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on Development |
| By: | Francisco Secretario (AREES, Philippines); Kim Kwangmoon (AREES, Korea); Bui Trinh (AREES, Vietnam); Vanndy Nor (AREES, Cambodia); Hung Duong Manh (AREES, Vietnam) |
| Abstract: | <p>The Input-Output (I-O) table is now universally accepted as an effective analytical tool for the conduct of in-depth socio-economic as well as environmental studies, whether national or regional. The reason for its being widely used is because of its capability, in a simple compacted manner, to unravel the interwoven structural interdependent relations existing in an economy and the ability to translate these economic interdependencies into empirical analysis.</p><p>The construction therefore of an I-O Account as an integrated sub-account of the country's National Accounts could not be undermined. While the GDP periodically provides the aggregative measures of economic development, its usefulness as an effective analytical database for translating development objectives into specific programs and projects is quite limited. Knowledge and understanding of the economy's structure in all its details thus become an indispensable input in economic planning and policy formulation. And this type of technical information could only be retrieved through the compilation of I-O tables.</p><p>This paper, which deals with an economic assessment based on single country or intra-national I-O tables available provides therefore the technical insights into how the proposed research project shall be initiated and pursued. And this can be done by looking first at the I-O data of each country in the Region.</p> |
| Keywords: | Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indochina, IO, Input - Output |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:1009&r=dev |
| By: | Ana María Ibáñez (Department of Economics, Universidad de los Andes); Andrés Moya (University of Wisconsin, Madison) |
| Abstract: | Internal conflicts entail large asset losses for certain segments in the civilian population. Asset losses may compromise the future welfare of households, thus leaving a legacy of structural poverty that is difficult to overcome. The purpose of this article is to analyze how asset losses occur during internal conflicts and the process of asset accumulation following the initial shock. To do this, we concentrate on a particularly vulnerable group of victims of war—the displaced population in Colombia. In achieving our objective, we adopt quantitative and qualitative approaches by: (i) providing a detailed description of losses stemming from forced displacement; (ii) analyzing qualitative evidence so as to understand the asset recovery processes for the displaced population; and (iii) estimating OLS, Instrumental Variable and quartile regressions in order to identify the determinants of asset losses stemming from forced displacement, and asset accumulation following the initial shock. The results indicate that recuperating asset losses or accumulating new assets is a rare event; only 25 percent of households are able to recover their original asset base, while asset ownership still seems insufficient for overcoming poverty. In addition, displaced households do not catch up even as settlement at destination sites consolidates. Therefore, unless a positive intervention is implemented, displaced households become locked in a low income trajectory, and are unlikely to leap forward to a high return asset level. |
| Keywords: | Forced migration, civil conflict, asset losses, structural poverty, quantile regressions |
| JEL: | D74 N46 I32 R23 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:10&r=dev |
| By: | Jorge Guardiola (Department of Applied Economics, University of Granada.); Teresa Garcia-Muñoz (Department of Quantitative Methods fo Economics and Management, University of Granada.) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with basic needs fulfillment interpreted in a subjective way. We develop a framework in which the basic needs of households in developing areas are valued from a subjective point of view. We estimate how certain indicators and assets influence basic needs perception. We compare income and perceived basic needs poverty measures, finding that they mismatch. We conclude that income-based approaches should be complemented with other indicators such as subjective satisfaction measures to understand development and measure poverty. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being, basic needs, poverty, Guatemala, Highlands. |
| JEL: | I31 I32 O13 O18 |
| Date: | 2009–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:09/03&r=dev |
| By: | Atal, Vidya (Cornell University); Basu, Kaushik (Cornell University); Gray, John (Cornell University); Lee, Travis (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is shown that policy for promoting human capital has to take the form of a mechanism for solving the coordination failure in people’s choice of educational strategy. |
| Keywords: | education, literacy, O-ring, skill formation, traps |
| JEL: | D20 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4047&r=dev |
| By: | Barbara Coello |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an ex-post analysis of the impact of trade liberalization in Vietnam between 1993 and 1998, taking into account regional differences. First, a price pass-through analysis is performed to measure how trade liberalization influence provincial prices. These results are plugged into a farm household model in order to capture the effects on households' outcomes such as quantities produced, agricultural income and profits. An original continuous treatment assessment measures the effects of trade liberalization proportionally to the degree of initial household specialization in export crops. My findings suggest that trade liberalization has differently affected domestic prices and agricultural variables across profits groups and regions. Trade liberalization in agriculture, between 1993 and 1998 has increased inequalities in Vietnam, with a negative evolution of agricultural profits for the poorest. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2008-75&r=dev |
