|
on Development |
| By: | Azzarri, Carlo; Cross, Elizabeth; Haile, Beliyou; Zezza, Alberto |
| Abstract: | In many developing countries, consumption of animal source foods among the poor is still at a level where increasing its share in total caloric intake may have many positive nutritional benefits. This paper explores whether ownership of various livestock species increases consumption of animal source foods and helps improve child nutritional status. The paper finds some evidence that food consumption patterns and nutritional outcomes may be affected by livestock ownership in rural Uganda. The results are suggestive that promoting (small) livestock ownership has the potential to affect human nutrition in rural Uganda, but further research is needed to estimate more precisely the direction and size of these effects. |
| Keywords: | Livestock and Animal Husbandry,Regional Economic Development,Rural Poverty Reduction,Wildlife Resources,Economic Theory&Research |
| Date: | 2014–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7111&r=dev |
| By: | Muraoka, Rie; Jin, Songqing; Jayne, Thomas S. |
| Abstract: | Constrained access to land is increasingly recognized as a problem impeding rural household welfare in densely populated areas of Africa. This study utilizes household and plot level data from rural Kenya to explore the linkage between land access and food security. We find that a 10% increase in operated land size would increase total cereal consumption and home produced food consumption by 0.8% and 2.0%, respectively. We also find that land rental is the dominant mechanism that poor rural farmers use to access additional land for cultivation. However, the levels of long-term land investment (measured by applications of organic manure) and land productivity are significantly lower for rented plots than for own plots even after household fixed-effect and plot level observed characteristics are controlled for. Furthermore, land rental markets do not allow farmers to fully adjust their operated land size to their optimal level. These findings point to the existence of problems with land rental markets that impede their ability to fully contribute to national food security and poverty reduction goals. |
| Keywords: | Land access, Land rental, Food security, Kenya, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Land Economics/Use, O12, Q15, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170244&r=dev |
| By: | Beyene, Abebe D.; Mekonnen, Alemu; Gebreegziabher, Zenebe |
| Abstract: | Few studies have examined the dynamic aspect of the effect of natural resource collection on child education. This paper looks into the effect of resource collection on child education using panel data collected in four rounds from rural Ethiopia. We model resource work participation and child literacy as a joint decision. Mundlak’s approach is employed in order to exploit the panel nature of the data. Unlike other related studies, we separately analyzed the effect of collection of water and fuel on child education. We find that, in general, natural resource scarcity, in addition to its direct impact on households, negatively contributes to child education by increasing the work burden on children in rural Ethiopia. In particular, children’s participation in fetching water is found to be one of the most important factors that reduce children’s ability to read and write. In addition to the effect of resource collection on children’s literacy, this study also examined the role of other factors, such as household characteristics, child characteristics and access to schools. The policy implications of the findings are also presented. |
| Keywords: | child labor, literacy, natural resource scarcity, panel, rural Ethiopia |
| JEL: | Q12 Q56 |
| Date: | 2014–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-14-18-efd&r=dev |
| By: | Amare, Mulubrhan; Waibel, Herman |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of climate variability and shocks on non-farm employment in rural areas of Northeast Thailand. The paper utilizes a large panel data set that includes detailed and retrospective information about shock experience and a corresponding twenty-year historical village-level monthly rainfall data set from rural Northeast Thailand. The paper finds that the labor market is heterogeneous in terms of adapting to climate variability and coping with shocks. Households use non-agricultural wage and self-employment as a means of adapting to rainfall variability while they use agricultural wage to cope with agricultural and demographic shocks. We also show that there is a concave relationship between rainfall variability and both non-agricultural wage and non-farm self-employment. Economic slowdown and idiosyncratic shocks, such as demographic shocks, lead to substantial non-agricultural wage employment reduction. Overall, our findings show that the labor market can be less effective as a means for adapting to severe rainfall variability, economic and demographic shocks. It is also observed that poorer households are less able to exploit the high returns of the labor market to cope with shocks because of a lack of start-up assets. |
| Keywords: | Key Words: Climate Variability, Shocks, Non-farm Employment, Asset, Rural Thailand, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi14:187571&r=dev |
