|
on Development |
| By: | Foreman-Peck, James (Cardiff Business School) |
| Abstract: | For several centuries, women's age at first marriage in Western Europe was higher than in the east (and in the rest of the world). Over the same period Western Europe began slow but sustained economic development relative to elsewhere. A model based on the economics of the household explains this association in two related ways. Both connect mortality, and the exercise of fertility restraint through higher marriage age, with greater human capital accumulation. The first explanation is simply an association but the second proposes a causal link where higher age of motherhood reduced the cost of investment in children. Evidence is provided that the causal process was operative in later nineteenth century Europe |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Household Production; Economic Development; 19th Century Europe |
| JEL: | N13 N33 O15 J12 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2009/15&r=dev |
| By: | Quamrul Ashraf; Oded Galor; Omer Ozak |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits cross-country variation in the degree of geographical isolation, prior to the advent of sea-faring and airborne transportation technologies, to examine its impact on the course of economic development across the globe. The empirical investigation establishes that prehistoric geographical isolation has generated a persistent beneficial effect on the process of development and contributed to the contemporary variation in the standard of living across countries. |
| Keywords: | Growth, Development; Isolation; Agglomeration; Globalization |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2009-9&r=dev |
| By: | Oded Galor |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the implications of Uni.ed Growth Theory for the origins of existing di¤erences in income per capita across countries. The theory sheds light on three fundamental layers of comparative development. It identi.es the factors that have governed the pace of the transitionfrom stagnation to growth and have thus contributed to contemporary variation in economic development. It uncovers the forces that have sparked the emergence of multiple growth regimes and convergence clubs, and it underlines the persistent e¤ects that variations in pre-historical biogeographical conditions have generated on the composition of human capital and economic development across the globe. |
| Keywords: | Growth; Comparative Development; Globalization; Technological Progress; Demographic Transition; Diversity; Human Capital; Malthusian Stagnation |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2009-10&r=dev |
| By: | Vernon Henderson; Adam Storeygard; David N. Weil |
| Abstract: | GDP growth is often measured poorly for countries and rarely measured at all for cities. We propose a readily available proxy: satellite data on lights at night. Our statistical framework uses light growth to supplement existing income growth measures. The framework is applied to countries with the lowest quality income data, resulting in estimates of growth that differ substantially from established estimates. We then consider a longstanding debate: do increases in local agricultural productivity increase city incomes? For African cities, we find that exogenous agricultural productivity shocks (high rainfall years) have substantial effects on local urban economic activity. |
| Keywords: | economic growth; remote sensing; urbanization; income measurement |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2009-8&r=dev |
| By: | Saviotti, Paolo; Pyka, Andreas |
| Abstract: | In this paper we are going to analyze the dynamics of barriers to entry at the international level. In our model economic development takes place and continues in the long run due to the emergence of new sectors, which can compensate for the diminishing ability of mature sectors to create employment and growth. Each new sector is created by a pervasive innovation, which creates a new market and into and out of which there are entry and exit of firms. Depending on the inter-temporal coordination of the maturation of older sectors and of the maturation of new ones our model can give rise to development paths with growth rates ranging from high to negative, to fluctuations, to bubbles and to chaos. In the construction of our model we found inspiration in a number of growth models, both endogenous and evolutionary as well as on empirical work on structural change. The model also bears some similarity of style to history friendly models. Its unique feature is that it gives rise to an endogenously variable number of sectors. Unless new sectors are exact substitutes of older ones the model gives rise to growing variety. In fact, the main objective for which the model was initially constructed was to test some propositions implying that variety growth is a necessary requirement for long term economic development. Within our model the ability to create new sectors at the right times is the crucial determinant of the growth potential of an economic system. Thus, inter country differences in the barriers to entry into new sectors can be expected to give rise to different rates of growth and in the end to increasingly skewed world income distribution. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change,Economic Development,Economic Variety,Entry Barriers |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fziddp:200903&r=dev |