| By: | Charity Moore (IPC research associate and the Ohio State University) |
| Abstract: | This country study investigates the history and eventual conclusion of Nicaragua?s conditional cash transfer programme, the Red de Protección Social (RPS). Specific features of the programme, in both its first and second phase, are described thoroughly to provide readers with an appropriate understanding and appreciation of the details of RPS. A brief overview of the current state of social protection in Nicaragua is also included to enhance understanding of the current environment in the country. In particular, this study discusses the elements that contributed to the programme?s successes and eventual discontinuation. Although RPS achieved most of its goals, it was unable to garner enough domestic support to ensure its continuation. While the programme was known internationally for the positive effects it quickly had on children?s health and education, its purpose and performance were misunderstood at the domestic level. This lack of appreciation heightened criticisms of RPS and hindered support for the programme within its institutional base. RPS is an example of an efficient and effective conditional cash transfer programme, but it also serves as a warning to officials operating in similar contexts. RPS officials had to balance the demands of domestic and international stakeholders, meeting short-term goals while ensuring the initiative?s long-term viability. The Nicaraguan experience usefully illustrates the challenges involved in creating an exemplary programme and ensuring its long-term sustainability. |
| Keywords: | Nicaragua?s Red de Protección Social: An Exemplary but Short-Lived Conditional Cash Transfer Programme |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:cstudy:17&r=dev |
| By: | Eduardo Zepeda (International Poverty Centre); Diana Alarcón (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs); Fabio Veras Soares (International Poverty Centre); Rafael Guerreiro Osorio (International Poverty Centre) |
| Abstract: | Despite the recovery of economic growth in Latin America during the 1990s, rising unemployment, high informality rates and sluggish wages lie at the root of high inequality and poverty. This paper looks at changes in hourly earnings from the early 1990s to the early 2000s in three relatively stable countries: Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Using econometric techniques, the paper decomposes the change in earnings per worker into changes in the demographic and socio-occupational characteristics of workers, changes in the returns to such characteristics, and changes in unobservable factors. The paper attempts to address the link between labour markets and the dynamics of inequality and poverty by comparing the average performance of the entire working labour force with the performance of the 20 per cent of workers with the lowest earnings. The paper finds that earnings per worker are the result of slow-moving changes in the structure of employment and the characteristics of workers, as well as rapid changes in the prices of labour for specific workers. Demographic changes, better education and the decline of agricultural labour are among the most significant changes in the structure of employment, and they contribute to observed changes in earnings. Among the most important changes in prices contributing to the change in earnings are changes in the returns to formal and informal employees relative to the self-employed; changes to full-time employment relative to part-time workers; changes in the returns to urban workers relative to rural workers; and change in the earnings of workers in services relative to workers in agriculture. In general, changes in earnings frequently favoured low-earning workers, mostly because of the change in the returns for their labour. This is in contrast to the changes in the structure of employment, which tended to favour high-earning workers. |
| Keywords: | Changes in Earnings in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico: Disentangling the Forces Behind Pro-Poor Change in Labour Markets |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:wpaper:51&r=dev |
| By: | John Serieux (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Manitoba) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of aid on domestic savings in Sub-Saharan Africa. It departs from the previous literature on aid and savings in developing countries by abandoning the pervasive, but untenable, assumption that all aid is used to expand the trade deficit and thus applied wholly to consumption or investment. In fact, for the period 1965-2006, the evidence suggests that 35% of any increase in aid relative to output was used to finance reverse flows (some combination of interest payments, debt amortization, capital flight and reserve increases), 41% was used to increase consumption relative to output (meaning a reduction in the domestic savings rates) and 24% was used to increase the rate of investment. However, during the extended period of increasing aid levels from the early 1970s to mid 1990s, reverse flows were a larger proportion of aid but more aid was invested and less was consumed. Also, concerns about potential aid hangovers, when current high aid levels subside, can be assuaged by the evidence that that effect has been historically uncommon in the region despite many episodes of high aid levels followed by sharp declines. (...) |