| By: | Bellemare, Marc F.; Novak, Lindsey |
| Abstract: | Contract farming has frequently been shown to increase the income of participating households. Whether contract farming increases other aspects of household welfare, however, remains unclear. Using a 1,200-household data set from Madagascar and the results of a contingent valuation experiment aimed at eliciting respondent's willingness to pay to participate in contract farming, we show that for the average household, participating in contract farming (i) reduces the duration of the hungry season experienced by the household by about 10 days and (ii) increases the likelihood that the household's hungry season will end by almost 20 percent in any given month. Further, we find that these effects are even more pronounced for households with a larger number of children and for households with a larger number of female children, who often bear a disproportionate share of the burden of food insecurity. |
| Keywords: | Contract Farming, Outgrower Schemes, Grower-Processor Contracts, Agricultural Value Chains, Food Security, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, L24, O13, O14, Q12, |
| Date: | 2014–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:169817&r=dev |
| By: | Eric W. Djimeu (The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | Although recent evidence shows detrimental effects of armed conflict on educational attainment, coupled with the fact that 50% of children out of school live in conflict affected countries, there is a lack of studies rigorously assessing the effectiveness of different social and economic development interventions aiming to mitigate the impact of armed conflict on education outcomes. In order to fill this knowledge gap, this study assesses the impact of education investments financed by the Angola Social Action Fund from 1994 to 2001 on years of schooling. I use the Angola 2001 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to evaluate this impact. Using difference in differences estimation and a fixed effects model, I find that for individuals currently enrolled in schools and living in non-migrant households, an additional year of exposure to Angola Social Fund leads to an increase of years of schooling by 0.175 years. I find that Angola Social Action Fund has no impact on years of schooling for individuals currently out of school and for individuals living in migrant households. I find no heterogeneous effects of ASAF by variables considered. Interventions such as social funds can be used to mitigate the impact of civil war on education for individuals already enrolled in schools and living in non-migrant households. However, for individuals out of schools, there is great need to design innovative interventions specifically addressed to their circumstances and to test them rigorously in order to find interventions that can effectively mitigate the impacts of civil war on education. |
| Keywords: | Armed conflict, Social Action Funds, Education, Difference- in-differences, Angola |
| JEL: | O1 I2 O2 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:189&r=dev |
| By: | Simons, Andrew M. |
| Abstract: | Numerous national transfer programs around the world are designed with uniform benefit schedules imposed by central governments, but implemented by local governments. The Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) in Ethiopia, the second largest safety net in Sub Saharan Africa, is one such program. First, using variance decomposition techniques, we document local government’s noncompliance to the federally mandated uniform benefit schedule. Second, we find that local governments account for household economies of scale on the intensive margin (actual payouts to households) rather than the extensive margin (which households are selected into the PSNP). Younger children receive lower payments than older children or adults. Lastly, we examine whether noncompliance with federal mandates is more or less poverty reducing than the program would have been under the federally mandated uniform benefit schedule. |
| Keywords: | decentralization, national transfer programs, equivalence scales, targeting, safety nets, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Political Economy, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:169743&r=dev |
| By: | Maria Kuecken (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) |
| Abstract: | Using a within-student analysis, we find no average impact of textbook access (ownership or sharing) on primary school achievement. Instead, it is only for students with high socioeconomic status that one form of textbook access - sharing - has a positive impact. |
| Keywords: | Textbooks; Educational quality; Sub-Saharan Africa; SACMEQ |
| Date: | 2013–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00828418&r=dev |
| By: | Rosch, Stephanie; Ortega, David |
