment is strongly related to crop diversification and livestock activity; other farm employment to number of male and female family members and irrigation; and non-farm employment to education. Broadly, liberalization does not show adverse consequences but rather some positive impact on rural land and labour markets. |
| Date: | 2006–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2006-09-02&r=dev |
| By: | Gandhi Vasant P.; Namboodiri N.V. |
| Abstract: | The paper presents preliminary results from a study of the economics and adoption of Bt cotton in India. Biotech crops, which made their appearance in the world about a decade ago, have gained substantial popularity and acceptance in many parts of the world including US, China, Australia, Mexico, Argentina and South Africa. However, their introduction in India has been relatively late and controversial and they still have considerable ground to cover in the country. Cotton is a major commercial crop in India but has substantial problems particularly from extensive pest damage and poor yields. Bt cotton offers a promising solution to these serious problems. Data from the survey, which covered the important cotton states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and 694 farmers, indicates that Bt cotton offers good resistance to bollworms as well as several other pests. The incidence of these pests is reported to be considerably lower in Bt cotton as compared to Non-Bt cotton. The yields of Bt cotton are found to be higher and the yield increase/ difference statistically significant in all the states under both irrigated and rain-fed conditions. As a result, given the good market acceptance of the product, the value of output per hectare is higher in all the states and conditions. The question of higher cost of cultivation exists, and is confirmed, mainly because of high seed cost and not commensurate reduction in pesticide cost. However, the profit is found to be higher in all the states to the estimated extent of about 80-90 percent on an average when the effects of associated inputs are included. The returns are highest in Maharashtra followed by Gujarat and then Andhra Pradesh. Subjective assessment indicates that farmers see advantage in Bt cotton in pest incidence, pesticide cost, cotton quality, yield and profit. Almost all farmers indicate that they plan to plant Bt cotton in the future. To increase the benefits from the technology, the farmers strongly urge reduction in the seed cost, greater field extension and demonstration work on the correct practices, and more Bt cotton varieties to suit the diverse agro-ecological settings. |
| Date: | 2006–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2006-09-04&r=dev |
| By: | Alberto Alesina; Joseph Zeira |
| Abstract: | Many low skilled jobs have been substituted away for machines in Europe, or eliminated, much more so than in the US, while technological progress at the "top," i.e., at the high-tech sector, is faster in the US than in Europe. This paper suggests that the main difference between Europe and the US in this respect is their different labor market policies. European countries reduce wage flexibility and inequality through a host of labor market regulations, like binding minimum-wage laws, permanent unemployment subsidies, firing costs, etc. Such policies create incentives to develop and adopt labor-saving capital intensive technologies at the low end of the skill distribution. At the same time technical progress in the US is more skill biased than in Europe, since American skilled wages are higher. |
| JEL: | O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12581&r=dev |
| By: | Enrique G. Mendoza; P. Marcelo Oviedo |
| Abstract: | Governments in emerging markets often behave like a "tormented insurer," trying to use non-state-contingent debt instruments to avoid cuts in payments to private agents despite large fluctuations in public revenues. In the data, average public debt-GDP ratios decline as the variability of revenues increases, primary balances and current expenditures follow cyclical patterns sharply at odds with the countercyclical patterns of industrial countries, and the cyclical variability of public expenditures exceeds that of private expenditures by a wide margin. This paper proposes a model of a small open economy with incomplete markets that can rationalize this behavior. In the model a fiscal authority makes optimal expenditure and debt plans given shocks to output and revenues, and private agents make optimal consumption and asset accumulation plans. Quantitative analysis of the model calibrated to Mexico yields a negative relationship between average public debt and revenue variability similar to the one observed in the data. The model mimics Mexico's GDP correlations of government purchases and the primary balance. The ratio of public-to-private expenditures fluctuates widely and the implied welfare costs dwarf conventional estimates of negligible benefits of risk sharing and consumption smoothing. |
| JEL: | E62 F34 H63 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12586&r=dev |