| By: | Katsushi S. Imai; Xiaobing Wang; Woojin Kang |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:0913&r=dev |
| By: | Katsushi S. Imai |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:0914&r=dev |
| By: | Dasgupta, Basab; Narayan, Ambar; Skoufias, Emmanuel |
| Abstract: | Satisfaction surveys offer a potentially convenient and cost-effective means for measuring the quality of services. However, concerns about subjectivity and selection bias impede greater use of satisfaction data. This paper analyzes satisfaction data about health and educational services from the 2006 second round of the Governance and Decentralization Survey in Indonesia to assess whether satisfaction data can serve as reliable indicators of quality, despite dubiously high levels of reported satisfaction. The authors use an expectation disconfirmation model that posits that a user’s satisfaction with a facility improves with the (positive) difference between the actual quality of the facility and the household’s expected standard for quality, which is influenced by its socioeconomic characteristics. The findings show that, after taking into account the expectations of households, reported satisfaction does vary significantly with objective indicators of quality. The analysis also checks for possible selection bias affecting the results by using a two-stage selection model. The model yields policy-relevant insights into the aspects of service delivery that most affect satisfaction, highlights differences across rich and poor districts, and shows that once the role of expectations has been factored in, the variation in user satisfaction can be highly informative for policymakers and researchers alike. |
| Keywords: | Housing&Human Habitats,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Governance Indicators,Access to Finance,Education For All |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5033&r=dev |
| By: | Raballand, Gael; Macchi, Patricia; Merotto, Dino; Petracco, Carly |
| Abstract: | Based on extensive data collection in Uganda, this paper demonstrates that the rural access index, as defined today, should not be a government objective because the benefit of such investment is minimal, whereas achieving rural accessibility at less than 2 kilometers would require massive investments that are not sustainable. Taking into account the fact that plot size is limited on average to less than 1 hectare, a farmer’s transport requirement is usually minimal and does not necessarily involve massive investments in infrastructure. This is because most farmers cannot fully load a truck or pay for this service and, even if productivity were to increase significantly, the production threshold would not be reached by most individual farmers. Therefore, in terms of public policy, maintenance of the existing rural roads rather than opening new roads should be given priority; the district feeder road allocation maintenance formula should be revised to take into account economic potential and, finally, policy makers should devote their attention to innovative marketing models from other countries where smallholder loads are consolidated through private-based consolidators. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Rural Roads&Transport,Roads&Highways,Rural Transport,Markets and Market Access |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5036&r=dev |
| By: | Brixi, Hana |
| Abstract: | The study addresses governance challenges in public service delivery in China. It builds on the citizen scorecard survey conducted in five Chinese cities in 2006 to gauge citizens’ experience with public services, and demonstrates the usefulness of citizens’ feedback for policy development and implementation. The survey found that citizens were generally pleased with urban public services, but worried about the associated fees. Compared with the official urban residents, the urban poor and rural migrants in cities reported sharper utilization constraints, lower readiness to complain or pay informal fees, and a much larger income share spent on public services. The reported citizens’ perceptions sometimes diverged from the evidence and pointed to significant information asymmetries. Explaining the survey results, the study reveals problems of inadequacy, inequality and misaligned incentives in public resource allocation. The study presents several successful experiments reducing the dependence on user fees in basic education and primary healthcare. It recognizes that China has been undertaking comprehensive reforms to enhance equity and quality in public service delivery. Such reforms have included measures to strengthen the regulatory, monitoring, and enforcement systems and accountability relationships. In the context of the ongoing reforms, this study highlights the need to: a) hold the provincial governments accountable for public service delivery performance; b) develop effective mechanisms to align public resources and incentives at each level of government with the national priorities; and c) develop proper means to empower the citizens. In this context, the study affirms that the Chinese government is rightly placing reforms in the intergovernmental, administrative, and public finance systems at the top of its agenda. |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5030&r=dev |
| By: | Adhvaryu, Achyuta R.; Beegle, Kathleen |