| Abstract: | We introduce a fast and inexpensive method to rule out potential barriers to adopting a technology. We use this method to asses the role of exogeneous contract enforcement as a barrier to market for Kenya's French Bean export market. We survey 240 farmers in Kirinyaga County, Kenya who were specifically recruited as matching pairs of geographically-nearest neighbors. We use a choice experiment as our instrument to estimate the effect of imperfect contract enforcement on their intensive and extensive supply margins. Then we use the differences in choice experiment results between matched pairs to rule out forces which are not serving as barriers to entry in this market. We find that imperfect contract enforcement impacts the extensive supply margin by deterring entry and sparking exit from the market, and reduces the amount of land allocated to French bean production on the intensive margin. We also find that underlying heterogeneity in farmers' costs to provide high quality French beans does not impact the overall decision to supply export markets. It does, however, determine whether the contracting farmer self-selects between supplying the fresh and processed export markets. These findings can help explain why previous development interventions to connect small-scale producers to these markets were not successful in the long-term, and suggest options for alternative policies better targeted to the issue of contract enforcement. |
| Keywords: | empirical contract theory, international development, choice experiment, contract enforcement, matching methods, Agricultural and Food Policy, Industrial Organization, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, L14, D86, O13, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170553&r=dev |
| By: | Useche, Pilar; Blare, Trent |
| Abstract: | Our research examines how the changing cultural norms and legal status in Ecuador have impacted women’s empowerment in the agricultural sector and in rural communities. Cacao provides a particularly relevant case because of its economic and ecological importance to Ecuador and the region. The traditional cacao agroforests also provide many ecological services such as habitat for many endangered plants and animals. However, they are not as profitability as the monoculture systems. Because of these economic and ecological concerns, promotion of cacao agroforests has been the focus of development efforts by the Ecuadorian government, nongovernmental organizations, and international donor agencies, many of whom also have goals of empowering Ecuadorian women (Suarez 2013). Thus, women’s involvement in cacao production would be an important indicator of women’s status in rural Ecuador. To determine the value that men on women place on these nonmarket benefits and ability of women to influence household production decisions, we conducted 350 household interviews throughout coastal Ecuador from February through July, 2013. We implemented a choice experiment separately with the principle male and female member of the household. The choice experiment consisted of the household member choosing between pictures of two parcels to determine how much more profit the participant would need to receive in order to prefer the monoculture system over the agroforestry system. By employing a Random Effects Logit regression, we were able calculate men and women’s average willingness to pay for the attributes of the cacao agroforests (Birol et al. 2006). We found that both genders place a higher value on the agroforests than monoculture corps; however, women place a higher value on these benefits than men do. |
| Keywords: | gender, cacao, Ecuador, willingness to pay, choice experiment, agroforestry, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:174285&r=dev |
| By: | Olwande, John; Smale, Melinda |
| Abstract: | High poverty rate persists in rural Kenya, where farming households continue to depend on agriculture for food and income, despite economic growth. Maize is the most widely grown crop, with the maize-growing smallholder population quite heterogeneous and diversified.However, less than half the growers enter the market to sell at least a portion of their harvest.Our objective in this paper is to test the effects of maize market participation on household income, poverty status, and income diversification among Kenya’s smallholder maize growers. We employ a combination of propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression on household panel data covering a ten-year period. The propensity score matching results show that in the overall, participation in the maize market has a significant impact on household income and poverty, with the magnitude of impact estimates differing across segments of maize growers, while the impact on diversification of income sources is not significant in most cases. These results persist after controlling for hidden selection bias through endogenous switching regression, with the impact estimates larger. Heterogeneity effects attest to existence of underlying differences among the maize-producing households that make sellers better off than non-sellers regardless of participation in the maize market. Our findings reinforce the call for interventions to expand the capacity of smallholder maize farmers to produce for the market in efforts to raise incomes and contribute to a more widespread poverty reduction. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Marketing, maize market participation, smallholder farmers, income, poverty, diversification, propensity score matching, endogenous switching regression, Kenya, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170028&r=dev |
| By: | Mason, Nicole M.; Tembo, Solomon T. |