| By: | Jose Miguel Albala-Bertrand (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to show why it is highly unlikely that a disaster can become a catastrophe. We first put forward an economic concept of disaster localization. This shows that a localized disaster is unlikely to affect the macro economy in any significant way and that economic development itself tends to make most disasters localized as an incidental consequence of its endogenous processes. We then show that the effect of current globalization on vulnerability seems to be double-edged. It may increase local vulnerability by disenfranchising communities and adding new sources of economic instability. But it may also speed up the downgrading of vulnerability at the national level by contributing to upgrade localization, further reducing the possibility of a catastrophe. It is therefore, difficult to imagine a realistic scenario in which a disaster could become catastrophic, even less so in developed countries. |
| Keywords: | Catastrophe, Disaster escalation, Localization, Globalization, Vulnerability |
| JEL: | O11 O16 O19 F14 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp576&r=dev |
| By: | Bruno L. s. Falcão (Yale University); Rodrigo Reis Soares (Department of Economics PUC-Rio) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a theory where increases in female labor force participation and reductions in the gender wage-gap are generated as part of a single process of demographic transition, characterized by reductions in mortality and fertility. The paper suggests a link between changes in mortality and transformations in the role of women in society that has not been identified before in the literature. Mortality reductions affect the incentives of individuals to invest in human capital and to have children. Particularly, gains in adult longevity reduce fertility, increase investments in market human capital, increase female labor force participation, and reduce the wage differential between men and women. Child mortality reductions, though reducing fertility, do not generate this same pattern of changes. The model reconciles the increase in female labor market participation with the timing of age-specific mortality reductions observed during the demographic transition. It generates changes in fertility, labor market attachment, and the gender wage-gap as part of a single process of social transformation, triggered by reductions in mortality. |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rio:texdis:528&r=dev |
| By: | Rodrigo Reis Soares (Department of Economics PUC-Rio) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents and critically discusses a vast array of evidence on the determinants of mortality reductions in developing countries. We argue that increases in life expectancy between 1960 and 2000 were largely independent from improvements in income and nutrition. We then characterize the age and cause of death profile of changes in mortality and ask what can be learned about the determinants of these changes from the international evidence and from country-specific studies. Public health infrastructure, immunization, targeted programs, and the spread of less palpable forms of knowledge all seem to have been important factors. Much of the recent debate has revolved around antagonistic approaches, which are not supported by the evidence discussed here. Finally, the paper suggests that the evolution of health inequality across and within countries is intrinsically related to the process of diffusion of new technologies and to the nature of these new technologies (public or private). |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rio:texdis:529&r=dev |
| By: | Chih Ming Tan; Steven N. Durlauf; Andros Kourtellos |
| Abstract: | Barro and McCleary (2003) is a key research contribution in the new literature exploring the macroeconomic effects of religious beliefs. This paper represents an effort to evaluate the strength of their claims. We evaluate their results in terms of replicability and robustness. While we find that their analysis meets the standard of statistical replicability, we do not find that the results are robust to changes in their baseline statistical specification. Taken together, we conclude that their analysis cannot be taken to provide useable evidence on how religion might affect aggregate outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, Religion, Model Uncertainty |
| JEL: | C59 O40 Z12 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0613&r=dev |
| By: | Chih Ming Tan; Xiaobo Zhang; Andros Kourtellos |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the relationship between foreign aid and growth using recently developed sample splitting methods that allow us to uncover evidence for the existence of heterogeneity and nonlinearity simultaneously. We also implement a new methodology that allows us to deal with model uncertainty in the context of these methods. We find some evidence that aid may have heterogeneous effects on growth across two growth regimes defined by ethnic fractionalization. In particular, countries that belong to a growth regime characterized by levels of ethnic fractionalization above a threshold value experience a negative partial relationship between aid and growth, while those in the regime with ethnic fractionalization below the threshold experience no growth effects from aid at all. Nevertheless, there exists substantial model uncertainty so that attempts to pin down the typology of these growth regimes as being decisively characterized by ethnic fractionalization remain inconclusive. When we account for model uncertainty, we find no evidence to suggest that the relationship between aid and growth is nonlinear. Overall, our results suggest that the partial effect of aid on growth is very likely to be negative although we cannot reject the hypothesis that aid has no effect on growth. In this sense, our findings suggest that aid is potentially counterproductive to growth with outcomes not meeting the expectations of donors. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0614&r=dev |
