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on Development |
| By: | Margaret S. McMillan; William A. Masters; Harounan Kazianga |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the role of tropical disease in rural demography and land use rights, using data from Onchocerciasis (river blindness) control in Burkina Faso. We combine a new survey of village elders with historical census data for 1975-2006 and geocoded maps of treatment under the regional Onchocerciasis Control Program (OCP). The OCP ran from 1975 to 2002, first spraying rivers to stop transmission and then distributing medicine to help those already infected. Controlling for time and village fixed effects, we find that villages in treated areas acquired larger populations and also had more cropland transactions, fewer permits required for cropland transactions, and more regulation of common property pasture and forest. These effects are robust to numerous controls and tests for heterogeneity across the sample, including time-varying region fixed effects. Descriptive statistics suggest that treated villages also acquired closer access to electricity and telephone service, markets, wells and primary schools, with no difference in several other variables. These results are consistent with both changes in productivity and effects of population size on public institutions. |
| JEL: | I00 Q0 Q00 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19245&r=dev |
| By: | Campos-Vazquez, Raymundo M.; Velez, Roberto |
| Abstract: | Using a national representative sample for Mexico, we analyse the effect of a husband having a working mother on the probability that he has a working wife. Our results show that labour force participation by a husband’s mother increases the probability of the labour force participation of his wife by 15 percentage points. The effect is mainly driven by males with less than a high school education. One possible confounding factor is the effect of labour force participation of the wife’s mother on the wife’s labour participation decision. However, in a different sample, we do not find any effect of work force participation of wives’ mothers on wives’ decisions to join the labour force. Finally, we test the effect of the work force participation of a husband’s mother on the husband’s preferences regarding child-rearing practices. We find that having a working mother strongly reduces the probability that daughters will be tasked to care for siblings and fosters preferences for a more egalitarian allocation of educational resources among children. Hence, promoting female labour force participation can have important dynamic implications, especially for developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Female Labour Supply; Family; Preferences; Social Norms; Role Models |
| JEL: | D10 J12 J16 J22 O54 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48282&r=dev |
| By: | Nguyen, Thi Minh Hieu; Nguyen, Thi Huong Giang; Vu, Thi Minh Ngoc; Nguyen, Viet Duc |
| Abstract: | This paper examines impacts of income from informal employment and informal sector employment on poverty in Vietnam to define whether the informal economy is an accelerator or a decelerator of poverty. Using data from Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys, we find that although income from informal sources does not account for a large proportion to total income of the poor households in comparison with the non-poorhouseholds, it significantly contributes to poverty reduction. Without earnings from informal sources, 33.4 per cent of the surveyed households in 2010 live under the poverty line and this rate is only 10.34 per cent if informal income is added up. Both probit and quantile analysis affirms that informal earnings significantly mitigate poverty. Interesting findings from quantile regression are that informal earnings have divergent effects across distribution of household income. Particularly, it is a factor reducing poverty in poor households but it negatively affects the economic capacity of the rich households. The policy implication derived from empirical results is that poverty program should be associated with supporting policy for informal employees with low income so that they can improve their living standards. |
| Keywords: | informal economy, poverty |
| JEL: | I32 O17 |
| Date: | 2013–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48378&r=dev |
| By: | Jose Manuel Roche |
| Abstract: | Important steps have been taken at international summits to set up goals and targets to improve the wellbeing of children worldwide. Now the world also has more and better data to monitor progress. This paper presents a new approach to monitoring progress in child poverty reduction based on the Alkire and Foster adjusted headcount ratio and an array of complementary techniques. A theoretical discussion is accompanied by an assessment of child poverty reduction in Bangladesh based on four rounds of the Demographic Household Survey (1997-2007). Emphasis is given to dimensional monotonicity and decomposability as desirable properties of multidimensional poverty measures. Complementary techniques for analysing changes over time are also illustrated, including the Shapley decomposition of changes in overall poverty, as well as a range of robustness tests and statistical significance tests. The results from Bangladesh illustrate the value added of these new tools and the information they provide for policy. The analysis reveals two paths to multidimensional poverty reduction - either decreasing the incidence of poverty or its intensity - and exposes an uneven distribution of national gains across geographical divisions. The methodology allows an integrated analysis of overall changes yet simultaneously examines progress in each region and in each dimension, retaining the positive features of dashboard approaches. The empirical evidence highlights the need to move beyond the headcount ratio towards new measures of child poverty that reflect the intensity of poverty and multiple deprivations that affect poor children at the same time. |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp057&r=dev |