| Abstract: | HIV/AIDS is drastically changing the demographic landscape in high-prevalence countries in Africa. The prime-age adult population bears the majority of the mortality burden. These “missing” prime-age adults have implications for the socioeconomic well-being of surviving family members. This study uses a 13-year panel from Tanzania to examine the impacts of prime-age mortality on the time use and health outcomes of older adults, with a focus on long-run impacts and gender dimensions. Prime-age deaths are weakly associated with increases in working hours of older women when the deceased adult was co-resident in the household. The association is strongest when the deceased adult was living with the elderly individual at the time of death and for deaths in the distant past, suggesting that shorter-run studies may not capture the full extent of the consequences of adult mortality for survivors. Holding more assets seems to buffer older adults from having to work more after these shocks. Most health indicators are not worse for older adults when a prime-age household member died, although more distant adult deaths are associated with an increased probability of acute illness for the surviving elderly. For deaths of children who were not residing with their parents at baseline, the findings show no impact on hours worked or health outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Health,Demographics,Gender and Social Development |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5037&r=dev |
| By: | Milanovic, Branko |
| Abstract: | Using social tables, the author makes an estimate of global inequality (inequality among world citizens) in the early 19th century. The analysis shows that the level and composition of global inequality have changed over the past two centuries. The level has increased, reaching a high plateau around the 1950s, and the main determinants of global inequality have become differences in mean country incomes rather than inequalities within nations. The inequality extraction ratio (the percentage of total inequality that was extracted by global elites) has remained surprisingly stable, at around 70 percent of the maximum global Gini, during the past 100 years. |
| Keywords: | Inequality,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Equity and Development,Services&Transfers to Poor,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5044&r=dev |
| By: | Fofack, Hippolyte |
| Abstract: | Over the past few decades, the foreign liabilities of the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have grown dramatically, propelling most nations into the status of Highly Indebted Poor Countries, when these liabilities reached unsustainable levels in the 1990s. At the same time, increases in capital flight from the region followed a parallel trend, leading scholars to draw on"revolving door"models to explain the apparent positive covariation of external debt and capital flight in the region. This paper investigates the causality between external debt and capital flight in a cross-section of Sub-Saharan African countries using co-integration and error-correction models. Although dual causality, which is consistent with the revolving door hypothesis, cannot be rejected for the majority of countries, empirical evidence highlights the lead of external debt over capital flight. The significance of error-correction terms points to a long-run co-integrating relationship between external debt and capital flight in a large number of countries. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,External Debt,Debt Markets,Deposit Insurance,Currencies and Exchange Rates |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5042&r=dev |
| By: | Raddatz, Claudio |
| Abstract: | The process of global climate change has been associated with an increase in the frequency of climatic disasters. Yet, there is still little systematic evidence on the macroeconomic costs of these episodes. This paper uses panel time-series techniques to estimate the short and long-run impact of climatic and other disasters on a country's GDP. The results indicate that a climate related disaster reduces real GDP per capita by at least 0.6 percent. Therefore, the increased incidence of these disasters during recent decades entails important macroeconomic costs. Among climatic disasters, droughts have the largest average impact, with cumulative losses of 1 percent of GDP per capita. Across groups of countries, small states are more vulnerable than other countries to windstorms, but exhibit a similar response to other types of disasters; and low-income countries responds more strongly to climatic disasters, mainly because of their higher response to droughts. However, a country's level of external debt has no relation to the output impact of any type of disaster. The evidence also indicates that, historically, aid flows have done little to attenuate the output consequences of climatic disasters. |
| Keywords: | Natural Disasters,Disaster Management,Hazard Risk Management,Pollution Management&Control,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5039&r=dev |
| By: | Do, Quy-Toan |
