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on Development |
| By: | Elbers, Chris; Gunning, Jan Willem |
| Abstract: | Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are now widely used in development economics. However, their use is often resisted by non-governmental development organizations. The objections they raise differ between the three types of activities of such non-govern |
| Keywords: | impact evaluation, randomized controlled trials, non-governmental development organizations |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2014-026&r=dev |
| By: | Nicolas Berman; Mathieu Couttenier; Dominic Rohner; Mathias Thoenig |
| Abstract: | This paper studies empirically the impact of mining on conflicts in Africa. Using novel data, we combine geo-referenced information over the 1997-2010 period on the location and characteristics of violent events and mining extraction of 27 minerals. Working with a grid covering all African countries at a spatial resolution of 0.5 x 0.5 degree, we find a sizeable impact of mining activity on the probability/intensity of conflict at the local level. This is both true for low-level violence (riots, protests), as well as for organized violence (battles). Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variations in the minerals' world prices; however the results are robust to various alternative strategies, both in the cross-section and panel dimensions. Our estimates suggest that the historical rise in mineral price observed over the period has contributed to up to 21 percent of the average country-level violence in Africa. The second part of the paper investigates whether minerals, by increasing the financialcapacities of fighting groups, contribute to diffuse violence over time and space, therefore affecting the intensity and duration of wars. We find direct evidence that the appropriation of a mining area by a group increases the probability that this group perpetrates future violence elsewhere. This is consistent with "feasibility" theories of conflict. We also find that seccessionist insurgencies are more likely in mining areas, which is in line with recent theories of secessionist conflict. |
| Keywords: | Minerals, Mines, Conflict, Natural Resources, Rebellion |
| JEL: | C23 D74 Q34 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:oxcrwp:141&r=dev |
| By: | Das, Ashis; Friedman, Jed; Kandpal, Eeshani; Ramana, GNV; Das Gupta, R K; Pradhan, Madan M; Govindaraj, Ramesh |
| Abstract: | Malaria continues to be a prominent global public health challenge, in part because of the slow population adoption of recommended preventive and curative behaviors. This paper tests the effectiveness of two service delivery models designed to promote recommended behaviors, including prompt treatment seeking for febrile illness, in Odisha India. The tested modules include supportive supervision of community health workers and community mobilization promoting appropriate health seeking. Program effects were identified through a randomized cluster trial comprising 120 villages from two purposively chosen malaria-endemic districts. Significant improvements were measured in the reported utilization of bed nets in both intervention arms vis-à-vis the control. Although overall rates of treatment seeking were equal across the study arms, treatment seeking from community health workers was higher in both intervention arms and care seeking from trained providers also increased with a substitution away from untrained providers. Further, fever cases in both treatments were more likely to have received timely medical treatment (within 24 hours) from a skilled provider. The study arm with supportive supervision was particularly effective in shifting care seeking to community health workers and ensuring prompt diagnosis and treatment. A community-based intervention combining the supportive supervision of community health workers with intensive community mobilization can be effective in shifting care seeking and increasing preventive behavior, and thus may be used to strengthen the national malaria control program. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Housing&Human Habitats,Disease Control&Prevention,Population Policies,Adolescent Health |
| Date: | 2014–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6901&r=dev |
| By: | Sebastián Galiani; Paul Gertler; Ryan Cooper; Sebastián Martínez; Adam Ross; Raimundo Undurraga |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence on the causal effects that upgrading slum dwellings has on the living conditions of the extremely poor. In particular, we study the impact of providing better houses in situ to slum dwellers in El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay. We experimentally evaluate the impact of a housing project run by the NGO TECHO which provides basic pre-fabricated houses to members of extremely poor population groups in Latin America. The main objective of the program is to improve household well-being. Our findings show that better houses have a positive effect on overall housing conditions and general well-being: treated households are happier with their quality of life. In two countries, we also document improvements in children's health; in El Salvador, slum dwellers also feel that they are safer. We do not find this result, however, in the other two experimental samples. There are no other noticeable robust effects on the possession of durable goods or in terms of labor outcomes. Our results are robust in terms of both internal and external validity because they are derived from similar experiments in three different Latin American countries. |
| Keywords: | Health, Housing, Housing infrastructure, Slum dwellers, NGO Techo, Slums |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:85755&r=dev |
| By: | Rakib, Muntaha; Matz, Julia |