| By: | Sabina Alkire and Maria Emma Santos |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a measure of acute poverty, understood as a person's inability to meet simultaneously minimum international standards in indicators related to the Millennium Development Goals and to core functionings. It constitutes the first implementation of the direct method to measure poverty for over 100 developing countries. After presenting the MPI, we analyse its scope and robustness, with a focus on the data challenges and methodological issues involved in constructing and estimating it. A range of robustness tests indicate that the MPI offers a reliable framework that can complement global income poverty estimates. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp059&r=dev |
| By: | Sabina Alkire and Suman Seth |
| Abstract: | India has witnessed high economic growth since the 1980s, and a reduction in the share of income poor, though the measured extent of this reduction varies, has been confirmed by different methods. Poverty, however, has multiple dimensions, hence this paper explores the improvement in other social deprivations. An analysis of poverty from a multidimensional perspective shows the prevalence of multiple overlapping deprivations among the poor. This paper analyses the change in multidimensional poverty in India between 1999 and 2006 using National Family and Health Surveys. We find a strong reduction in national poverty driven relatively more by some of the standard of living indicators, such as electricity, housing condition, access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation facilities, than other social indicators. The reduction, however, has not been uniform across different population subgroups and the pattern of reduction across states has been less pro-poor that of income poverty. In addition, the poorer subgroups have shown slower progress, widening the inter-group disparity in multidimensional poverty. In order to examine trends among the poorest of the poor, we define two additional subgroups of the poor and find that multidimensional poverty reduction has been accompanied by even stronger reductions in the share of the poorest of the poor by both definitions. The in-depth analysis pursued in this paper can also be conducted for other developing countries. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp060&r=dev |
| By: | Sabina Alkire, Jose Manuel Roche and Andy Sumner |
| Abstract: | This paper asks where do the world's multidimensionally poor people live? The paper considers how the global distribution of multidimensional poverty differs from the global distribution of income poverty and assesses the sensitivity of findings to widely used (although somewhat arbitrary) country classifications. Surprisingly perhaps, only a quarter of multidimensionally poor people and just one-third of severely multidimensionally poor people live in the world's poorest countries - meaning Low Income Countries (LICs) or Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The sensitivity of findings about country thresholds for low and middle-income countries is discussed. The paper argues that there is a split of distribution poverty between both stable Middle Income Countries (MICs) and low-income fragile states, and that there is a 'multidimensional bottom billion' living in stable MICs. The analysis is based on 83 countries, and uses the 2011 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) poverty estimates of the UNDP Human Development Report. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp061&r=dev |
| By: | Johane Dikgang and Edwin Muchapondwa |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the impact of land restitution involving the Khomani San “bushmen†in the Kgalagadi area of South Africa. It seeks to test whether there is a positive correlation between land restitution and poverty reduction among the beneficiaries. We run instrumental variable probit models on poverty and access to nature. Our results suggest that using restituted land by the claimants’ has no positive effect on poverty alleviation. However, a positive link with greater access to nature is established. Therefore, land restitution should become part of a broader, carefully crafted rural developmental strategy for it to be effective. Otherwise land restitution risks enabling indigenous communities to continue with their “traditional†way of life and, in fact, keep them poor. |
| Keywords: | Access to nature, Instrumental variable, Khomani San, Land restitution, poverty |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:352&r=dev |
| By: | Arief Anshory Yusuf (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Irlan Adiyatma Rum (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | Using a long series of household level survey data and more information on regional variation in the poor's living cost and inflation, we estimated the proportion of people living below 2005 PPP $2 a day. We found that for the period of 1990 to 2012, the $2 poverty incidence has been declining at an average rate of 2.2% per year leaving only 36.5% in 2012. The rate of the decline in the last ten years (or reformasi era, 2002-2012) has been faster (2.9% a year) than during the pre-reformasi era or the period of 1990-1996 (1.4% a year). This is in contrast to a rather slow rate of the decline in the poverty incidence with national poverty line during the reformasi era which was only 0.65% a year. We also found thatthe $2 poverty has been more concentrated among informal labor and agricultural workers. The difference between $2 poverty incidence in formal and informal labor was larger during the reformasiera, a sign that the informal labor has been rather left behind. During the reformasi era, the economic growth was a lot more income-inequalizing and a lot less pro-poor relative to growth during the period before the reformasiera. This applies to both the poor defined as those living below national poverty line or those living below $2 a day. |
| Keywords: | poverty, $2 per day, Indonesia |
