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on Development |
| By: | Malek, Mohammad Abdul; Hossain, Md. Amzad; Saha, Ratnajit; Gatzweiler, Franz W. |
| Abstract: | Although Bangladesh made some remarkable achievements in reducing poverty and in improving social and economic outcomes in recent decades, about one-third of the rural population still lives below the upper poverty line most of whom depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. One of the reasons for their poverty is the low productivity that results from sub-optimal use of inputs and other technology. To foster agricultural productivity and rural growth, technology innovations have to reach all strata of the poor among small farming communities in rural Bangladesh. For that purpose, technology opportunities need to be brought together with systematic and location-specific actions related to technology needs, agricultural systems, ecological resources and poverty characteristics to overcome the barriers that economic, social, ecological and cultural conditions can create. The first step towards this is to identify underperforming areas, i.e. rural areas in which the prevalence of poverty and other dimensions of marginality are high and agricultural potential is also high since in such areas yield gaps (potential minus actual yields) are high and productivity gains (of main staple crops) are likely to be achieved. The marginality mapping presented in this paper has attempted to identify areas with high prevalence of societal and spatial marginality-– based on proxies for marginality dimensions representing different spheres of life-–and high (un/der utilized) agricultural (cereal) potentials. The overlap between the marginality hotspots and the high (un/der utilized) agricultural potentials shows that Rajibpur (Kurigram), Dowarabazar (Sunamgonj), Porsha (Naogaon), Damurhuda (Chuadanga), Hizla (Barisal), Mehendigonj (Barisal), Bauphal (Patuakhali) and Bhandaria (Pirojpur) are the marginal areas where most productivity gains could be achieved. |
| Keywords: | Marginality, agricultural potentials, marginality hotspot mapping, agricultural potential mapping, crop suitability mapping, marginality and potential overlap mapping, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubonwp:154065&r=dev |
| By: | Moepeng, Pelotshweu |
| Abstract: | Poverty and unemployment in Botswana are the major problems that the government is focusing its effort and attention on. The overall government aim is to eradicate poverty and diversify the economy away from diamond mining to create sustainable jobs. Agriculture is traditionally thought to be a primary sector that can help the country’s disadvantaged community to escape from poverty and problems of unemployment. However, Botswana has experienced falling agricultural productivity and a fall in its GDP share from 40 per cent in 1966 at independence from Britain to 2.1 per cent 2001. This article demonstrates that although overall performance in the agricultural sector of Botswana has been falling and remains generally very low, in the sub-sector of horticultural production, production has doubled in the last decade and productivity has improved. This has led to improved achievement towards food self sufficiency at the national level in terms of availability of food from the nation’s producers. However, this article argues that such improved productivity in horticulture only benefits a few rich companies and individuals who have the capacity to invest in the very high capital investment required in this sector and in the necessary transport (including refrigerated transport) that is needed to move horticultural goods from one place to the other. One of the major issues raised in this study is that the agricultural policy excludes the horticultural sector from its major priorities. Hence, most activities in the sector are influenced by geographical location and transport or logistics concerns, the market structure, and well intended government interventions that are sometimes used to crowd out the small-scale farmers and stakeholders. Government is also encouraged to re-look at the opportunities for marketing horticulture and take an active lead to create structures that can promote creation of sustainable jobs and participation of small-scale producers in this sector. |
| Keywords: | Botswana, Botswana’s horticulture market, employment creation, food self-sufficiency, horticulture, poverty alleviation., Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Q13, Q18, O13, |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uqsese:152684&r=dev |
| By: | Admasu Shiferaw (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary); Dominik Noe (Courant Research Centre-PEG, University of Goettingen) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates firm level responses to a large scale public investment program on road infrastructure in Ethiopia during 1997 to 2010. Firms' location choices and average start-up size are examined by combining town level panel data on road accessibility with a panel of manufacturing firms for the period 1996 to 2009. We find econometric results showing that better road access increases a town's attractiveness for manufacturing firms. While towns with initially large number of firms continue to attract more firms, there has been a tendency toward convergence in the distribution of firms, reducing their geographic concentration. Average startup size in isolated locations is also smaller relative to firms entering well connected markets in terms of road access. We conclude that improved road infrastructure has a favorable impact on the entry patterns and structure of the manufacturing sector in Ethiopia. |
