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on Development |
| By: | Berardi, N. |
| Abstract: | We develop a theoretical framework that considers the role played by moral hazard and the diversity of networks and cultures in the choice of hiring channel. In favoritism contexts social networks, and particularly strong ties, are adopted as hiring channels for unskilled jobs and result in wage penalties, while otherwise the opposite happens. We estimate an endogenous switching model for the case of Senegal's manufacturing formal sector and find, consistently with our theoretical predictions in case of favoritism, that informal hiring channels are preferred to fill unskilled vacancies and are associated with a wage penalty, especially when ties are stronger. |
| Keywords: | Social networks, Hiring channel, Wage differential. |
| JEL: | O12 J31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:429&r=dev |
| By: | Huanxiu GUO; Mary-Françoise RENARD |
| Abstract: | Since 2003, a grass-roots movement of New Rural Reconstruction (NRR) has emerged in China to experience alternative model of rural development. The movement adopts a particular approach for rural development on basis of rural social and cultural reconstruction. In order to understand this social approach, we investigate an original NRR experiment in a poor village of south China, where organic farming is promoted by means of basketball game. An in-depth household survey is conducted to qualitatively analyze this social approach and derive intuitive hypothesis of extended social network for empirical test. With a panel structure dataset collected by the survey, we quantitatively identify the causal effect of social network by exploiting the endogeneity of social network formation. Our identification result provides micro evidence for a large social multiplier effect in the diffusion of organic farming, whereas it is negative for organic experts. Also, our results highlight the role of women, education and labor force for the development of organic farming. On basis of these results, we conclude that organic farming is suitable but challenging for small villages in China, while social activity is a good lever to achieve farmers' collective action for its large diffusion. |
| Keywords: | New rural reconstruction; Social network; Organic farming; China. D71, O33, Q55 |
| JEL: | Q55 O33 D71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1423&r=dev |
| By: | Tilman Brück; Sindu Workneh Kebede |
| Abstract: | This study aims to explore poverty measures, its dynamics and determinants using Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and consumption poverty. Our results show that the two measures assign similar poverty status to about 52 percent of households and that both approaches confirm poverty is mainly transient in rural Ethiopia. However, we find that the trend in adjusted head count poverty is different when using these two poverty measures. In terms of determinants of poverty dynamics, we find that household size matters in consumption poverty while we do not find significant effects on multidimensional poverty. Amongst the shocks, drought shock is found to affect consumption poverty but not multidimensional poverty. This implies that short-term shocks are more reflected in consumption poverty while the effect of simultaneous shocks is exhibited significantly on multidimensional poverty. Overall, our result provides empirical evidence on the importance of using both measures as complementary to get a full picture of poverty measure, dynamics and determinants. |
| Keywords: | poverty dynamics, consumption, multidimensional poverty index, rural Ethiopia |
| JEL: | I32 O12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1287&r=dev |
| By: | ADRIENNE M. LUCAS (Department of Economics,University of Delaware); NICHOLAS L.WILSON (Department of Economics, Williams College) |
| Abstract: | One in five Zambian children lives with an HIV/AIDS-infected adult. We estimate the effect that the availability of adult antiretroviral therapy (ART) has on the health of such children. Using a triple difference specification, we find that adult access to ART resulted in increased weight-for-age and decreased incidence of stunting among children younger than 60 months who resided with an infected father or other infected adult in an intact household. Because the increased availability of adult ART in sub-Saharan Africa has multigenerational effects, cost-effectiveness estimates restricted to direct recipients understate the economic benefit of the treatment. |
| Keywords: | antiretroviral therapy, HIV, health, anthropometrics, children, Zambia |
| JEL: | I12 I15 J13 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:13-02.&r=dev |
| By: | ADRIENNE M. LUCAS (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | Primary school enrollments have increased rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa, spurring concerns about low levels of learning. We analyze field experiments in Kenya and Uganda that assessed whether the Reading to Learn program, implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation in both countries, improved early-grade literacy as measured by common assessments. We find that Ugandan literacy (in Lango) increased by 0.2s. We find a smaller effect (0.08s) on a Kenyan literacy test in Swahili. We find no evidence that differential effects are explained by baseline differences in students or classrooms, or by implementation fidelity. We conclude that differences between countries can likely be attributed to differential effective exposure to the literacy treatment in the tested languages. Students in Kenya were tested in Swahili, which is not necessarily the primary language of instruction, despite official policy. |
| Keywords: | education, literacy, teacher training, Kenya, Uganda, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | I2 O15 H52 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:13-03.&r=dev |
| By: | Tripathi, Sabyasachi |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to analyze the recent past trends and patterns of urbanization, urban economic growth, and urban equity measured by urban poverty and inequality in India. In addition, it reviews the different urban development policies and programmes which are undertaken in different Plan Periods in India. The analysis shows that higher rate of urbanization is associated with higher economic growth, lower level of poverty and higher extent of inequality in urban India. Finally, the study suggests that Indian government needs to speed up the urbanization rate as it contributes higher share of national GDP by reducing urban poverty and inequality. |
| Keywords: | Urbanization, Economic Growth, Inequality, Poverty, Urban India. |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45537&r=dev |
| By: | James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University); Yongzheng Liu (Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | In the late 1990s, China enacted a rural tax reform known as the "Tax-for-Fee Reform" (TFR), largely driven by a desire to address farmers' complaints about their perception of a heavy and regressive tax burden. This paper examines the impact of the TFR on inequality in rural villages in China. Our results suggest an effective role of the TFR in reducing inequality within villages. Its impact on a consumption-based measure of inequality took effect immediately; its impact on per capita household income inequality took somewhat longer. Our results also suggest that it is "rich" and/or "coastal" villages that exhibited a significant reduction of inequality from the TFR, while "poor" and/or "inland" villages experienced no significant changes in inequality from the reform. |
| Keywords: | tax-for-fee reform, inequality, rural China |
| JEL: | H7 I2 I3 O1 O5 P3 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1304&r=dev |
| By: | James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University); Yongzheng Liu (Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | China enacted a rural tax reform – the "Tax-for-Fee Reform" (TFR) – in the late 1990s. A crucial but unanswered question is whether this reform improved farmers' welfare in rural areas. This paper uses village-level survey data from the Chinese Household Income Project in order to examine the effect of the TFR on farmers' direct and indirect welfare. We find no evidence that the direct welfare effects improved farmer's net income. In contrast, the reform appears to have reduced the villages' financing capacity, and hence to have lowered their overall expenditures. These indirect effects have had significant negative impacts on farmers' welfare. |
| Keywords: | tax-for-fee reform, inequality, rural China |
| JEL: | H7 I2 I3 O1 O5 P3 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1305&r=dev |
| By: | Andreas Assiotis; Kevin Sylwester |
| Abstract: | Many studies examining whether corruption lowers economic growth do not consider if the effects of corruption differ across countries. Whether corruption produces the same effects everywhere or whether its effects are conditional on some country characteristics is an important question. We investigate the association between corruption and growth, where the marginal impact of corruption is allowed to differ across democratic and non democratic regimes. Using cross-country, annual data from 1984 to 2007, we regress growth on corruption, democracy, and their interaction. We find that decreases in corruption raise growth but more so in authoritarian regimes. Possible reasons are in autocracies corruption causes more uncertainty, is of a more pernicious nature, or is less substitutable with other forms of rent seeking. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth, Democracy, Corruption |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:06-2013&r=dev |