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on Development |
| By: | Katsushi S. Imai (School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester (UK) and RIEB, Kobe University (Japan)); Raghav Gaiha (Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, India); Ganesh Thapa (International Fund for Agricultural Development, Rome, Italy) |
| Abstract: | The present study examines whether rural non-farm employment has any poverty and/or vulnerability-reducing effect in Vietnam and India. To take account of sample selection bias associated with it, we have applied treatment-effects model. It is found that log per capita consumption or log mean per capita expenditure significantly increased as a result of access to the rural non-farm employment in both Vietnam and India - which is consistent with its poverty reducing role of accessing - with the aggregate effect larger in Vietnam than in India. Access to the rural non-farm employment significantly reduces vulnerability too in both countries, implying that diversification of household activities into non-farm sector would reduce such risks. When we disaggregate non-farm sector employment by its type, we find that poverty and vulnerability reducing effects are much larger for sales, professionals, and clerks than for unskilled or manual employment in both countries. However, because even unskilled or manual non-farm employment significantly reduces poverty and vulnerability in India and poverty in some years in Vietnam, this has considerable policy significance as the rural poor do not have easy access to skilled non-farm employment. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Vulnerability, Non-farm sector, Treatment Effects Model, Vietnam, India |
| JEL: | C21 C31 I32 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2015-01&r=dev |
| By: | Duflo, Esther; Dupas, Pascaline; Kremer, Michael |
| Abstract: | A seven-year randomized evaluation suggests education subsidies reduce adolescent girls’ dropout, pregnancy, and marriage but not sexually transmitted infection (STI). The government’s HIV curriculum, which stresses abstinence until marriage, does not reduce pregnancy or STI. Both programs combined reduce STI more, but cut dropout and pregnancy less, than education subsidies alone. These results are inconsistent with a model of schooling and sexual behavior in which both pregnancy and STI are determined by one factor (unprotected sex), but consistent with a two-factor model in which choices between committed and casual relationships also affect these outcomes. |
| Keywords: | education; fertility; HIV; Kenya; pregnancy |
| JEL: | I12 I25 I38 O12 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10338&r=dev |
| By: | Chiputwa, Brian; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Sustainability standards are gaining in importance in global markets for high-value foods. While previous research has shown that participating farmers in developing countries may benefit through income gains, nutrition impacts have hardly been analysed. We use survey data from smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda – certified under Fairtrade, Organic, and UTZ – to analyse impacts on food security and dietary quality. Estimates of instrumental variable models and simultaneous equation systems show that certification increases calorie and micronutrient consumption, mainly through higher incomes and improved gender equity. In certified households, women have greater control of coffee production and monetary revenues from sales. |
| Keywords: | private standards, smallholder farmers, nutrition impact, gender, Uganda, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, I32, L15, O12, Q13, Q17, |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:191001&r=dev |
| By: | Oriana Bandiera; Narayan Das; Robin Burgess; Selim Gulesci; Munshi Sulaiman; Imran Rasul |
| Abstract: | The world’s poorest people lack capital and skills and toil for others in occupations that others shun. Using a large-scale and long-term randomized control trial in Bangladesh this paper demonstrates that sizable transfers of assets and skills enable the poorest women to shift out of agricultural labor and into running small businesses. This shift, which persists and strengthens after assistance is withdrawn, leads to a 38% increase in earnings. Inculcating basic entrepreneurship, where severely disadvantaged women take on occupations which were the preserve of non-poor women, is shown to be a powerful means of transforming the economic lives of the poor. |
| Keywords: | asset transfers; capital constraints; vocational training; occupational choice; structural change; poverty |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:58032&r=dev |
| By: | Kimenju, Simon; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | We analyze how the nutrition transition affects child malnutrition in developing countries. It is often assumed that the nutrition transition affects child weight but not child growth, which could be one reason why child underweight decreases faster than child stunting. But these effects have hardly been analyzed empirically. Our cross-country panel regressions show that the nutrition transition reduces child underweight, while no consistent effect on child overweight is found. Against common views, our results also suggest that the nutrition transition reduces child stunting. Further research is required to confirm these findings. |
| Keywords: | Nutrition transition, malnutrition, stunting, underweight, obesity, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, I15, O10, O13, |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:195709&r=dev |
| By: | Field, Erica; Molitor, Vera; Tertilt, Michèle |
