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on Development |
| By: | Bhaumik, Sumon K. (University of Sheffield); Dimova, Ralitza (University of Manchester); Gang, Ira N. (Rutgers University) |
| Abstract: | Our analysis of a rich representative household survey for Malawi, where patrilineal and matrilineal institutions coexist, suggests that (a) in matrilineal societies the likelihood of cash crop cultivation by a household increases with the extent of land owned (or de facto controlled) by males, and (b) and cultivation of cash crops increases household welfare. The policy implication is that facilitating female ownership of assets through informal and formal institutions does not, on its own, increase welfare, if women do not have access to complementary resources that are needed to generate income from those assets. |
| Keywords: | female ownership of assets, informal institutions, cash crops, household welfare |
| JEL: | Q12 O2 O13 J16 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7907&r=dev |
| By: | Maria Kuecken (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Josselin Thuilliez (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marie-Anne Valfort (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | We examine the middle-run eff ects of the Global Fund's malaria control programs on the educational attainment of primary schoolchildren in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we exploit geographic variation in pre-campaign malaria prevalence (malaria ecology) and variation in exogenous exposure to the timing and expenditure of malaria control campaigns, based on individuals' years of birth and year surveyed. In a large majority of countries (14 of 22), we find that the program led to substantial increases in years of schooling and grade level as well as reductions in schooling delay. These countries are those for which pre-campaign educational resources are the highest. Moreover, although by and large positive, we nd that the marginal returns of the Global Fund disbursements in terms of educational outcomes are decreasing. Our findings, which are robust to both the instrumentation of ecology and use of alternative ecology measures, have important policy implications on the value for money of malaria control eff orts. |
| Keywords: | Malaria, Sub-Saharan Africa, Education, Quasi-experimental |
| Date: | 2014–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00924112&r=dev |
| By: | Sylvie Lambert (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Martin Ravallion (Georgetown University - Georgetown University); Dominique Van de Walle (Banque Mondiale - Banque Mondiale) |
| Abstract: | How much economic mobility is there across generations in a poor, primarily rural, economy? How much do intergenerational linkages contribute to current inequality? We address these questions using original survey data on Senegal that include an individualized measure of consumption. While intergenerational linkages are evident, we find a relatively high degree of mobility across generations, associated with the shift from farm to non-farm sectors and greater economic activity of women. Male-dominated bequests of land and housing bring little gain to consumption and play little role in explaining inequality, though they have important effects on sector of activity. Inheritance of non-land assets and the education and occupation of parents (especially the mother) and their choices about children's schooling are more important to adult welfare than property inheritance. Significant gender inequality in consumption is evident, though it is almost entirely explicable in terms of factors such as education and (non-land) inheritance. There are a number of other pronounced gender differences, with intergenerational linkages coming through the mother rather than the father. |
| Keywords: | inheritance, land, mobility, inequality, gender |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00933975&r=dev |
| By: | Alejandro Del Valle (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes whether the large scale provision of non-contributory health services encourages workers to move away from jobs that pay contributions to social security (formal employment). Using a difference-in-differences design, that exploits the variation generated by the municipal level roll-out of an intervention of this kind in Mexico, this paper finds that contemporaneous program exposure has no impact on the ratio of formal to total employed and that lagged exposure leads only to a small (0.78 percentage points) decrease. Two proxies of spillover effects further reveal that this estimate is robust and that the upper-bound of program effect is only moderately larger (1.5 percentage points). |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets ; Health Provision ; Informality ; Spillover Effects |
| Date: | 2013–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00838000&r=dev |
| By: | Pranab Bardhan (University of California, Berkeley); Michael Luca (Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit); Dilip Mookherjee (Department of Economics, Boston University); Francisco Pino (Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how land reform and population growth affect land inequality and landlessness, focusing particularly on indirect effects owing to their influence on household divisions and land market transactions. Theoretical predictions of a model of household division and land transactions are successfully tested using household panel data from West Bengal spanning 1967-2004. The tenancy reform lowered inequality through its effects on household divisions and land market transactions, but its effect was quantitatively dominated by inequality-raising effects of population growth. The land distribution program lowered landlessness but this was partly offset by targeting failures and induced increases in immigration. |
| Keywords: | inequality, land reform, household division, land markets |
| JEL: | J12 O13 O13 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:14-066&r=dev |
| By: | Fernando Gaiger Silveira (Institute for Applied Economic Research); Ross van Horn (Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin); Bernardo Campolina (CEDEPLAR/UFMG) |
| Abstract: | In the evaluation of conditional or unconditional cash transfer programmes, research that examines their effects on children?s and adolescents? school performance and participation in the labour market figures prominently. The programme effect is important because such programmes are designed with a view to fighting the so-called ?poverty trap?. In general terms, prior analyses have claimed that insufficient household income, due largely to low levels of human capital of members of economically active age ? especially parents ? requires hourly labour supplementation by children and adolescents. As a result, this pressure for children and adolescents to enter the labour market results in less time available for school activities and, ultimately, in school drop-out. In a cyclical fashion, the substitution of work for school reproduces the reality experienced by low-income parents, derived from low schooling levels, for future generations. |