| Keywords: | Aid and Savings in Sub-saharan Africa: Should we Worry about Rising Aid Levels? |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:wpaper:50&r=dev |
| By: | Caroline Lesser; Evdokia Moisé-Leeman |
| Abstract: | The informal sector still constitutes an important part of developing country economies. In Africa, it is estimated to represent 43 percent of official gross domestic product (GDP), thus being almost equivalent to the formal sector. While this phenomenon may provide short-term solutions to poor households, in the longer term, it can seriously challenge the economic development of African countries. This study explores one particular aspect of the informal economy, namely informal cross-border trade in selected Sub-Saharan African countries, and identifies which trade facilitation measures (such as those currently negotiated at the World Trade Organisation) have the potential to encourage traders to switch from informal to formal trade. The paper considers measures that help reduce direct and indirect trade transaction costs arising from mandatory import- and export-related procedures; mechanisms that simplify trade-related regulations and requirements for selected low value transactions; and policies that help enhance compliance levels with existing international trade regulations. In addition, the study explores a number of complementary measures (such as the provision of effective business support services to ?formal? traders and enhanced dialogue between traders and border agencies) which can further encourage firms to formalise their cross-border transactions. The paper does however not suggest that trade facilitation reform alone will help reduce informal cross-border trade nor that governments will be able to fully eliminate its incidence in the region. |
| Keywords: | economic development, trade facilitation, customs modernisation, Sub-Sahara Africa, customs procedures, informal trade, simplified trade regime, World Trade Organisation |
| Date: | 2009–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:traaab:86-en&r=dev |
| By: | Hengyun Ma (University of Canterbury); Les Oxley (University of Canterbury); John Gibson (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research and The University of Waikato); Bongguen Kim (The University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | With its rapid economic growth, China's primary energy consumption has exceeded domestic energy production since 1994, leading to a substantial expansion in energy imports, particularly of oil. China's energy demand has an increasingly significant impact on global energy markets. In this paper Allen partial elasticities of factor and energy substitution, and price elasticities of energy demand, are calculated for China using a two-stage translog cost function approach. The results suggest that energy is substitutable with both capital and labour. Coal is significantly substitutable with electricity and complementary with diesel while gasoline and electricity are substitutable with diesel. China's energy intensity is increasing during the study period (1995-2004) and the major driver appears to be due to the increased use of energy intensive technology. |
| Keywords: | China, Interfactor/interfuel substitution, Technology, Energy intensity decomposition |
| JEL: | D24 O33 Q41 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:09_02&r=dev |
| By: | P R Agénor; M Agénor |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a gender-based OLG model of endogenous growth to analyze the impact of infrastructure on women’s time allocation between market work, raising children, own health care, home production, and leisure. Gender bias occurs as a result of firms discriminating between men and women, and of mothers devoting relatively more time to rearing their sons. Women’s health status in adulthood, which affects productivity and wages, depends on their health status in childhood. A stagnation equilibrium and multiple development regimes are derived. An increase in productive government spending may shift the economy to a high-growth equilibrium, in a process involving changes in life expectancy, fertility, and a reallocation of women’s time. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:cgbcrp:116&r=dev |
| By: | Cuaresma, Jesus Crespo |
| Abstract: | The author assesses empirically the relationship between natural disaster risk and investment in education. Although the results in the empirical literature tend to be inconclusive, using model averaging methods in the framework of cross-country and panel regressions, this paper finds an extremely robust negative partial correlation between secondary school enrollment and natural disaster risk. This result is exclusively driven by geological disasters. Natural disaster risk exposure is a robust determinant of differences in secondary school enrollment between countries, but not within countries, which implies that the effect can be interpreted as a long-run phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | Natural Disasters,Hazard Risk Management,Disaster Management,Population Policies,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4862&r=dev |
| By: | Soderbom, Mans; Rijkers, Bob |