| Abstract: | During the Vietnam War, more than 70 million liters of military herbicide were sprayed over the combat zone. This study uses self and proxy-reported data on cancer status obtained from a nationally representative health survey of the Vietnamese population (N=158,019), combined with measures of military herbicide exposure computed from detailed information on US and allied wartime military activities. No significant difference in the prevalence of reported cancer is detected between communes with some degree of exposure and those with none. When restricting the analysis to exposed communes and adopting a continuous measure of herbicide exposure, there is evidence of a dose-response relationship; among communes that were exposed, increasing exposure to past military spraying is associated with increasing prevalence of reported cancer in 2001-2002. There is mixed evidence as to whether cohorts born before or after the end of the spraying campaigns are equally affected. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Disease Control&Prevention,Population Policies,Peace&Peacekeeping,Hazard Risk Management |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5041&r=dev |
| By: | Newhouse, David; Suryadarma, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between the type of senior high school attended by Indonesian youth and their subsequent labor market outcomes. This topic is very timely, given the government’s recent decision to dramatically expand vocational enrollment. The analysis controls for an unusually rich set of predetermined characteristics, and exploits longitudinal data spanning 14 years to separately identify cohort and age effects. There are four main findings. First, students are sorted into different school types largely on the basis of their entering exam score. Public schools attract the highest-scoring students, while private vocational schools serve the lowest-scoring students. Second, after controlling for a variety of characteristics, including test scores, male public school graduates earn a substantial premium over their privately schooled counterparts. Third, private vocational school graduates fare at least as well as private general graduates, despite coming from more disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Finally, the returns to public vocational education have declined sharply for the most recent cohort of men. This raises important concerns about the current expansion of public vocational education, and the relevance of the male vocational curriculum in an increasingly service-oriented economy. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Secondary Education,Education For All,Labor Markets,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5035&r=dev |
| By: | Chang, Roberto; Hevia, Constantino; Loayza, Norman |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the cycles of nationalization and privatization in resource-rich economies as a prime instance of unstable institutional reform. The authors discuss the available evidence on the drivers and consequences of privatization and nationalization, review the existing literature, and present illustrative case studies. This leads to the main contribution of the paper: a static and dynamic model of the choice between private and national regimes for the ownership of natural resources. In the model, the basic tradeoff is given by equality (national ownership) versus efficiency (private ownership). The connection between resource ownership and the equality-efficiency tradeoff is given by the incentives for effort that each regime elicits from workers. The resolution of the tradeoff depends on external and domestic conditions that affect the value of social welfare under each regime. This leads to a discussion of how external conditions—such as the commodity price—and domestic conditions—such as the tax system-- affect the choice of private vs. national regimes. In particular, the analysis identifies the determinants of the observed cycles of privatization and nationalization. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Political Economy,Emerging Markets,Labor Policies,Markets and Market Access |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5029&r=dev |
| By: | Sambit Bhattacharyya; Raghbendra Jha |
| Abstract: | In Is corruption influenced by economic growth? Are legal institutions such as the ‘Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005’ in India effective in curbing corruption? Using a novel panel dataset covering 20 Indian states and the periods 2005 and 2008 we estimate the causal effects of economic growth and law on corruption. To tackle endogeneity concerns we use forest share to total land area as an instrument for economic growth. We notice that forest share is a positive predictor of growth. This is in line with the view that forestry contributes positively to economic growth. To capture the effect of law on corruption we use the ‘difference-in-difference’ estimation method. Our results indicate that economic growth reduces overall corruption as well as corruption in banking, land administration, education, electricity, and hospitals. Growth however has little impact on corruption perception. In contrast the RTI Act reduces both corruption experience and corruption perception. Our basic result holds after controlling for state fixed effects and various additional covariates. It is also robust to alternative instruments and outlier sensitivity tests. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth; Law; Corruption |
| JEL: | D7 H0 K4 O1 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:asarcc:2009-15&r=dev |
| By: | Buchenrieder, Gertrud; Fritzsch, Jana; Wegener, Stefan; Curtiss, Jarmila; Gomez y Paloma, Sergio |