| Keywords: | A Substitute for Substitution: Bolsa Família?s Effects on the Combination of Work And School for Children and Adolescents Aged 10-18 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:wpaper:121&r=dev |
| By: | Daichi Shimamoto (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, Japan. Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan); Hiroyuki Yamada (Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, Japan); Ayako Wakano (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, Japan) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how farmersf risk attitudes affected the adoption of agricultural technology in a rural area in Cambodia. We incorporated prospect theory to farmersf utility function and examined the effect of the risk attitude of farmers to the adoption of two technologies: adoption of a moisture meter for measuring the moisture content of seeds, a recently introduced post-harvest technology, and a modern rice variety that was introduced in the 1990s. The results indicated that farmers overweighted a small probability and risk averse farmers adopted a moisture meter to measure the moisture contents of seeds significantly. With respect to the modern rice variety, farmersf risk attitude did not affect the adoption. Our results and the results of a previous study imply that the type of risk and uncertainty faced by farmers at the time of decision-making of its adoption partly determine the effect of risk attitude on agricultural adoption. |
| Keywords: | technology adoption, risk preferences, prospect theory |
| JEL: | O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1407&r=dev |
| By: | Daichi Shimamoto (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, Japan. Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan); Hiroyuki Yamada (Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, Japan); Martin Gummert (International Rice Research Institution, Philippines) |
| Abstract: | Monopsony is often observed in local agricultural markets in developing countries because of the high entry cost to buyers; farmers in such markets therefore sell their agricultural products at a lower price. However, this situation seems to be changing with the diffusion of mobile phones. This paper investigates how access to market information through mobile phone usage impacts the selling price of rice in rural areas in Cambodia. We conducted a survey of farmersf households concerning agricultural production processes and rice sales in 20 villages in four provinces (Battambang, Prey Veng, Pursat, and Takeo). We find that farmers who have access to market information through the use of mobile phones are more likely to sell their rice at a higher price. In addition, we observe that the offers received by farmers with better access to market information through mobile phone usage tend to affect selling prices. The results imply that improved access to market information through the use of mobile phones improves farmersf bargaining power against traders, enabling them to sell their rice at a higher price. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Prices, Mobile phone, Cambodia |
| JEL: | O12 D82 D83 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1406&r=dev |
| By: | Félix Badolo (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Somlanare Romuald KINDA (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the existing literature on climatic variability and food security. It analyses the impact of climatic variability on food security for 71 developing countries, from 1960 to 2008. Using two complementary indicators of food security (food supply and proportion of undernourished people), we find that climatic variability reduces the food supply and the proportion of undernourished people in developing countries. The adverse effect is higher for African Sub-Saharan countries than for other developing countries. We also find that the negative effects of climatic variability are exacerbated in the presence of civil conflicts and are high for the countries that are vulnerable to food price shocks. |
| Keywords: | Food Prices Vulnerability; Food security; Climatic variability; Civil conflicts |
| Date: | 2014–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00939247&r=dev |
| By: | Rachel Sabates-Wheeler (Institute of Development Studies); Philip Verwimp (Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| Abstract: | Using a panel dataset from Burundi where information on protection payments during the 10 year civil war were collected, we test the relationship between payments, the nature of extraction by the rebels, and welfare outcomes. We ask, does payment to rebels insure against future welfare loss and does the nature of payment matter? Specifically, does the level of institutionalisation of extraction within the rebel governance structure provide a form of insurance for future welfare? No less than 30% of the interviewees made at least one payment. Rebels extract these taxes through one of two routes: an ‘institutionalised’ and regular cash-with-receipt method or an ad hoc and unpredictable labour extraction. Using matching methods we find that payment through the institutionalised route increases household welfare between 16 and 25%. Ad hoc extraction has no effect. We situate our findings in the empirical literatures on contributions to mafia-type organisations and rebel governance. |
| Keywords: | extortion, taxation, forced labour, welfare, rebellion, Africa |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:167&r=dev |
| By: | Bénédicte H. Apouey (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)); Gabriel Picone (Department of Economics - University of South Florida) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the existence of social interactions in malaria preventive behaviors in Sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. whether an individual's social environment has an influence on the individual's preventive behaviors. We focus on the two population groups which are the most vulnerable to malaria (children under 5 and pregnant women) and on two preventive behaviors (sleeping under a bednet and taking intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy). We define the social environment of the individual as people living in the same region. To detect social interactions, we calculate the size of the social multiplier by comparing the effects of an exogenous variable at the individual level and at the regional level. Our data come from 92 surveys for 29 Sub-Saharan countries between 1999 and 2012, and they cover approximately 660,000 children and 95,000 women. Our results indicate that social interactions are important in malaria preventive behaviors, since the social multipliers for women's education and household wealth are greater than one - which means that education and wealth generates larger effects on preventive behaviors in the long run than we would expect from the individual-level specifications, once we account for social interactions. |
| Keywords: | Social interactions ; Social multiplier ; Malaria preventive behavior |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00940084&r=dev |