| JEL: | J21 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201313&r=dev |
| By: | Arief Anshory Yusuf (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Irlan Adiyatma Rum (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | Using a long series of household level survey data,we calculated various indicators of income inequality to look at the long-run evolution of inequality in Indonesia for the period of 1990 to 2012. We found that over that particular period inequality in Indonesia has been rising quite significantly. However, the rise in the inequality is predominantly driven by the rising trend for the last 10 years after the Asian Financial Crisis or in the era of political reform and democratization. Before that period, inequality was relatively stable at the moderate level. The magnitude of the more recent rising inequality is rather spectacular. In ten years toward 2012, Gini coefficient and the decile dispersion ratio has increased by roughly 20% and 50% respectively. The rising inequality are more or less common across regional dimension, urban-rural or Java and non-Java regions. Moreover, we also found an inequality convergence across provinces in which the change in inequality was faster, the lower the initial level of the province's inequality. We found, however, no strong evidences of increasing inter-regional inequality in Indonesia for the same period. |
| Keywords: | inequality, Indonesia |
| JEL: | D63 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201314&r=dev |
| By: | Mohamad Fahmi (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Ben Satriatna (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | We use The National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) data from 1992 to 2012, to describe the condition of education development in Indonesia before and after the Reform Era. Historical data on education of Indonesia shows that this country has made a remarkable achievement in education development, which is indicated by a significant improvement on several education indicators. However, 1997-1998 Asian crisis is believed had slowed down the development of education sector in Indonesia. Three indicators areused in this study to measure the performance of education development, which are yearly schooling, net enrollment rate, and literacy rate. We found the gap of years of school between gender, region and income group is getting narrowed in the reform era. The net enrollment rate of all level of education also improved between 1992 and 2012. The gap between gender, region and income group also tends to be narrowed. However, we find that in several conditions the gap tends to be widened after the crisis. First case is between urban and rural people at elementary school. Second case is between income groups at elementary school. Third is between male and female at senior high school. Finally, the case is between income groups at tertiary education level. Literacy rate indicator also shows an improvement. The gap between different groups of people is also getting narrowed, except the gap between the rich and the poor. It tends to be widened after the crisis. The last indicator which is dropout rate also shows an improvement without interrupted by crisis. However, this is only happened at elementary school level. For the other level, the condition happened in different way. The gap between different groups of people is also narrowed after the reform era. |
| Keywords: | Education, Poverty, Indonesia |
| JEL: | I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201315&r=dev |
| By: | Pipit Pitriyan (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Adiatma Y.M Siregar (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | Indonesia significant progress in health outcomes is followed by significant issues, among them are the issues of inequities and inequalities. These two issues are known to be an important part in achieving plausible health outcome. This study attempts to observe disparity reduction and its acceleration rate in selected health indicators (i.e. access to improved water source and sanitation facility, first-child birth attended by health care worker) over a period of the last 15 years. We analyze the health indicators by clusters of expenditure quintile and regions (urban - rural, Java - non Java, KTI - non KTI). Our analyses have shown some key observations. First, the national figures show improvement for all indicators except for the percentage of population suffering from diarrhea (seemed worsening). However, the rate of improvement remained stagnant and there was no acceleration. Second, the gap reduction between the rich and the poor in terms of health access and status seemed to slow down or even widened during the post reformation era. Third, the health indicators movement trend by region did not seem to have a pattern and the gap between richer and poorer areas exist in some indicators and nonexistent in others (the widest gap is found between urban and rural areas.). Where it existed, however, the condition persisted along the period of observation. |
| Keywords: | inequality, inequity, health, Indonesia |
| JEL: | I14 I15 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201316&r=dev |
| By: | Muhammad Purnagunawan (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Victor Pirmana (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | This paper look at the long-run evolution of various labor market indicators in Indonesia over the period of 1992 to 2012 using the National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) data to describe the development before and after the reform era. Four indicators are used in this study to measure the labor market performance, which are formality rate,working poor rate, not in employment and education rate and child labor rate. Those indicators are calculated by per capita expenditure quintile to capture the equity aspect of labor market development. In addition, we also analyze in more detail the labor market condition in urban andrural separately. We found that while in general there have been some improvement during the period,there is a widening gap in some of the indicators especially in the formality rate betweenthe poor and other income class over that particular period that need special attention. Highincrease in the minimum wages and more rigid labor regulation in the beginning of decentralization era and also economic crisis might explain part of the widening gap. Furthermore, there are also serious and persistence problem in the quality of jobs in Indonesia, where having a job is not ensuring people out of poverty. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Formal Sector, Indonesia |