| Abstract: | Semi-subsistence farm households (SFHs) have persevered in Central and Southeastern Europe. An outlook on future perspectives of SFHs asks for reliable information on the phenomenon of SFHs and the impact of policy measures on their development options: (1) intensifying farming, (2) diversifying income creating activities, or (3) exiting farming for waged employment. This article focuses on SFHs and rural non-farm employment (RNFE). On the basis of a comparative 2007-survey of 489 SFHs in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, three countries with particularly many SFHs, four major types of SFHs (rural pensioners, farmers, rural diversifiers, rural newcomers) were identified. For policy analysis, a multiobjective linear programming household model was developed. In the model, labour can be devoted to (1) farming, (2) self-employment and (3) waged employment. The policy scenarios reflect different development options for SFHs: (1) farm development, (2) start selfemployment, (3) farm development and start self-employment, and (4) stop agriculture. Policy can foster the structural change but the modeling results show that fine targeting to the various types of semi-subsistence farms and country specificities is a strong precondition for success. |
| Keywords: | Semi-subsistence, rural non-farm economy, policy analysis, transition countries, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, C61, P27, Q12, |
| Date: | 2009–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa111:52804&r=dev |
| By: | Apata, T.G.; Rahji, M.A.Y.; Samuel, K.D.; Igbalajobi, O.A |
| Abstract: | Small farmers are one of the more disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in Nigeria. Studies have shown that majority of people living in absolute poverty can be found on small farms with half in this group undernourished. The study examined heterogeneity in circumstances and diversity in rural agriculture, the persistence of small farms, poverty and institutional development and facilities. Data for this study came from Nigerian living Standard Survey (NLSS) which covered the two periods 1994/2004. The data set consists of 9550 respondentsâ but only 8264 cases were useful for this study. The index of heterogeneity at 29.1 indicated persistence of small farms in the two periods under consideration. Persistence of small farms and poverty are closely related (r = 0.674). The poverty differential in the two surveys data revealed that poverty increased by 14.72%. Disaggregation analysis indicated that institutional development and facilities improved farm outputs, diversification to non-farm and reduction in poverty. Access to these institutional facilities can enable the small farmers to rearticulate their livelihood activities. Policy makers need to show more commitment to develop agriculture through identifying and providing the capacity need of small farmers in order for them to absorb and used whatever modern techniques introduced. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity index, Poverty Differential, Institutional Development, Structural Constraints, Nigeria, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, |
| Date: | 2009–08–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa111:53001&r=dev |
| By: | Malek, Mohammad Abdul; Usami, Koichi |
| Abstract: | The study aims at estimating comprehensive effects of non-farm employments (NFEs) on poverty based on an intensive field survey conducted in 2008 on about 175 small landholding households in developed four villages of Comilla Sadar Upazila. We analyze participating factors of small household workers in NFEs and their effects on household production (farming and non-farm activities) and consumption (both food and non-food). For estimating consumption effects (poverty), we focus on food adequacy, income poverty and education poverty (as a part of human poverty). At each level of estimation, we depend on appropriate econometric regressions. Results find the significant positive role of overall NFEs on household NFAs rather faming. Remittance incomes do not contribute in household production either farming or non-farm activities and food adequacy; and thus, these must be spent on non-food consumption. Education-poverty levels are worse than income poverty levels among small households. The increasing NFI is reducing some income poverty, but it is yet to realize in achieving household education; however, access to formal sector employments by the small household workers is significantly reducing education poverty. Therefore, qualitative diversification of the poor household workers and productive use of household remittance incomes deserve special attention. |
| Keywords: | Non-farm employments, household economy, production, consumption, income poverty, education poverty, Bangladesh, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, J43, O15, Q12, Q17, R15, |
| Date: | 2009–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa111:52811&r=dev |
| By: | Owuor, George |