| By: | Kitty Stewart; Carmen Huerta; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | Economic collapse in the former Communist bloc led to soaring levels of child poverty in the 1990s. The effects of rising unemployment, underemployment and wage arrears were exacerbated by the erosion of state support for families with children as governments responded to a collapse in revenue. Since 1998, even the poorer countries of the bloc - those in South Eastern Europe and the CIS - have seen a return to economic growth. But have the benefits of growth been felt by children? Are child support policies being restored or restructured as economic conditions improve, and to what effect? This paper examines three aspects of government support for the youngest children – maternity leave policy, child and family allowances and pre-school/nursery provision. The paper calls for governments and donors to pay greater attention to the needs of very young children. It calls for a substantial increase in public spending on each of these policy areas, and it further recommends that governments (a) introduce proxy means tests to improve the targeting of family allowances; (b) make maternity benefit available on a social assistance as well as a social insurance basis; and (c) make a commitment to ensuring that all 3-5 year olds have free access to some early years education each week, albeit on a part-time basis. |
| Keywords: | Child Poverty; Family Income;; Baltic States; Russia; |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa06/34&r=dev |
| By: | Gerry Redmond; Leonardo Menchini; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | This paper examines poverty in recent years among children in the countries of South Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The indicator used to measure poverty is found to be robust to sensitivity testing, and to correlate well with non-income indicators of well-being among children. The absolute poverty rate among children is highest where national income is lowest, and where the density of children in the population is highest. The paper analyses two dimensions of child poverty – according to household composition, and according to its urban, rural and regional dimensions. The most important findings from a policy point of view are the strong rural character of child poverty, and the relationship between child population density (at the level of the country, the sub-national region, and the household) and child poverty: where child population shares are higher, child poverty rates are also higher. This relationship, moreover, may have strengthened over time. Child population density needs to be seen more as a trigger to redistribution. |
| Keywords: | Child Poverty; Development Indicators; Monitoring;; Baltic States; Eastern Europe; |
| JEL: | I32 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa06/35&r=dev |
| By: | L.Guarcello; B.Henschel; S.Lyon; F.Rosati; C. Valdivia |
| Abstract: | The study examines the child labour phenomenon in the Latin America and Caribbean region from a gender perspective. It represents part of a broader effort to improve understanding of how child labour differs by sex, and to ensure that policies relating to child labour adequately reflect these differences. Using information from SIMPOC and LSMS survey datasets from 12 LAC countries, the study looks at differences by sex in key dimensions of the child labour phenomenom - its extent, nature, and effect on health and education outcomes. It addresses what type of activity is more common among girls, and extent to which girls' work experience differs from that of boys. The study also analyses how gender stereotypes and cultural norms affect household decisions concerning children's time use, and the implications this has for policy. The study encompasses not only girls and boys at work in economy activity, but also those performing household chores in their own homes. The latter group of children, dominated by girls, is frequently overlooked in child labour statistics and in analyses of child labour . The study also looks at girls and boys performing "double duty" and reportedly inactive children. |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucw:worpap:17&r=dev |
| By: | L.Guarcello; S.Lyon; F.Rosati |
| Abstract: | Ethiopia accounts for the largest youth population in Sub-Saharan Africa and the lack of employment opportunities for Ethiopian young people is among the critical developing challenges facing the country. The specific factors affecting youth employment in Ethiopia have received little research attention. There is therefore limited empirical basis for formulating policies and programs promoting youth employment and successful school to work transitions. This study is aimed at beginning to fill this gap by analyzing a set of youth employment indicators drawn primarily from the 2001 Ethiopia Labor Force Survey. The study looks specifically at the labor market outcomes of young people and key factors influencing these outcomes, including early labor market entry and human capital accumulation. It also examines the process of labor market entry, and, for those who attended school, the duration of the transition from school to work. |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucw:worpap:18&r=dev |