| Keywords: | Armed conflict, investment, firms, Ethiopia, GIS data |
| JEL: | D22 O12 |
| Date: | 2013–07–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:141&r=dev |
| By: | Diana Cheung (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Ysaline Padieu (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) on household saving across income quartiles in rural China. We use data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey for the 2006 wave and we run an ordinary least squares regression. We control for the endogeneity of NCMS participation by using an instrumental variable strategy. We find evidence that NCMS has a negative impact on savings of lower-middle-income participants, while it does not affect the poorest households. The negative effect of NCMS on savings of middle-income participants holds when we use propensity score matching estimations as a robustness check. |
| Keywords: | Rural China; New Cooperative Medical Scheme; health insurance; Chinese savings and consumption; propensity score matching |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00848061&r=dev |
| By: | Martine Audibert (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Yong He (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Jacky Mathonnat (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | This study aims at testing the theoretical issue according to which multinomial logit (MNL) would give lower performance than a mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) in the presence of heterogeneity. To do so, we construct two samples of patients surveyed within the same regions in rural China, but of an interval of 18 years, with a difference in preference heterogeneity due to income growth and population aging. With the 1989-1993 sample, both models have predicted price effects; however with the 2004-2006 sample, unlike MMNL, MNL failed to predict price effect. The explanation is that the impact of price on choice became more heterogeneous in the later than the former sample, thus heterogeneity makes a difference between MNL and MMNL. The absence of meaningful divergences of distance effects between the two models can also be explained by the evolution of heterogeneity in distance preferences over the period. The coefficients of price and distances with MMNL are higher than with MNL, indicating stronger price and distance effects in MMNL estimations. Another advantage of MMNL is the possibility to measure the extent of heterogeneity. The findings suggest caution when interpreting estimation results with MNL if heterogeneity is deemed important. |
| Keywords: | multinomial and mixed logit model;preference heterogeneity;healthcare choice;Chinese rural households |
| Date: | 2013–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00846085&r=dev |
| By: | Martine Audibert (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Yong He (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Jacky Mathonnat (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the evolution of healthcare demand under the influence of income growth and population aging with two samples of patients surveyed in the same regions, but with an interval of 18 years in rural China and with mixed logit to deal with heterogeneity. In accordance with theoretical and inductive inferences, it is found that healthcare price effects decreased and became more heterogeneous. Aging impact overweighed income growth impact, resulting in increasing distance effect and patients' preference to proximity. In the face of this demand change, the adjustment of governmental supply should be to promote small and middle-sized healthcare providers. However during this period to cope with urbanization, the Chinese policy consisted of privileging large hospitals. This has led to a higher share of patients, especially the aging patients, to choose self-care and a higher share of poorer patients to suffer from catastrophic health expenditures. This finding carries broad implications for rural health policy-making on, along with income growth, population aging and urbanization, how to provide better coverage of rural areas by enough qualified and multifunctional small and middle-sized healthcare providers in the developing world. |
| Keywords: | Two-period healthcare demand comparison;mixed logit model;price and distance effects;heterogeneity;insurance;rural China |
| Date: | 2013–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00846088&r=dev |
| By: | Otobe, Naoko |
| Keywords: | equal employment opportunity, gender, promotion of employment, employment policy, women workers, men workers, globalization, Sri Lanka, égalité des chances dans l'emploi, genre, promotion de l'emploi, politique de l'emploi, travailleuses, travailleurs masculins, mondialisation, Sri Lanka, igualdad de oportunidades en el empleo, género, fomento del empleo, política de empleo, trabajadoras, trabajadores masculinos, globalización, Sri Lanka |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:479441&r=dev |