| Abstract: | With access to formal credit proving almost impossible to smallholder farmers, group based lending is steadily becoming popular in Africa. However, little is documented on the role of such programmes. In this paper, we employ propensity score matching and endogenous switching regime methods on a sample of 600 smallholder farmers drawn from two agricultural regions in Kenya in 2007. The goal of the survey was to evaluate the economic impact of group based credit programmes on smallholder farmersâ productive performance and poverty reduction in Kenya. Our findings reveal gains with significant impacts of group based credit on incomes in the range of 300 and 480 euros as well as via purchased inputs, with participation in such credit programmes significantly constrained by low literacy levels prevalent among a majority of rural farm households, influence of gender, with female headed households dominating in membership and little participation on the part of male headed households, poor rural access road infrastructure and constraints in group management resulting from lack of cohesion as the group grows in membership. These factors form the key recommendations for policy intervention to achieve sustainability of group based informal lending among farm households in Africa and other similar developing nations. |
| Keywords: | Informal Micro-Finance, Smallholder Farmers, Performance in Kenya, Agricultural Finance, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2009–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa111:52806&r=dev |
| By: | Mittal, Surabhi; Gandhi, Sanjay; Tripathi, Gaurav |
| Abstract: | Telecommunication and more specially mobile phones have the potential to provide solution to the existing information asymmetry in various lagging sectors like Agriculture. Indiaâs agricultural sector suffers from low growth rates and low productivity. Issues in access to information is a week point at every stage of the agrisupply chain. For small farmers base economy like India, access to information can possible enable better incomes and productivity to the farmers. This paper through focus group discussions and in-depth interview with farmers in villages of India, has tried to find answers to the use and impact of mobile and mobile enabled services on agricultural productivity. The answers to these questions are of relevance to develop better policy environment conducive for the small and medium farmers and has implications for mobile operators, for information service providers, and for policy-makers. The results show that although, mobiles can act as catalyst to improving productivity and rural incomes, the quality of the information, the timeliness of the information and trustworthiness of the information are the three important aspects that has to be delivered to the farmers, to meet there needs and expectations. There exist critical binding constraints that restricts the ability of the farming community to realise gains at full potential and this is more for the small than to large farmers. |
| Keywords: | Mobile and Agriculture, India, Productivity, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Marketing, Production Economics, Q13, Q16, Q18, |
| Date: | 2009–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa111:52809&r=dev |
| By: | Duc, Tung Phung; Waibel, Hermann |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the relationship between the allocation of labor and land of the households, the number of crops grown and the number of income sources of the households with different types of shocks and risks. It uses the data from the first phase of the household survey in three provinces of Central of Vietnam, conducted within the scope of the DFG research project âImpact of shocks on the vulnerability to poverty: consequences for development of emerging Southeast Asian economiesâ. The results suggest that the households diversify their portfolio (labor and land) into different income generating activities in order to cope with shocks. Among the different types of shocks and risks, agriculture and economic shocks and risks are the main factors to explain the (ex-post) risk-coping strategies and the (ex-ante) risk management of the households. The number of crops grown and the number of income sources from the households experienced with shocks are higher than others. In addition, the high-risk expectation households diversify their labor and land more than the low risk expectation households. The access to credit and market, the number of household labor, the education of the household head, and the wealth of the household are also very important factors that impact on the diversification level of the households. |
| Keywords: | Diversification, risk management, risk coping strategies, Vietnam, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gaae09:53255&r=dev |
| By: | Hein Roelfsema; Martijn Boermans; Yi Zhang |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate the factors that drive the uneven regional distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to China.s 31 provinces from 1995 to 2006. The aim of this paper is to explain the investment patterns in (partly) foreign funded firms across these provinces. We use factor analysis and derive four factors that may drive FDI: institutions, labor costs, market potential, and geography. The factor analysis then structures our dataset to concentrate on these four clusters consisting of 42 province specific and time-varying items. Factor analysis not only helps us to identify the latent dimensions which are not apparent from direct study, but also facilitates econometrics with reduced number of variables. We apply fixed effects panel estimation and GMM to account for endogeneity. In line with theoretical predictions we find that foreign investors choose and invest more in provinces with better institutions, lower labor costs, and larger market size. Nonlinear results denote that the positive effects of infrastructure and market potential on FDI are complementary to each other, which is in line with the economic geography literature. In particular the effect of market size on FDI is larger in provinces with better institutions. Sub-sample study confirms the existences of a large disparity between East and West. In the poorer large western provinces FDI is strongly driven by the geographical factor in contrast to the east of China where institutions play a significant role to build the .factory of the world.. Robustness tests indicate that two sub-dimensions of institutions, namely infrastructure and governance, are important to determine the location choice of FDI in China. |