| Abstract: | By developing a simple theoretical model of the impact of market integration on sectoral output and employment in a poor rural setting, this paper demonstrates that trade can induce asymmetric growth. Under certain, plausible, assumptions, the non-farm sector will grow much faster than the agricultural sector when markets become integrated. Promoting market integration may thus be an effective way of encouraging diversification beyond agriculture and catalysing structural change in poor rural economies. |
| Keywords: | Food&Beverage Industry,Economic Theory&Research,Rural Poverty Reduction,Food Security |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4856&r=dev |
| By: | Lanjouw, Peter; Murgai, Rinku |
| Abstract: | The authors analyze five rounds of National Sample Survey data covering 1983, 1987/8, 1993/4, 1999/0, and 2004/5 to explore the relationship between rural diversification and poverty. Poverty in rural India declined at a modest rate during this period. The authors provide region-level estimates that illustrate considerable geographic heterogeneity in this progress. Poverty estimates correlate well with region-level data on changes in agricultural wage rates. Agricultural labor remains the preserve of the uneducated and also to a large extent of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Although agricultural labor grew as a share of total economic activity over the first four rounds, it had fallen back to the levels observed at the beginning of the survey period by 2004. This all-India trajectory masks widely varying trends across states. During this period, the rural non-farm sector grew modestly, mainly between the last two survey rounds. Regular non-farm employment remains largely associated with education levels and social status that are rare among the poor. However, casual labor and self-employment in the non-farm sector reveal greater involvement by disadvantaged groups in 2004 than in the preceding rounds. The implication for poverty is not immediately clear - the poor may be pushed into low-return casual non-farm activities due to lack of opportunities in the agricultural sector rather than being pulled by high returns offered by the non-farm sector. Econometric estimates reveal that expansion of the non-farm sector is associated with falling poverty via two routes: a direct impact on poverty that is likely due to a pro-poor marginal incidence of non-farm employment expansion; and an indirect impact attributable to the positive effect of non-farm employment growth on agricultural wages. The analysis also confirms the important contribution to rural poverty reduction from agricultural productivity, availability of land, and consumption levels in proximate urban areas. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4858&r=dev |
| By: | Robinson, Jonathan; Yeh, Ethan |
| Abstract: | Formal and informal commercial sex work is a way of life for many poor women in developing countries. Though sex workers have long been identified as crucial in affecting the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the nature of sex-for-money transactions remains poorly understood. Using a unique panel dataset constructed from 192 self-reported sex worker diaries which include detailed information on sexual behavior, labor supply, and health shocks, the authors find that sex workers adjust their supply of risky, better compensated sex to cope with unexpected health shocks, exposing themselves to increased risk of HIV infection. In particular, women are 3.1 percent more likely to see a client, 21.2 percent more likely to have anal sex, and 19.1 percent more likely to have unprotected sex on days in which a household member falls ill. Women also increase their supply of risky sex on days after missing work due to symptoms from a sexually transmitted infection. Given that HIV prevalence has been estimated at 9.8 percent in this part of Kenya, these behavioral responses entail significant health risks for sex workers and their partners, and suggest that sex workers are unable to cope with risk through other formal or informal consumption smoothing mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Adolescent Health,Gender and Health,Disease Control&Prevention,Health Monitoring&Evaluation |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4857&r=dev |
| By: | Bandyopadhyay, Simanti; Rao, M. Govinda |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview of the fiscal problems faced by five urban agglomerations in India, namely, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, and Pune. It analyzes the fiscal health of the five urban agglomerations, quantifies their revenue capacities and expenditure needs, and draws policy recommendations on the means to reduce the gaps between revenue raising capacities and expenditure needs. The main findings suggest that, except for five small urban local bodies in Hyderabad, the others are not in a position to cover their expenditure needs by their present revenue collections. All the urban agglomerations have unutilized potential for revenue generation; however, with the exception of Hyderabad, they would fail to cover their expenditure needs even if they realized their revenue potential. Except in Chennai, larger corporations are more constrained than smaller urban local bodies. The paper recommends better utilization of"own revenue"through improved administration of property taxes, implementation of other taxes, and collection of user charges. It recommends that state governments should explore the option of allowing local bodies to piggyback a small proportion on their value-added tax collections. Another way to reduce the fiscal gap would be to earmark a portion of the sales proceeds from land and housing by state governments sold through their development agencies for improvements in urban infrastructure. The paper also recommends that the State Finance Commissions should develop appropriate norms for estimating expenditure needs, based on which transfers from the state to local governments can be decided. |