| By: | Shigetomi, Shinichi |
| Abstract: | In Thailand, communitarian ideas have been widely accepted and even institutionalized as a principle of national development plans and the Constitution of Thailand. This paper examines how and why the communitarian body of thought, described as "community culture thought," and originally created and shared within a small circle of social activists and academics in the early 1980s, came to be disseminated and authorized in Thai society. Contributors and participants, ways of expression, and avenues for disseminating this paradigm are the main topics in this paper. The paper reveals that these thoughts and concepts have been diversified and used as guiding principles by state elites, anti-state activists, and social reformists since the late 1980s. These people with such different political ideologies were connected through some key individuals. These critical connections networked them onto the same side for promoting communitarian thought in Thailand. When such leading advocates assumed key political positions, it was easy for them to push communitarian ideas into the guidelines and principles of state administration. |
| Keywords: | Thailand, Community, Sociology, Social movements, Communitarianism, Political sociology |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper423&r=dev |
| By: | Frank Bickenbach; Wan-Hsin Liu; Peter Nunnenkamp |
| Abstract: | We analyze the concentration of FDI in India at the district level, based on project-specific location choices since the reform program in the early 1990s. The decomposition property of the Theil index allows us to trace changes over time in the overall concentration of FDI to changes in concentration between and within subgroups of districts. We also differentiate between major types and sources of FDI. We find that the extensive margin of concentration persistently increased, with an ever larger number of districts not attracting any projects. The intensive margin increased as well but the increase leveled off in the more recent past. These trends hold for essentially all types and sources of FDI, while the average level of concentration varies considerably between these types and sources |
| Keywords: | FDI, project location, Theil index, decomposability, India |
| JEL: | F23 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1854&r=dev |
| By: | Simone Gobien (University of Marburg); Björn Vollan (University of Innsbruck) |
| Abstract: | Mutual aid among villagers in developing countries is often the only means of insuring against economic shocks. We use “lab-in-the-field experiments” in Cambodian villages to study social cohesion in established and newly resettled communities. Both communities are part of a land distribution project. The project participants all signed up voluntarily, and their sociodemographic attributes and pre-existing network ties are similar. We use a version of the “solidarity game” to identify the effect of voluntary resettlement on willingness to help fellow villagers after an income shock. We find a sizeable reduction in willingness to help others. Resettled players transfer on average between 47% and 74% less money than non-resettled players. The effect remains large and significant after controlling for personal network and when controlling for differences in transfer expectations. The costs of voluntary resettlement, not only monetary but also social, seem significantly higher than is commonly assumed by development planners. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary resettlement, Social cohesion, Risk-sharing networks, Monetary transfers, “Lab-inthe- field” experiment, Cambodia |
| JEL: | C93 O15 O22 R23 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201331&r=dev |
| By: | Pascaline Dupas; Jonathan Robinson |
| Abstract: | Many studies suggest that daily income earners behave as if they have daily income targets. Less work has examined the determinants of the targets themselves. Using data on labor supply, shocks, and self-reported cash needs from 257 bicycle taxi drivers in Western Kenya, we provide evidence that many individuals treat their daily cash need as the day's target. We conjecture that in a physically demanding job, workers may have an incentive to quit early and so set a personal rule of “earning enough for the day's need” as an internal commitment device to provide effort. This heuristic is more common among less educated workers and has substantial welfare costs: greater variance in hours worked is associated with worse health, and we estimate that workers would earn 5% more by working a set number of hours each day (more if their wage elasticity were positive). |
| JEL: | C93 D12 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19264&r=dev |