| Keywords: | FDI, China, factors analysis, regional and spatial distribution of FDI, location choice |
| JEL: | F21 F23 O18 O53 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0923&r=dev |
| By: | Eva Nurwita (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | Migration is an unavoidable problem for economic development in third world countries. Indonesia is an archipelagic country with high viscosity of its population’s internal migration. Over flooding wave of internal migration from periphery region to the core of growth poles increases the spatial disparities between regions. Not only for the labor force at their productive age, empirical evidences revealed the fact that the wave also involved children to work as a child labor. This research tries to estimate how does poverty in periphery determines the wave of migration toward urban agglomeration region as their core. Using data from the Indonesian Census 2000 for Java Island, global spatial effect and local statistics was estimated by spatial econometrics method. |
| Keywords: | Child Labor, Internal Migration, Spatial Econometrics |
| JEL: | O15 J13 C31 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:200912&r=dev |
| By: | Gabriel Leon |
| Abstract: | One of the most striking institutional features of many less developed countries is that their militaries are closely involved in policy-making, potentially having a large impact on economic outcomes. This paper examines the role of the military in setting policy. For this purpose it develops one of the first models of the military, where its political involvement can take two forms: direct when the military runs the government, and indirect when it influences policy without governing directly. We focus on civilian regimes and find that war decreases the payoff to the military from both forms of involvement, but also makes staging successful coups easier. In equilibrium, an increase in the likelihood of war makes indirect involvement less likely; its impact on coups, which are aimed at establishing direct control, is non-monotonic. We show empirical evidence for this non-monotonic relationship, withcoups being least likely for low and high probabilities of war. |
| Keywords: | institutions, conflict, political economy, military, war, coups |
| JEL: | O38 O17 H11 H56 D72 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:012&r=dev |
| By: | Timothy Besley; Maitreesh Ghatak |
| Abstract: | This chapter develops a unified analytical framework, drawing on and extending theexisting literature on the subject, for studying the role of property rights in economicdevelopment. It addresses two fundamental and related questions concerning therelationship between property rights and economic activity. (i) What are themechanisms through which property rights affect economic activity? (ii) What arethe determinants of property rights? In answering these, it surveys some of the mainempirical and theoretical ideas from the extensive literature on the topic. |
| Keywords: | Property rights, Economic development. |
| JEL: | K11 O17 P14 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:006&r=dev |
| By: | Kulsoom, Rafia |
| Abstract: | Child labor is one of the problems that occur as a result of responses to the economic problems faced by vulnerable children. Keeping in view the theoretical background of existence of child labor across the world, the study analyzes the incidence of child labor from Rawalpindi city of Pakistan. It also empirically investigates the household demographics and incidence of child labor. The earning and participation functions were estimated for a sample of 150 children. All the coefficients and overall model was observed to be statistically significant. |
| Keywords: | Child Labor, Labor Supply |
| JEL: | J0 |
| Date: | 2009–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17224&r=dev |
| By: | Eric V. Edmonds; Norbert Schady |
| Abstract: | How important are subsistence concerns in a family’s decision to send a child to work? We consider this question in Ecuador, where poor families are selected at random to receive a cash transfer that is equivalent to 7 percent of monthly expenditures. Winning the cash transfer lottery is associated with a decline in work for pay away from the child's home. The cash transfer is greater than the rise in schooling costs that comes with the end of primary school, but it is less than 20 percent of the income paid to child laborers in the labor market. Despite being less than foregone earnings, poor families seem to use the lottery award to delay the child's entry into paid employment and protect the child's schooling status. Schooling expenditures rise with the lottery, but total expenditures in the household decline relative to the control population because of foregone child labor earnings. |
| JEL: | I38 J22 J82 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15345&r=dev |