| Keywords: | Public Sector Economics&Finance,Debt Markets,Municipal Financial Management,Public Sector Management and Reform,Banks&Banking Reform |
| Date: | 2009–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4863&r=dev |
| By: | Sinha, Nistha; Yoong, Joanne |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and encourage investment in daughters'education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth). Since 1994, eligible parents in Haryana have been offered a financial incentive if they give birth to a daughter. The incentive consists of an immediate cash grant and a long-term savings bond redeemable on the daughter's 18th birthday provided she is unmarried, with additional bonuses for education. Although no specific program participation data are available, we estimate early intent-to-treat program effects on mothers (sex ratio among live children, fertility preferences) and children (mother's use of antenatal care, survival, nutritional status, immunization, schooling) using statewide household survey data on fertility and child health, and constructing proxies for household and individual program eligibility. The results based on this limited data imply that Apni Beti Apna Dhan had a positive effect on the sex ratio of living children, but inconclusive effects on mothers'preferences for having female children as well as total desired fertility. The findings also show that parents increased their investment in daughters'human capital as a result of the program. Families made greater post-natal health investments in eligible girls, with some mixed evidence of improving health status in the short and medium term. Further evidence also suggests that the early cohort of eligible school-age girls was not significantly more likely to attend school; however, conditional on first attending any school, they may be more likely to continue their education. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Youth and Governance,Adolescent Health,Gender and Health |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4860&r=dev |
| By: | Khandker, Shahidur R.; Barnes, Douglas F.; Samad, Hussain A. |
| Abstract: | Lack of access to electricity is one of the major impediments to growth and development of the rural economies in developing countries. That is why access to modern energy, in particular to electricity, has been one of the priority themes of the World Bank and other development organizations. Using a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2005 of some 20,000 households in rural Bangladesh, this paper studies the welfare impacts of households'grid connectivity. Based on rigorous econometric estimation techniques, this study finds that grid electrification has significant positive impacts on households'income, expenditure, and educational outcomes. For example, the gain in total income due to electrification can be as much as 30 percent and as low as 9 percent. Benefits go up steadily as household exposure to grid electrification (measured by duration) increases and eventually reach a plateau. This paper also finds that rich households benefit more from electrification than poor households. Finally, estimates also show that income benefits of electrification on an average exceed cost by a wide margin. |
| Keywords: | Energy Production and Transportation,Access to Finance,Engineering,Electric Power,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4859&r=dev |
| By: | Fuwa, Nobuhiko; Ito, Seiro; Kudo, Kensuke; Kurosaki, Takashi; Sawada, Yasuyuki |
| Abstract: | Using a unique dataset obtained from rural Andhra Pradesh, India that contains direct observations of household access to credit and detailed time use, results of this study indicate that credit market failures lead to a substantial reallocation of time used by children for activities such as schooling, household chores, remunerative work, and leisure. The negative effects of credit constraints on schooling amount to a 60% decrease of average schooling time. However, the magnitude of decrease due to credit constraints is about half that of the increase in both domestic and remunerative child labor, the other half appearing to come from a reduction in leisure. |
| Keywords: | Child labor, Schooling, Gender bias, Credit constraint, Household models |
| JEL: | I21 I22 J22 O12 O16 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper183&r=dev |
| By: | Rasyad A. Parinduri (Nottingham University Business School - Malaysia Campus); Shandre M. Thangavelu (Department of Economics, National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of remittances on the migrant households consumption and saving patterns as well as their living standard using the Indonesia Family Life Survey data. Using matching - and difference-in-differences matching estimators, we find that remittances seem to change the household consumption patterns. However, we do not find strong evidence that indicates remittances improve these households' living standard. Moreover, it seems that remittance households do not enjoy better education or healthcare, which suggests that remittances may not play an important role in speeding up economic development through these two means. If anything, we show that remittance households manage to invest some of their income in the traditional forms of investment such as in house and jewelry (i.e., gold). |
| Keywords: | Remittances; Matching estimator |
| JEL: | D64 D82 F22 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nom:nubsmc:2008-02&r=dev |