| Abstract: | Assets are an important means of coping with adverse events in developing countries but the role of gendered ownership is not yet fully understood. This paper investigates changes in assets owned by the household head,his spouse,or jointly by both of them in response to shocks in rural agricultural households in Bangladesh with the help of detailed household survey panel data. Land is owned mostly by men,who are wealthier than their spouses with respect to almost all types of assets,but relative ownership varies by type of asset. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across households and looking at changes within,rather than between,households,we find that weather shocks such as cyclones adversely affect the asset holdings of household heads in general,while predicted external events lead to assets of both spouses being drawn down. The results,furthermore,suggest that jointly owned assets are not sold in response to shocks,either due to these assets being actively protected or due to the difficulty of agreeing on this coping strategy,and that women’s asset holdings and associated coping strategies are shaped by their lower involvement in agriculture. |
| Keywords: | shocks, assets, gender, ownership, coping strategies, Bangladesh, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital, D13, J16, O12, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:179690&r=dev |
| By: | Peter Edward (Newcastle Universtiy Business School); Andy Sumner (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex) |
| Abstract: | What has happened to inequality between and within countries since 1990? In this paper we explore who have been the winners and losers from global growth since 1990. We find that falls in total global inequality in the last 30 years are predominantly attributable to rising prosperity in China. We also identify a persistent global structure of two relatively homogeneous clusters (the poor/insecure and secure/prosperous). We detect the emergence of a ?new global middle? but question whether this implies the end of the historical two-cluster world rather than merely a transition as some people move from the poor/insecure cluster into the secure/prosperous cluster. Nevertheless, we do identify five different stylised patterns of national growth: pro-poor growth (e.g. Ethiopia); pro-middle growth (e.g. Brazil); anti-poor growth (e.g. Nigeria); anti-middle growth (e.g. Zambia) and equitable growth (e.g. Vietnam). We also find that 15 per cent of growth from 1990 to 2010 went to the world?s richest 1 per cent, while just a modest amount of redistribution would have ended $2 poverty. If the share of global growth between 1990 and 2010 flowing to those who were living on under $2/day in 2010 had increased from 5 per cent to just 12 per cent, this would have been sufficient to end $2 poverty today. Persistence of global poverty, it seems, is not due to insufficient global growth but to a reluctance among the secure/prosperous cluster to forego a small share of their benefits from global growth in favour of fairly modest redistribution to the global poor.(?) |
| Keywords: | The Poor, the Prosperous and the ?Inbetweeners?: A Fresh Perspective on Global Society, Inequality and Growth |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:wpaper:122&r=dev |
| By: | Nordman, Christophe Jalil (IRD, DIAL, Paris); Pasquier-Doumer, Laure (IRD, DIAL, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on the role of family networks in the dynamics of a West African labour market, i.e. in the transitions from unemployment to employment, from wage employment to self-employment, and from self-employment to wage employment. It investigates the effects of three dimensions of the family network on these transitions: its structure, the strength of ties and the resources embedded in the network. For this purpose, we use a first-hand survey conducted in Ouagadougou on a representative sample of 2000 households. Using event history data and very detailed information on family network, we estimate proportional hazard models for discrete-time data. We find that family networks have a significant effect on the dynamics of workers in the labour market and that this effect differs depending on the type of transition and the considered dimension of the family network. The network size appears to not matter much in the labour market dynamics. Strong ties however play a stabilizing role by limiting large transitions. Their negative effect on transitions is reinforced with high level of resources embedded in the network. |
| Keywords: | family network, labour market dynamics, event history data, survival analysis, Burkina Faso |
| JEL: | D13 J24 L14 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8349&r=dev |
| By: | Scott, Lucy |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how a development intervention which targets extremely poor households with investment capital influences relationships between those households and the landowning elite. It places this investigation in the context of the .agricult |
| Keywords: | extreme poverty, asset transfer, patron-client relationships, rural change, Bangladesh |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2014-029&r=dev |
| By: | Nguyen Viet Cuong; Vu Hoang Linh |
| Abstract: | Working away from home might bring higher earnings than working near home. However, the absence of parents due to work can have unexpected effects on children. This paper examines the effects of the temporary absence of parents on the well-being of children aged 5–8 years old in Vietnam, using indicators of household poverty, per capita consumption expenditure, and child time allocation. The paper relies on OLS and fixed-effects regression and panel data from the Young Lives surveys in 2007 and 2009. It finds a positive correlation between parental absence and per capita expenditure. Parental absence tends to increase per capita food expenditure instead of per capita nonfood expenditure. Regarding the way children spend their time, there are no statistically significant effects of parental absence. |