| By: | Enriqueta Camps; Maria Camou; Silvana Maubrigades; Natalia Mora-Sitja |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse the reasons behind the evolution of the gender gap and wage inequality in South and East Asian and Latin American countries. Health human capital improvements, the exposure to free market openness and equal treatment enforcement laws seem to be the main exogenous variables affecting women’s economic condition. During the second globalization era (in the years 1975-2000) different combinations of these variables in South East Asian and Latin American countries have had as a result the diminution of the gender gap. The main exception to this rule according to our data is China where economic reforms have been simultaneous to the increase of gender differences and inequality between men and women. This result has further normative consequences for the measure of economic inequality. The improvement of women’s condition has as a result the diminution of the dispersion of wages. Therefore in most of the countries analysed the consequence of the diminution of the gender gapduring the second global era is the decrease of wage inequality both measured with Gini and Theil indexes. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality, gender gap, market openness, human capital |
| JEL: | J22 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:970&r=dev |
| By: | Fabio Canova; Luca Gambetti; Evi Pappa |
| Abstract: | We examine the dynamics of output growth and inflation in the US, Euro area and UK using a structural time varying coe¢ cient VAR. There are important similarities in structural inflation dynamics across countries; output growth dynamics differ. Swings in the magnitude of inflation and output growth volatilities and persistences are accounted for by a combination of three structural shocks. Changes over time in the structure of the economy are limited and permanent variations largely absent. Changes in the volatilities of structural shocks matter |
| Keywords: | Variability, Persistence, Transmission, Structural time varying VARs |
| JEL: | C11 E12 E32 E62 |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:971&r=dev |
| By: | Amin, Mohammad; Mattoo, Aaditya |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical research has focused on the role of institutions in overall economic performance. This paper examines the impact of institutions on the relative performance of the service sector. Through cross-country level and growth regressions it establishes the following stylized fact: countries with better institutions have relatively larger and more dynamic service sectors. It suggests that regulatory and contract enforcing institutions play a key role in the development of service sectors because these sectors enter into a more complex web of transactions with the rest of the economy and are more prone to market failure due to asymmetric information. |
| Keywords: | Legal Products,Children and Youth,Economic Theory & Research,Public Sector Corruption & Anticorruption Measures,Corruption & Anitcorruption Law |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4032&r=dev |
| By: | Guillaumont, Patrick; Laajaj, Rachid |
| Abstract: | The authors assess the effect of economic instability on the success of projects funded by the World Bank using the outcome of the projects, which is a notation of their overall success determined by the Bank ' s Independent Evaluation Group. It has been argued in macroeconomic studies that aid effectiveness is higher in vulnerable countries because it dampens the negative effects of shocks. The authors show that this finding is not inconsistent with the observation that the success of the projects is lower in an unstable environment. Instability, in particular the instability of exports, harms aid projects as it harms the rest of the economy, while the success of projects decreases when the total amount of aid received increases, due to absorptive capacity limitations. But this decrease is slower when instability is higher, showing a positive effect of aid through its stabilizing impact. The authors find the same results keeping only the projects funded by nonconcessionary loans, which suggests that the cushioning effect of aid extends not only to aid funded projects but to whole sets of projects. Corroborating macroeconomic findings, their results lead to the same conclusion that more aid should be allocated to more vulnerable countries, in spite of the lower success of the projects in an unstable environment: project evaluations cannot include the macrostabilizing effect of the aid delivered through projects. |
| Keywords: | Development Economics & Aid Effectiveness,Banks & Banking Reform,School Health,Poverty Monitoring & Analysis,Economic Theory & Research |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4034&r=dev |