| By: | Alexander Stroh (GIGA Institute of African Affairs) |
| Abstract: | Recent publications suggest that exclusively ethnoregional parties are as rare in sub- Saharan Africa as elsewhere. At the same time, the idea that ethnicity is a very special feature of African party politics persists. The paper acknowledges the general relevance of ethnicity in party competition but emphasizes the level on which it becomes important. It develops a microbehavioral approach which pays particular attention to the strategic choices of party elites in order to supplement the dominant structuralist thinking in party research on Africa. An in-depth evaluation of detailed election data from Burkina Faso shows that strategies which rely on personal proximity between the voter and the candidates influence the parties’ success to a great extent. Parties maximize their chances of winning seats if they concentrate their limited resources on the home localities of leading party members. Hence, African party politics are less dependent on ethnic demography than is often implied but more open to change through elite behavior. |
| Keywords: | political parties, Burkina Faso, elections, local mobilization, resource efficiency, son of the soil |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:96&r=dev |
| By: | Nistha Sinha; Joanne Yoong |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and to encourage investments in daughters' education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth). Since 1994, eligible parents in Haryana are offered a financial incentive if they give birth to a daughter. The incentive consists of an immediate cash grant and a long-term savings bond redeemable upon the daughter's 18th birthday provided she is unmarried, with additional bonuses for education. While no specific program participation data is available, the authors estimate early intent-to-treat program effects on mothers (sex ratio among live children, fertility preferences) and children (mother's use of antenatal care, survival, nutritional status, immunization, schooling) using statewide household survey data on fertility and child health and constructing proxies for household and individual program eligibility. Their results based on this limited data imply that Apni Beti Apna Dhan had a positive effect on the sex ratio of living children, but inconclusive effects on mothers' preferences for having female children as well as total desired fertility. They also find that parents increased their investment in daughters' human capital as a result of the program. Families made greater post-natal health investments in eligible girls, with some mixed evidence of improving health status in the short and medium term. Further evidence also suggests that the early cohort of eligible school-age girls are not significantly more likely to attend school; however, conditional on first attending any school, they may be more likely to continue their education. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:667&r=dev |
| By: | Jens Krüger |
| Abstract: | The literature on firm heterogeneity in international trade posits that only the most productive firms become exporters (Melitz 2003). However, empirical findings suggest that also firms that are not highly productive export. This paper investigates empirically how firms organize their export trade. If selling directly, sunk costs of foreign market entry are arguably very high, so only productive firms can achieve this (Schroeder et al. 2003). Low productivity firms, by contrast, may prefer to export through trading companies, which involves lower sunk costs. Using a firm level panel data set of Ghanaian firms we investigate the relationship between firm productivity and the use of export intermediaries. Our estimation results take simultaneity problems into account and reveal that indeed low productivity firms tend to export through intermediaries |
| Keywords: | export intermediation, firm productivity |
| JEL: | D21 F14 L22 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieasw:449&r=dev |
| By: | Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya |
| Abstract: | Both theoretical and empirical literature has identified several channels through which FDI influence economic growth in Latin America. This study however examines the impact on economic output growth using aggregate production function augmented with FDI inflows, policy reforms and the interaction between the two for 22 Latin American countries over 1980-2006 period. The results demonstrate the importance of FDI inflows and policy reforms on economic output growth. Though the interaction between the two highlights complimentary affect, the results are not significant. On the other hand, both FDI and reforms influence economic growth only post 1990s, the period in which many Latin American countries initiated drastic economic policy reforms. Despite these positive outcomes, the coefficient of FDI on economic growth is found to be smaller. This is because, though absolute FDI inflows have increased in the region over the years, the rate of growth of FDI in comparison to other developing regions like Asia is very low. The share of Latin American FDI to total developing countries declined from 1970 to 2006. This suggests that even though there is a positive impact of FDI and policy reforms on economic growth, this effect is only marginal and Latin America as an investment destination is less attractive than other developing regions like Asia today. |
| Keywords: | FDI; Economic growth; Policy reforms; Latin America |
| JEL: | N16 F21 O4 |
| Date: | 2009–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14133&r=dev |