| Abstract: | The most commonly used measure of reproductive behavior is the total fertility rate (TFR), which is a measure of the number of children born per woman. However, almost no work exists measuring the fertility behavior of men. In this paper we use survey data from several recent waves of the Demographic and Health Surveys in six developing countries in which men and women were each asked about their reproductive histories. We document a number of interesting differences in fertility outcomes of men and women. First, while one might have thought that average rates for men and women must coincide, we find that this is not the case. Comparing completed fertility by birth cohorts, we find that on average men have more children than women in four out of the six countries we consider. The gaps are large – reaching up to 4.6 children in Burkina Faso for the 1944-48 birth cohort. We show that positive gaps are possible when populations are growing and men father children with younger women. Such a situation often coincides with polygyny, i.e. men having children with more than one woman. Indeed we find that the size of the fertility gap is positively related to the degree of polygyny in the country. Second, we find a higher variance in fertility rates for men than for women. In other words, women are more similar to each other in reproductive behavior than men are to one another. Third, we find that differences in the desire to have children can largely be explained by differences in realized fertility. This implies that differences in fertility preferences often emphasized in the literature do not necessarily need to cause conflict, as men and women can realize their fertility individually. Finally, we find that for men, the demographic transition started earlier and was steeper than for women. These novel facts are useful when building theories of fertility choice. |
| Keywords: | fertility; gender; polygyny |
| JEL: | J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10355&r=dev |
| By: | Chege, Christine G. K.; Andersson, Camilla I.M.; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Many developing countries are experiencing a food system transformation with a rapid growth of supermarkets. Research has shown that smallholder farmers can benefit from supplying supermarkets in terms of higher productivity and income. Here, we analyze impacts on farm household nutrition. Building on data from vegetable farmers in Kenya, we show that participation in supermarket channels has sizeable positive effects: calorie, vitamin A, iron, and zinc consumption are all increased by 15% or more. We also analyze impact pathways, using simultaneous equation models. Supermarket-supplying households have higher incomes, a higher share of land under vegetables, and a higher likelihood of male control of revenues. Furthermore, income and the share of land under vegetables have positive impacts, while male control of revenues has negative impacts on dietary quality. The total nutrition effects of supermarket participation could be even more positive if women were able to keep their control over farm revenues in the process of commercialization. The methods developed and used may also be useful for other impact studies to better understand agriculture-nutrition linkages. |
| Keywords: | supermarkets, smallholder farmers, nutrition impact, dietary quality, gender, Kenya, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, D13, I15, O12, Q12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:167910&r=dev |
| By: | Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Agricultural innovations are seen as a key avenue to improve nutrition and health in smallholder farm households. But details of these agriculture-nutrition-health linkages are not yet well understood. While there is a broad literature on the adoption of agricultural technologies, most studies primarily focus on impacts in terms of productivity and income. Nutrition and health impacts have rarely been analyzed. In this article, we argue that future impact studies should include nutrition and health dimensions more explicitly. A conceptual framework is developed to clarify possible impact pathways. Different nutrition and health metrics are reviewed in terms of their strengths and weaknesses and criteria of choice for different study purposes. To evaluate impacts of particular innovations, the chosen metrics have to be compared between adopters and non-adopters, using a suitable sampling design. Approaches of how to deal with possible selection bias are discussed. Finally, selected empirical examples in which these metrics and methods were used in practice are reviewed. |
| Keywords: | food security, health, nutrition, agriculture, impact assessment, smallholder farmers, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, I15, I32, O12, O33, Q12, |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:185785&r=dev |
| By: | Runu Bhakta (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; `) |
| Abstract: | The basic objective of the study is to examine the impact of public expenditure on health and education after incorporating the linkages between health status of children and their educational achievements in India. This study has developed a simultaneous equation model among health and education of children, and public expenditure on these sectors. Three stage least squares technique is applied to get consistent and efficient estimates of the system. The results show that bad health status among children, captured by high IMR, is responsible to have lower enrolment rates and high dropout rates in primary level. In addition, public expenditure on Supplementary Nutritional Program has indirect positive impact on education through the improvements in health status of children whereas additional expenditure on elementary education has positive impact on enrolment rates, but at diminishing rate. Moreover, public expenditure on elementary education has greater impact on enrolment as compared to dropout rates. |
| Keywords: | Public Expenditure, Education, Health, SEM, 3SLS, IMR, GER, NER, Dropout Rates |
| JEL: | H51 H52 I18 I28 C33 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2014-049&r=dev |