| By: | Essama-Nssah B.; Lambert, Peter J. |
| Abstract: | Poverty reduction has become a fundamental objective of development, and therefore a metric for assessing the effectiveness of various interventions. Economic growth can be a powerful instrument of income poverty reduction. This creates a need for meaningful ways of assessing the poverty impact of growth. This paper follows the elasticity approach to propose a measure of pro-poorness defined as a weighted average of the deviation of a growth pattern from the benchmark case. The measure can help assess pro-poorness both in terms of aggregate poverty measures, which are members of the additively separable class, and at percentiles. It also lends itself to a decomposition procedure, whereby the overall pattern of income growth can be unbundled, and the contributions of income components to overall pro-poorness identified. An application to data for Indonesia in the 1990s reveals that the amount of poverty reduction achieved over that period remains far below what would have been achieved under distributional neutrality. This conclusion is robust to the choice of a poverty measure among members of the additively separable class, and can be tracked back to changes in expenditure components. |
| Keywords: | Pro-Poor Growth and Inequality,Population Policies,Services & Transfers to Poor,Inequality,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4035&r=dev |
| By: | Skoufias, Emmanuel; Shapiro, Joseph |
| Abstract: | The authors evaluate whether increasing school resources and decentralizing management decisions at the school level improves learning in a developing country. Mexico ' s Quality Schools Program (PEC), following many other countries and U.S. states, offers US$15,000 grants for public schools to implement five-year improvement plans that the school ' s staff and community design. Using a three-year panel of 74,700 schools, the authors estimate the impact of the PEC on dropout, repetition, and failure using two common nonexperimental methods-regression analysis and propensity score matching. The methods provide similar but nonidentical results. The preferred estimator, difference-in-differences with matching, reveals that participation in the PEC decreases dropout by 0.24 percentage points, failure by 0.24 percentage points, and repetition by 0.31 percentage points-an economically small but statistically significant impact. The PEC lacks measurable impact on outcomes in indigenous schools. The results suggest that a combination of increased resources and local management can produce small improvements in school outcomes, though perhaps not in the most troubled school systems. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4036&r=dev |
| By: | Galiani, Sebastian; Rossi, Martin; Schargrodsky, Ernesto |
| Abstract: | The initiation in criminal activities is, typically, a young phenomenon. The study of the determinants of entry into criminal activities should pay attention to major events affecting youth. In many countries, one of these important events is mandatory participation in military service. The objective of this study is to estimate the causal relationship between mandatory participation in military service and crime. The authors exploit the random assignment through a draft lottery of young men to conscription in Argentina to identify this causal effect. Their results suggest that participation in military service increased the likelihood of developing a criminal record in adulthood (in particular, for property and weapon-related crimes). |
| Keywords: | Peace & Peacekeeping,Children and Youth,Political Systems and Analysis,Politics and Government,Crime and Society |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4037&r=dev |
| By: | Shah, Anwar |
| Abstract: | Intergovernmental fiscal transfers are a dominant feature of subnational finance in most countries. They are used to ensure that revenues roughly match the expenditure needs of various orders (levels) of subnational governments. They are also used to advance national, regional, and local area objectives, such as fairness and equity, and creating a common economic union. The structure of these transfers creates incentives for national, regional, and local governments that have a bearing on fiscal management, macroeconomic stability, distributional equity, allocative efficiency, and public services delivery. This paper reviews the conceptual, empirical, and practice literature to distill lessons of policy interest in designing the fiscal transfers to create the right incentives for prudent fiscal management and competitive and innovative service delivery. It provides practical guidance on the design of performance-oriented transfers that emphasize bottom-up, client-focused, and results-based government accountability. It cites examples of simple but innovative grant designs that can satisfy grantors ' objectives while preserving local autonomy and creating an enabling environment for responsive, responsible, equitable, and accountable public governance. The paper further provides guidance on the design and practice of equalization transfers for regional fiscal equity as well as the institutional arrangements for implementation of such transfer mechanisms. It concludes with negative (practices to avoid) and positive (practices to emulate) lessons from international practices. |