| By: | Eli Berman; Joseph Felter; Ethan Kapstein; Erin Troland |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between investment and political violence through several possible mechanisms. Investment as a predictor of future violence implies that low private sector investment today provides a robust indicator of high violence tomorrow. “Rent-capture” or predation asserts that investment increases violence by motivating extortion by insurgents. A “hearts and minds” approach links investment to political violence in two possible ways: through an opportunity cost mechanism by which improved economic conditions raise the cost of rebel recruitment; and through a psychological “gratitude” effect which reduces cooperation of noncombatants with rebels. Finally, tax capture implies that government will increase coercive enforcement in an attempt to control areas where increased investment increases tax revenue. We lay out these mechanisms in a framework with strategic interaction between rebels, communities, government and firms within an information-centric or “hearts and minds” counterinsurgency model. We test these mechanisms in the context of the Philippines in the first decade of this century, using information on violent incidents initiated by both rebels and government and new data on industrial building permits, an indicator of economic investment. Increases in investment are positively correlated with both rebel and government initiated violence. In the context of our theory that constitutes unequivocal evidence of predation, is consistent with tax capture, and weighs against predictive investment, opportunity costs or gratitude being a dominant effect. |
| JEL: | F52 F54 H22 H25 H41 H56 K42 N47 O1 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19266&r=dev |
| By: | Kangogo, Daniel; Lagat, Job; Ithinji, Gicuru |
| Abstract: | Lack of access to credit is a key obstacle for economic development of transitional economies such as Kenya. The underlying problem is related to information asymmetry combined with the lack of collateral by low income households. Microfinance led group lending model offer a new way to deal with this problem without resorting to collateral requirements. The core issue in group lending is that it systematically exploits elements of social capital that inherently exist in groups into an incentive contract that substitutes collateral; a formal bank conventional requirement of lending that is virtually unavailable to the poor. This study sought to ascertain the influence of social capital dimensions on households’ participation and repayment performance in micro-credit groups in the study area. The study was conducted in Moiben Division, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya based on a sample of 174 households selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. The data was collected using a personally administered structured questionnaire. In the analysis descriptive statistics, Heckman two stage and a Tobit regression models were employed. The results show that individual and group borrowers had significant differences in gender, age, farm size, years of education, income and land tenure. It was established that household size, farm income and distance to the nearest financial institution positively influenced a household to join micro-credit group. On the other hand age, gender, years of education, farm size and interest rate were found to be significant and negatively influenced household decision to join micro-credit groups. The level of household participation in micro-credit groups measured by the number of loan borrowings was significantly and positively influenced by age, total income, years of experience in group borrowing and decision making index while farm size, heterogeneity index and density of membership had a negative affect on household number of loan borrowings. Lastly, the results on group loan repayment performance using the Tobit model revealed that experience in group borrowing, number of visits by loan officer, peer pressure, meeting attendance index and heterogeneity index positively and significantly influenced loan default rate while gender, household size, distance to the nearest financial institution and density of membership were significant but negatively influenced household loan repayment performance. The study therefore recommends that MFIs should increase awareness and encourage poor households to form micro-credit groups. These institutions are obliged to provide training to households on group dynamics in order to take advantage of social capital existing within well organized and managed groups. |
| Keywords: | Social capital, Access to Credit, Group Lending, Microfiance, Heckman two step Model, Tobit Model, Loan Repayment, Micro-credit Group |
| JEL: | D7 D71 G2 G23 |
| Date: | 2013–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48624&r=dev |
| By: | Nguyen, Cuong |
| Abstract: | This study measures the effect of minimum wage increases on firm outcomes using fixed-effects regression and panel data from Vietnam Enterprise Censuses during 2008-2010. It is found that minimum wages reduce firms’ labor size, albeit at a small magnitude. A one percent increase in real minimum wages leads to a 0.1 percent reduction in the number of workers of firms. Firms are more likely to reduce male workers and those without social insurance. As a result, the proportion of female workers and workers with social insurance in firms increases due to minimum wages. Interestingly, under pressure of minimum wages, firms tend to increase assets, especially fixed assets, for labor substitution. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages, firms, impact evaluation, panel data, Vietnam |
| JEL: | J31 L25 |