| JEL: | D63 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201317&r=dev |
| By: | Gazi Mainul Hassan (University of Waikato); Joao Ricardo Faria (University of Texas at El Paso) |
| Abstract: | This paper represents the first attempt to formalise the relationship between remittances inflow and social violence by developing a model which predicts that migrants’ remittances would lead to the reduction of social conflict in the recipient economy under the condition that remittances increase the average product of labour. Using homicides data as an indicator of social violence, we test our model’s prediction. Duly controlling for the endogeneity problem using appropriate instruments, we find that remittances tend to reduce social violence. We perform sensitivity analysis on remittances in the empirical model and find it robust with an unchanged negative sign. |
| Keywords: | remittances; international migration; social conflict; homicide; social violence; economic development |
| JEL: | O17 F22 F24 D74 |
| Date: | 2013–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:13/11&r=dev |
| By: | Gertler, Paul; Heckman, James; Pinto, Rodrigo; Zanolini, Arianna; Vermeerch, Christel; Walker, Susan; Chang-Lopez, Susan; Grantham-McGregor, Sally |
| Abstract: | This paper finds large effects on the earnings of participants from a randomized intervention that gave psychosocial stimulation to stunted Jamaican toddlers living in poverty. The intervention consisted of one-hour weekly visits from community Jamaican health workers over a 2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged mothers to interact and play with their children in ways that would develop their children's cognitive and personality skills. The authors re-interviewed the study participants 20 years after the intervention. Stimulation increased the average earnings of participants by 42 percent. Treatment group earnings caught up to the earnings of a matched non-stunted comparison group. These findings show that psychosocial stimulation early in childhood in disadvantaged settings can have substantial effects on labor market outcomes and reduce later life inequality. |
| Keywords: | Educational Sciences,Disease Control&Prevention,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6529&r=dev |
| By: | Anderson, Kym; Ivanic, Maros; Martin, Will |
| Abstract: | This paper has two purposes. It first considers the impact on world food prices of the changes in restrictions on trade in staple foods during the 2008 world food price crisis. Those changes -- reductions in import protection or increases in export restraints -- were meant to partially insulate domestic markets from the spike in international prices. The authors find that this insulation added substantially to the spike in international prices for rice, wheat, maize, and oilseeds. As a result, although domestic prices rose less than they would have without insulation in some developing countries, in many other countries they rose more than they would have in the absence of such insulation. The paper's second purpose it to estimate the combined impact of such insulating behavior on poverty in various developing countries and globally. The analysis finds that the actual poverty-reducing impact of insulation is much less than its apparent impact, and that its net effect was to increase global poverty in 2008 by 8 million people, although this increase was not significantly different from zero. Since there are domestic policy instruments, such as conditional cash transfers, that could now provide social protection for the poor far more efficiently and equitably than variations in border restrictions, the authors suggest it is time to seek a multilateral agreement to desist from changing restrictions on trade when international food prices spike. |
| Keywords: | Markets and Market Access,Emerging Markets,Food&Beverage Industry,Access to Markets,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6535&r=dev |
| By: | Angrist, Noam; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Schlotter, Martin |
| Abstract: | This paper assembles a panel data set that measures cognitive achievement for 128 countries around the world from 1965 to 2010 in 5-year intervals. The data set is constructed from international achievement tests, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which have become increasingly available since the late 1990s. These international assessments are linked to regional ones, such as the South and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring of Educational Quality, the Programme d'Analyse des Systemes Educatifs de la Confemen, and the Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Evaluacion de la Calidad de la Educacion, in order to produce one of the first globally comparable data sets on student achievement. In particular, the data set is one of the first to include achievement in developing countries, including 29 African countries and 19 Latin American countries. The paper also provides a first attempt at using the data set to identify causal factors that boost achievement. The results show that key drivers of global achievement are civil rights and economic freedom across all countries, and democracy and economic freedom in a subset of African and Latin American countries. |
| Keywords: | Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education,Country Strategy&Performance,Primary Education,E-Business |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6536&r=dev |