| Abstract: | Many of the ‘new’ agricultural input subsidy programs (ISPs) in sub-Saharan Africa list raising farm incomes and reducing rural poverty among their objectives, but are ISPs achieving these objectives? We use data from two nationally-representative surveys of smallholder farm households in Zambia to estimate the effects of an increase in ISP fertilizer on household incomes, poverty severity, and the probability of household income falling below the US$2 and US$1.25/capita/day poverty lines. Results suggest that although ISP fertilizer raises smallholder incomes, the increase is not large or widely distributed enough to substantively reduce the probability or severity of poverty. |
| Keywords: | fertilizer subsidies, smallholder farmers, income, poverty, Zambia, sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, H2, I38, D31, Q12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2014–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170617&r=dev |
| By: | Surender Kumar (University of Delhi, India); Shunsuke Managi (Tohoku University) |
| Abstract: | Climate and institutions might be crucial in lowering the vagaries of climate change impacts in terms of productivity. This study measures the relationships of productivity measures adjusted for the regulation of carbon emission and institutions together with climate change throughout the world. This paper finds there is higher potential for reduction of CO2 emissions in developing countries at lower cost. However, the cost to reduce emissions lowers their growth potential in terms of lost productivity growth. Better institutions help to lower the negative impacts of climate change by improving the process of technological adoption in developing countries. Climate change reduces the productivity growth in developing countries by lowering the process of technological adoption, and better institutions result in higher productivity. |
| Keywords: | Carbon Sensitive Productivity, Climate, Institutions, Efficiency |
| JEL: | Q25 Q32 C61 D24 O12 P24 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2014-15&r=dev |
| By: | Ribas, Rafael P. |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits a liquidity shock from a large-scale welfare program in Brazil to investigate the importance of credit constraints and informal financial assistance in explaining entrepreneurship. Previous research focuses exclusively on how liquidity shocks change recipients’ behavior through direct effects on reducing financial constraints. However, the shock may also produce spillovers from recipients to others through private transfers and thereby indirectly affect decisions to be an entrepreneur. This paper presents a method for decomposing the liquidity shock into direct effects associated with relieving financial constraints, and indirect effects associated with spillovers to other individuals. Results suggest that the program, which assists 20 percent of Brazilian households, has increased the number of small entrepreneurs by 10 percent. However, this increase is almost entirely driven by the indirect effect, which is related to an increase in private transfers among poor households. Thus the creation of small businesses seems to be more responsive to the opportunity cost of mutual assistance between households than to financial constraints. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Financial Constraints, Informal Financing, Risk-Sharing, Cash Transfer, Indirect Effect, Consumer/Household Economics, Financial Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C21, H31, I38, J24, L26, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:167368&r=dev |
| By: | Moser, Christine; Hoffmann, Vivian; Ordonez, Romina |
| Abstract: | How can food safety be provided in the absence of regulatory enforcement? What can explain heterogeneous responses to unenforced regulation across firms when certain food safety characteristics are unobservable to the consumer? Using data from over 900 maize flour samples representing 23 distinct brands in eastern and central Kenya, this paper explores the relationship between price, brand and aflatoxin contamination. Aflatoxin is a toxin common in maize, groundnuts and other crops around the world and, while it is unobservable to the consumer, it may be correlated with other quality characteristics. We find a strong negative correlation between price and contamination rates, which is consistent with certain brands investing more in quality to avoid loss of reputational capital. |
| Keywords: | Food safety, aflatoxin, brand capital, maize markets, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Development, I180, Q180, O13, |
| Date: | 2014–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170588&r=dev |
| By: | Vaiknoras, Kate; Norton, George; Alwang, Jeffrey; Taylor, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Conservation agriculture has many potential benefits for small farmers. This study seeks to estimate the value that farmers in eastern Uganda place on some these benefits. Data from a choice experiment study are analyzed with a mixed logit model to determine farmers’ willingness to pay for increases in maize yield, reductions in erosion, and reductions in land preparation labor requirements. It finds that farmers have a statistically significant willingness to pay for increases in yield and reductions in erosion, but not for reductions in land preparation labor. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170062&r=dev |