| Date: | 2012–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48656&r=dev |
| By: | Daniel, Mont; Nguyen, Cuong |
| Abstract: | Poverty and disability are interrelated, but data that can disentangle to what extent one causes the other and vice versa is not available. However, data from Vietnam allows us to examine this interrelationship in a way not done previously. Using small area estimation techniques, we uncover three findings not yet found in the literature. First, disability prevalence rates vary significantly within a county even at the district level. Second, the correlation between disability and poverty also varies at the district level. And most importantly, the strength of that correlation lessens based on district characteristics that can be affected by policy. Districts with better health care and infrastructure, such as road and health services, show less of a link between disability and poverty, supporting the hypothesis that improvements in infrastructure and rehabilitation service can lessen the impact of disability on families with disabled members. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, disability, small area estimation, household survey, population census, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | I12 I31 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48659&r=dev |
| By: | Nguyen, Cuong; Nguyen, Hoa |
| Abstract: | Using data from Vietnam Household and Living Standard Surveys in 2006 and 2008, the paper estimates the effect of the receipt of international remittances and internal remittances on education, labor and healthcare utilization of children in Vietnam. It shows that there are no statistically significant effects of receipt of remittances on school enrolment of children as well as child labor. However, receiving international remittances helps children increase the number of completed grades by around 2 percent of the average completed grade for children. Both international and internal remittances are positively associated with the number of outpatient health care contacts. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, children, education, child labor, healthcare, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | I23 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48672&r=dev |
| By: | Kaushal, Kaushalendra Kumar; F Ram, Faujdar Ram; Abhishek, Abhishek Singh |
| Abstract: | The present study attempts to investigate the association between public spending on health and childhood mortality in India; using time-series cross-sectional data from various government sources for the period 1985-2009. Infant and child (age 1 to 4 years) mortality rates were used as the indicators for childhood mortality. Ordinary least squares, generalized least squares and fixed effects regression models were used to investigate the association between public spending on health and childhood mortality. The findings suggest insignificant association between public spending on health and childhood mortality both at the country level and for the EAG states. On the contrary, per capita state income and female literacy were significantly associated with improved childhood survival. Percentage of the population living below the poverty line was significantly associated with infant and child mortality only in the EAG states. The findings call for a number of other measures along with increased public spending on health to reduce infant and child mortality in India. |
| Keywords: | Public spending, fixed effect, India, childhood |
| JEL: | H51 I18 |
| Date: | 2013–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48680&r=dev |
| By: | Mizuno, Nobuhiro |
| Abstract: | Alliances between national governments and rural elites are observed in post-colonial Africa. In such alliances, the national governments preserve rural-elite authority formed during the colonial era and cede their resources and prerogatives to the rural elites. This paper develops a model of bargaining between a national government and a rural elite, in which the bargaining power of the national government is endogenously explained by the ability of the rural elite to compel obedience from rural residents. Since indirect colonial rule is a significant source of the rural-elite control over residents, the result implies that cross-regional variations in colonial policies lead to variations in the feature of post-colonial alliances between African national governments and rural elites. |
| Keywords: | Africa; Colonialism; Politics |
| JEL: | H11 H20 N47 P16 Q13 |
| Date: | 2013–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48771&r=dev |
| By: | Elise Huillery (Département d'économie); Elizabeth Beasley |
| Abstract: | Increasing school resources has often shown disappointing effects on school quality in developing countries, a lack of impact which may be due to student, parent or teacher behavioral responses. We test the short-term impact of an increase in school resources under parental control using an experimental school grant program in Niger. |
| JEL: | H52 O15 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7o52iohb7k6srk09na40maa99&r=dev |
| By: | Elise Huillery (Département d'économie) |
