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on Development |
| By: | Jean-François Maystadt (Department of Economics, Lancaster University Management School); Gilles Duranton (Wharton Real Estate Dept, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | We exploit a 1991–2010 Tanzanian household panel to assess the effects of the temporary refugee inflows originating from Burundi (1993) and Rwanda (1994). We find that the refugee presence has had a persistent and positive impact on the welfare of the local population. We investigate the possible channels of transmission, underscoring the importance of a decrease in transport costs as a key driver of this persistent change in welfare. We interpret these findings as the ability of a temporary shock to induce a persistent shift in the equilibrium through subsequent investments rather than a switch to a new equilibrium in a multiple-equilibrium setting. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rok:spaper:89&r=all |
| By: | Climent Quintana-Domeque; Marco Gonzalez-Navarro |
| Abstract: | We provide the first experimental estimation of the effects of the supply of publicly financed urban infrastructure on property values. Using random allocation of first-time street asphalting of residential streets located in peripheral neighbourhoods in Mexico, we show that within two years of the intervention households are able to transform their increased property wealth into significantly larger rates of vehicle ownership, household appliances, and home improvements. Increased consumption is made possible via both credit use and less saving. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that the valuation of street asphalting as capitalized into property values is about as large as construction costs. We provide the first experimental estimation of the effects of the supply of publicly financed urban infrastructure on property values. Using random allocation of first-time street asphalting of residential streets located in peripheral neighbourhoods in Mexico, we show that within two years of the intervention households are able to transform their increased property wealth into significantly larger rates of vehicle ownership, household appliances, and home improvements. Increased consumption is made possible via both credit use and less saving. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that the valuation of street asphalting as capitalized into property values is about as large as construction costs. |
| Keywords: | development, infrastructure, credit use, wealth effect, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | C93 H41 O12 O18 |
| Date: | 2015–09–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:757&r=all |
| By: | Sudhanshu Handa; David Seidenfeld; Amber Peterman; Tia Palermo; Leah Prencipe; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | In Africa, one of the key barriers to the scale-up of unconditional cash transfer programmes is the notion held by politicians, and even the general public, that such programmes will induce the poor to have more children. The hard evidence on this question is scanty. The current study uses evaluation data from the Zambian Child Grant Programme (CGP), a large-scale UCT targeted to households with a child under the age of five at programme initiation and evaluates the impact of transfers on fertility and child-fostering decisions. The overall goal of the CGP is to reduce extreme poverty and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The results contribute to the small literature that rigorously documents the fertility impacts of unconditional cash transfer programmes in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | cash transfers; economic policy; fertility; |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa785&r=all |
| By: | Kalle Hirvonen (Development Strategy And Governance, International Food Policy Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | Large rural-urban wage gaps observed in many developing countries are suggestive of barriers to migration that keep potential migrants in the rural areas. Using long panel data spanning nearly two decades, I study the extent to which migration rates are constrained by liquidity constraints in rural Tanzania. The analysis begins by quantifying the impact of weather variation on household welfare. The results show how household consumption co-moves with temperature rendering households vulnerable to local weather events. These temperature induced income shocks are then found to inhibit long-term migration among men, and thus preventing them from tapping into the opportunities brought about by geographical mobility. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rok:spaper:87&r=all |
| By: | Avitabile,Ciro; De Hoyos Navarro,Rafael E. |
| Abstract: | A randomized control trial was conducted to study whether providing 10th grade students with information about the returns to upper secondary and tertiary education, and a source of financial aid for tertiary education, can contribute to improve student performance. The study finds that the intervention had no effects on the probability of taking a 12th grade national standardized exam three years after, a proxy for on-time high school completion, but a positive and significant impact on learning outcomes and self-reported measures of effort. The effects are larger for girls and students from households with a relatively high income. These findings are consistent with a simple model where time discount determines the increase in effort and only students with adequate initial conditions are able to translate increased effort into better outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Secondary Education,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2015–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7422&r=all |
| By: | Ali,Daniel Ayalew; Deininger,Klaus W.; Kemper,Niels Gerd |
| Abstract: | This study exploits a natural experiment to investigate the impact of land reform on the fertility outcomes of households in rural Ethiopia. Public policies and customs created a situation where Ethiopian households could influence their usufruct rights to land via a demographic expansion of the family. The study evaluates the impact of the abolishment of these pronatal property rights on fertility outcomes. By matching aggregated census data before and after the reform with administrative data on the reform, a difference-in-differences approach between reform and non-reform districts is used to assess the impact of the reform on fertility outcomes. The impact appears to be large. The study estimates that women in rural areas reduced their life-time fertility by 1.2 children due to the reform. Robustness checks show that the impact estimates are not biased by spillovers or policy endogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Youth and Government,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Demographics |
| Date: | 2015–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7419&r=all |
| By: | Faguet, Jean-Paul; Sánchez, Fabio; Villaveces, Juanita |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the effects of land reform on social development –poverty and land distribution- at the local level. Land reform in Colombia, understood as the allocation of public land to peasant, has granted 23 million hectares which comprises around 20% of Colombian territory and about 40% of usable productive land. Theoretically, the net impact of land reform on development is the combination of a poverty effect and a land distribution effect. Our findings suggest that land reform from 1961 onwards has slightly reduced poverty and mildly improved land distribution. Nonetheless, municipalities with strong presence of latifundia prior to 1961 have experienced both a slower drop in poverty and a weaker improvement of land distribution. This paper finds that prevalence of latifundia partially reduces the positive effect of land reform in promoting social development. |
| Keywords: | Land reform, land distribution, latifundia, poverty, local economic development, Colombia, Labor and Human Capital, Political Economy, Q15, N16, H27, |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ulaedd:209333&r=all |
| By: | Ted Enamorado (Princeton University); Luis Felipe López-Calva (World Bank); Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán (World Bank); Hernán Winkler (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Evidence of a causal effect of inequality on crime is scarce in developing countries. This paper estimates the effect in a unique context: Mexico's Drug War. The analysis exploits a unique dataset containing inequality and crime statistics for more than 2,000 Mexican municipalities over a 20-year period. An instrumental variable for the Gini coefficient combines the initial income distribution at the municipality level with national trends. The results indicate that a one-point increment in the Gini between 2006-2010 translates into an increase of over 10 drug-related homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. These effects are smaller between 1990 and 2005. The fact that the effect found during the Drug War is substantially higher is likely because the cost of crime decreased with the proliferation of gangs (lowering the marginal cost of criminal behavior), which, combined with rising inequality in some municipalities, increased the expected net benefit of criminal acts after 2005. |
| JEL: | C26 D74 H70 I3 O54 |
| Date: | 2015–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smx:wpaper:2015003&r=all |
| By: | Fernando M. Aragon (Simon Fraser University); Ricardo Pique (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | How important for government performance is the on-the-job experience of politicians? This paper examines this question using the case of mayors in Peruvian municipalities and a sharp regression discontinuity design. We find evidence that experience has a significant, although small, effect on spending composition and coverage of some public services, such as electricity. There is, however, no significant effect on other measures of government policies, such as total spending, local taxes, or public investment. This lack of effect may reflect quick learning-by-doing or lack of electoral incentives for re-elected politicians. We find, for instance, that differences in technical capacity between rookie and experienced politicians disappear after few years and that, despite not facing term limits, experienced politicians are less likely to run, and win, the re-election. These findings challenge the view that politician’s on-the-job experience is important, and weaken arguments against term limits based on the need to retain experienced politicians. |
| JEL: | D73 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp15-10&r=all |