| Keywords: | Public Sector Economics & Finance,Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations and Local Finance Management,Public Sector Management and Reform,Public & Municipal Finance,Urban Economics |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4039&r=dev |
| By: | Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Ridao-Cano, Cris; Sakellariou, Chris |
| Abstract: | Typically estimates of the benefits of education investments show average private rates of return for the average individual. The average may not be useful for policy. An examination of the distribution of the returns across individuals is needed. The few studies that have examined these patterns focus on high-income countries, showing investments to be more profitable at the top of the income distribution. The implication is that investments may increase inequality. Extending the analysis to 16 East Asian and Latin American countries the authors observe mixed evidence in middle-income countries and decreasing returns in low-income countries. Such differences between countries could be due to more job mobility in industrial countries, scarcity of skills, or differential exposure to market forces. |
| Keywords: | Access & Equity in Basic Education,Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Education and Society |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4040&r=dev |
| By: | Heinemann, Alessandra; Verner, Dorte |
| Abstract: | The authors review the recent literature on crime and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean and present a broad overview of the main ideas and empirical findings. They provide estimates of the magnitude of the problem, trends, and the manifestations of crime and violence in Latin America. They also discuss the ways in which violence affects development, the root causes of violence, and the empirical evidence on the determinants of crime. The authors conclude by stressing that preventive measures and innovative social policies are efficient and underutilized strategies to address the problem and call for both more research and operational experimentation. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring & Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Youth and Governance,Children and Youth,Social Cohesion |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4041&r=dev |
| By: | Joppe de Ree; Eleonora Nillesen |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the impact of foreign aid on the risk of civil conflict. Previous studies on this topic have not properly addressed the problem of endogeneity between aid and conflict as well as the distorting influences of country specific time invariant effects. We propose GDP levels of donor countries as new and powerful instruments for foreign aid flows in the conflict regression. Aid flows are often defined as a fixed percentage of Donor’s GDP hence they are strongly correlated. Changes in donor GDP constitute an exogenous shock to aid received by developing countries, as Donor GDP is not expected to have a direct effect on the risk of civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We find a statistically significant and economically important negative effect of foreign aid on the risk of civil conflict. A ten percent increase in foreign aid decreases the risk of civil conflict by about six percent. |
| Keywords: | Civil conflict, Foreign aid, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | D74 F35 O55 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0609&r=dev |
| By: | Marek Hudon (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and Harvard University, Boston.); Daniel Traca (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This paper gives first empirical evidence on the impact of subsidies on MFI performance. We find that Subsidy Intensity tends to be associated with a lower sustainability. However, we show that this relationship is due to the fact the institutions that receive more subsidies tend to focus on the poorest, and thus have a lower loan size per GDPpc, which raises their administrative costs per dollar of loan. We find no evidence that higher subsidy intensity is associated with shirking or rent-seeking. |
| Keywords: | Microfinance, Subsidies, Sustainability. |
| JEL: | O16 O17 G21 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:06-020&r=dev |
| By: | Dupas, Pascaline |
| Abstract: | An information campaign that provided Kenyan teenagers in randomly selected schools with the information that HIV prevalence was much higher among adult men and their partners than among teenage boys led to a 65% decrease in the incidence of pregnancies by adult partners among teenage girls in the treatment group relative to the comparison. This suggests a large reduction in the incidence of unprotected cross-generational sex. The information campaign did not increase pregnancies among teenage couples. These results suggest that the behavioral choices of teenagers are responsive to information on the relative risks of different varieties of a risky activity. Policies that focus only on the elimination of a risky activity and do not address risk reduction strategies may be ignoring a margin on which they can have substantial impact. |
| JEL: | O12 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:248&r=dev |