| Abstract: | Was colonization costly for France? Did French taxpayers contribute to colonies' development? This paper reveals that French West Africa's colonization took only 0.29 percent of French annual expenditures, including 0.24 percent for military and central administration and 0.05 percent for French West Africa's development. For West Africans, the contribution from French taxpayers was almost negligible: mainland France provided about two percent of French West Africa's revenue. In fact, colonization was a considerable burden for African taxpayers since French civil servants' salaries absorbed a disproportionate share of local expenditures. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7o52iohb7k6srk09na41pc24o&r=dev |
| By: | Desai, Raj M.; Joshi, Shareen |
| Abstract: | In response to the problems of high coordination costs among the poor, efforts are underway in many countries to organize the poor through"self-help groups"(SHGs) -- membership-based organizations that aim to promote social cohesion through a mixture of education, access to finance, and linkages to wider development programs. The authors randomly selected 32 of 80 villages in one of the poorest districts in rural India in which to establish SHGs for women. Two years of exposure to these programs increased women's participation in group savings programs as well as the non-agricultural labor force. Compared to women in control villages, treated women were also more likely to participate in household decisions and engage in civic activities. The authors find no evidence however, that participation increased income or had a disproportionate impact by women's socio-economic status. These results are important in light of the recent effort to expand official support to SHGs under the National Rural Livelihood Mission. |
| Keywords: | Access to Finance,Primary Education,Housing&Human Habitats,Population Policies,Social Accountability |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6547&r=dev |
| By: | Fisher-Vanden, Karen; Hu, Yong; Jefferson, Gary; Rock, Michael; Toman, Michael |
| Abstract: | Energy intensity has declined significantly in four Chinese industries -- pulp and paper; cement; iron and steel; and aluminum. While previous studies have identified technological change within an industry to be an important influence on energy intensity, few have examined how industry-specific policies and market factors also affect industry-level intensity. This paper employs unique firm-level data from China's most energy-intensive large and medium-size industrial enterprises in each of these four industries over a six-year period from 1999 to 2004. It empirically examines how China's energy-saving programs, liberalization of domestic markets, openness to the world economy, and other policies, contribute to the decline in energy intensity in these industries. The results suggest that rising energy costs are a significant contributor to the decline in energy intensity in all four industries. China's industrial policies targeting scale economies -- for example,"grasping the large, letting go off the small"-- also seem to have contributed to reductions in energy intensity in these four industries. However, the results also suggest that trade openness and technology development led to declines in energy intensity in only one or two of these industries. Finally, the analysis finds that energy intensities vary among firms with different ownership types and regional locations. |
| Keywords: | Energy Production and Transportation,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Energy and Environment,Water and Industry,E-Business |
| Date: | 2013–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6551&r=dev |
| By: | Ghani, Ejaz; Kanbur, Ravi; O'Connell, Stephen D. |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an exploration at the intersection of four important themes in the current development discourse: urbanization, agglomeration benefits, gender and informality. Focusing on the important policy objective of new enterprise creation in the informal sector, it asks and answers four specific questions on the impact of urbanization and gender. It finds that (i) the effect of market access to inputs, on creation of new enterprises in the informal sector, is greater in more urbanized areas; (ii) This"urbanization gradient"also exists separately for the creation of female owned enterprises and male owned enterprises; (iii) there is a differential impact of female specific market access compared to male specific market access, on female owned enterprise creation in the informal sector ; and (iv) gender specific market access to inputs matters equally in more or less urbanized areas. Among the policy implications of these findings are that (i) new enterprise creation by females can be encouraged by urbanization, but (ii) the effect can be stronger by improving female specific market access, especially to inputs. The analysis in this paper opens up a rich research agenda, including further investigation of the nature of input based versus output based perspectives on agglomeration benefits, and exploration of policy instruments that can improve female specific market access, which is shown to increase female owned enterprise creation. |
| Keywords: | Markets and Market Access,Housing&Human Habitats,Microfinance,Gender and Health,Debt Markets |
| Date: | 2013–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6553&r=dev |