| Keywords: | parental migration, child poverty, remittances, impact evaluation, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | O15 R23 I32 |
| Date: | 2014–07–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-453&r=dev |
| By: | Jonas Helth Lønborg (University of Southern Denmark); Ole Dahl Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark & DanChurchAid) |
| Abstract: | Reaching the poorest is an important objective in many development interventions, and microfinance is no exception. We review performance indicators for effectiveness of targeting described in the literature and suggest a new metric in order to account for extent and severity of poverty as well as the income distribution among the poor. When applying this to a panel dataset from a community-managed microfinance intervention in Northern Malawi, we find regressive outreach: Participants are less poor than the general population in the area. In addition, we provide suggestions as to when and why the poor exit the project. |
| Keywords: | targeting, outreach, microfinance, Africa, Malawi, savings groups |
| JEL: | O16 O13 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rok:spaper:55&r=dev |
| By: | Julia A. Barde; Juliana Walkiewicz (Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of access to piped water on human capital formation as measured by test scores from standardized school exams in Brazilian primary schools. We find that children in urban areas with access to tap water at home perform signicantly better at school: They achieve test scores that are 14 percent of the standard deviation higher than the average test score without access. The effect is conditional on the education of the mother and turns out to be insignicant in rural areas. Our results capture the long term effect of the reduced incidence of water-related diseases for children with access to tap water. We exploit school-specic variation across years as well as a comprehensive vector of socioeconomic background variables to identify this effect. |
| Keywords: | Health, piped water, cognitive development, human capital formation |
| JEL: | I15 I25 H41 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fre:wpaper:28&r=dev |
| By: | Alia, Didier Yelognisse; Anago, Romuald E. Kouadio |
| Abstract: | The aid-growth literature has been explored using a wide range of econometric methodologies. The evidence of the effectiveness of aid to promote economic growth is mixed, suggesting that the link between aid and growth is complex and may not be well ident |
| Keywords: | aid effectiveness and growth, nonlinear models, panel threshold, Africa |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2014-015&r=dev |
| By: | Masamune Iwasawa (Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University and Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science); Mitsuo Inada (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, and Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science); Seiichi Fukui (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the effects of remittances on child education that depend on three types of migration: parental, non-parental, and no migration. Measuring the effects of remittances is challenging and demands great caution because their theoretical positive impacts can be partly or fully offset by the adverse influences of family members’ migration. The magnitude of this negative impact, furthermore, depends significantly on migrant characteristics. Specifically, given that parents play an irreplaceable role in their children’s education, parental migration not only leads to a labor shortage in the household but also results in insufficient parental input. To overcome the difficulties of measuring the effects of remittances, we derive data from the Cambodian Socio-Economic Survey in 2009, which provides a sufficient sample size for the three self-selected migration types. Estimating each subsample enables us to disentangle the net impact of remittances from that of migration and measure the influence of remittances given the differences in migrant characteristics. Overall, the estimates suggest that the positive effects of remittances are partially canceled out for non-parental migration and completely eliminated when parental migration occurs. |
| Keywords: | Remittance; Migrant heterogeneity; Educational expenditure |
| JEL: | O15 I25 J13 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:898&r=dev |
| By: | Kundu, Nobinkhor |
| Abstract: | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Workers’ remittance for economic growth is important variable, which is the second leading amount of capital inflows in Bangladesh. Revenues from workers’ remittance in the country exceed various types of foreign exchange inflow, particularly Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Official Development Assistant (ODA) and net earnings from exports, but workers’ remittance is one of the major sources of foreign exchange earnings and it exceeded FDI and ODA inflows to the developing countries (World Bank, 2010). Every year, about 250,000 Bangladeshis migrate abroad and about eight million people of Bangladeshi origin are living and working abroad presently. Remittance as percentage of GDP has stood well over ten percent recently. Around eight million Bangladeshi expatriates in more than 140 countries signify the strength of Bangladesh in international migration (Bangladesh Bank, 2012). According to world bank migration and remittances factbook (2011), Bangladesh is seventh position in top ten emigration countries and top ten remittance recipients in 2010 (billions). According to World Bank statistics (2010), about eight million Bangladesh’s are currently working aboard, with each migrant sending $1,672 per year on average, but in India, the average remittance per head is $4,843, where as for China it is $6,112. The reason for Bangladeshi’s low remittance per head is that the majority of Bangladeshi wage earners are unskilled labors. The skill composition of workers overseas has become skewed towards semi-skilled and unskilled workers over time. This may be due to employers in foreign countries feeling that Bangladeshi workers lack appropriate skills. We always considered total workers remittance inflows in Bangladesh, but we should be considered analyses of remittance returns per head and also considered marginal analyses that is each person how much increase of his or her remittance in each year. The purpose of research study is an enquiry into the sluggish growth of remittances determinants in Bangladesh for the purpose of transition from low income country to middle income country that is development direction is required to an average GDP growth of around nine percent. The study focused on the importance of per capita and marginal productivity of remittance inflows and its implication for economic growth in Bangladesh. The primary data were collected from the respondents during the period of May to June, 2013 from a particular districts in Bangladesh have been taken as the study area Comilla district. Using cross section data to analyzed econometrics models such as multinomial logistic regression model are used and fit them to identify the significant inputs of skill development for remitters. The logistic regression result is difficult to predict on the basis of only empirical data. This empirical result suggests that log of remittance, which p-value is statistically significant, have been estimated to obtain the effect of significant coefficient of education of remitters, years of emigrant, remittance country, skill of remitter dummy, skill training providers, sources of borrowing, collateral for loan, rate of interest annually, professional service of remitters and invested of remittance on business (small/ medium) dummy, which also might be found the most significant in case of skill development training and access to credit for remitters. Consequently, it can be concluded that growth of remittance in Bangladesh will require access to skill development allied factors, other things remaining same. The empirical result indicate that the most significant predictors of per-capita income and marginal productivity of remitters. So, attention should be given to expansion of allied factors which incremental productivity of remitters in Bangladesh. Appropriate policies and programs for the labor market are important drivers of economic growth and a more equitable income distribution. Now seems to be skill developed allied factors might have significant impact on per-capita and marginal growth of worker’s remittance. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is strong significant statistical correlation seems to exist with number of emigrant workers and their skills earns maximize remittances and inflows in Bangladesh in the long run. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: Remittances, Labor Productivity Skills, Economic Growth; JEL Classification: F24, J24, O47 |
| JEL: | F24 J24 O47 |
| Date: | 2013–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57718&r=dev |
| By: | Syden Mishi and Lilymore Mudziwapasi |
| Abstract: | Zimbabwe had witnessed socio-economic challenges that resulted in mass exodus of its populace across its boarders mainly from the late 1990s. Migration can be individual or household strategy for survival and remittances play a role in transforming the household income. Making use of ordinary least squares estimation techniques, this article examines the impact of international remittances on sustainability of family livelihood in small mining town of Chegutu located in Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe using survey data. I found out that remittances go a long way in providing income for basic services like municipal services, food, medical expenses and disturbingly to a lesser extent education. |
| Keywords: | Consumption, Households, International Migration, Remittances, Economics of labour migration |
| JEL: | D10 D12 F22 F24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:440&r=dev |
| By: | Chandana Maitra (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Prasada Rao (School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the association between two alternative indicators of food access-traditional calorie-based indicators which provide objective data and the experiential indicators which address the psychological dimensions of food insecurity. In the process of modelling the relationship between the two indicators, the study also identifies the determinants of experience-based food security and provides a simple mechanism to predict a household’s food security status, given certain economic and socio-demographic characteristics of the household. The entire exercise is based on the information collected from a survey of 500 randomly selected slum households of Kolkata in 2010-11. The experience-based indicator of food security was constructed following the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (US HFSSM). A nine-item food security scale was constructed, based on which households were classified as highly food secure, marginally food secure, moderately food insecure and severely food insecure. The modelling framework is based on recursive simultaneous ordered probit model with continuous and binary endogenous explanatory variables. Results indicate that the two alternative indicators are aligned in the same direction. The paper has a strong policy emphasis since it establishes the nutritional relevance of the experiential food security indicator and at the same time identifies possible threats to household food security which include lack of assets, low level of education, female headship of households and high dependency ratio in the household. The modelling framework also allows one to identify households at greater risk of food insecurity. |
| Date: | 2014–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:531&r=dev |