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on Development |
| By: | Jean-Claude Berthélemy (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Victor Doubliez (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Josselin Thuilliez (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This article estimates the effect of the introduction of an effective treatment on prevention behaviors in the case of malaria. We rely on microeconomic data and build up a difference-in-differences analysis of individuals prevention behaviors following the introduction of Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) in Angola. We exploit differences in terms of treatment intensity across geographic areas and differences in individuals exposure to the introduction of ACTs. Our results suggest that the increase in access to treatment for malaria in Angola may have had a negative impact on the use of Insecticide Treated Nets even though the two were jointly promoted over the period. |
| Keywords: | Malaria,Treatment,Prevention |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01244406&r=dev |
| By: | Ingvild Almås; Alex Armand; Orazio Attanasio; Pedro Carneiro |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how targeted cash transfers to women affect their empowerment. We use a novel identification strategy to measure women's willingness to pay to receive cash transfers instead of their partner receiving it. We apply this among women living in poor households in urban Macedonia. We match experimental data with a unique policy intervention (CCT) in Macedonia offering poor households cash transfers conditional on having their children attending secondary school. The program randomized whether the transfer was offered to household heads or mothers at municipality level, providing us with an exogenous source of variation in (offered) transfers. We show that women who were offered the transfer reveal a lower willingness to pay, and we show that this is in line with theoretical predictions. |
| JEL: | D13 J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21717&r=dev |
| By: | Sudhanshu Handa; Richard de Groot; Luigi Peter Ragno; Mike Park; Robert D. Osei; Isaac Osei-Akoto; Garima Bhalla |
| Abstract: | The paper uses data from a quasi-experimental evaluation to estimate the impact of the Ghanaian Government’s unconditional cash transfer programme on schooling outcomes. It analyses the impacts for children by various subgroups – age, gender, cognitive ability – and finds consistent impacts. There are differences across gender, especially on secondary schooling, with enrolment significantly higher for boys 13 years or older. For girls, the effect of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme is to improve current attendance among those who are already enrolled in school (across all age groups). The authors found a significant effect on the expenditure on schooling items such as uniforms and stationary for these groups, which helps to explain the pathway of impact because these out-of-pocket costs are typically important barriers to schooling in rural Ghana and most of Africa. |
| Keywords: | cash transfers; ghana; schooling; |
| JEL: | H52 I31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa793&r=dev |
| By: | Adrien Bouguen (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Kamilla Gumede (Aarhus University [Aarhus]); Marc Gurgand (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the role of parents by looking at the effect of a parental involvement program implemented in poor primary school in South Africa. Based on a random variation of the program assignment and on a partial population design, it allows to rigorously identify impacts on parental involvement, on the relationship between parents and teachers and on student outcomes. We find mixed results suggesting that parents who volunteer to attend the meetings changed their behavior toward more involvement at home and at school. Such behavioral change appears stronger for a subgroup of parents whose children is enrolled in the facilitating teacher's class, suggesting positive interactions between parents and teachers. Yet, no cognitive or non cognitive impact on students can be detected. We interpret these disappointing results as evidence that in a developing country context, parents face constraints that makes such program unable to have significant effects on student performances |
| Keywords: | Education,parental involvement,Development |
| Date: | 2015–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01241957&r=dev |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio; Costas Meghir; Emily Nix |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate production functions for cognition and health throughout four stages of childhood from 5-15 years of age using two cohorts of children drawn from the Young Lives Survey for India. The inputs into the production function include parental background, prior child cognition and health and child investments. We allow investments to be endogenous and they depend on local prices and household income, as well as on the exogenous determinants of cognition and health. We find that investments are very important determinants of child cognition and of health at an earlier age. We also find that inputs are complementary and crucially that health is very important in determining cognition. Our paper contributes in understanding how early health outcomes are important in child development. |
| JEL: | I14 I15 I25 I32 J13 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21740&r=dev |
| By: | Nanak Kakwani (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia); Hyun H. Son (Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines) |
| Abstract: | This study proposes the method of social rate of return (SRR) to evaluate safety net programs such as conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes. Two types of SRRs are derived in the study: one based on the poverty social welfare function that focuses on the poorest 20\% of the population and the other based on the Gini social welfare function that focuses on inequality as measured by Gini. Defined as the social welfare generated by a program as a percentage of the cost of the program, the SRR is used in this study to conduct a comparative evaluation of CCT programs in Brazil ({\it Bolsa Familia} Program) and the Philippines ({\it Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino} Program or 4Ps). The findings reveal that the targeting of {\it Bolsa Familia} has improved substantially during 2001–2012, with the poor comprising almost two-thirds of the beneficiaries in 2012. Meanwhile, the 4Ps has rapidly expanded to cover 21\% of the population in 2013, but at the expense of increased leakage of beneficiaries from 45.33\% in 2011 to 52.20\% in 2013. The study finds that both programs have become more efficient in alleviating poverty and inequality – albeit {\it Bolsa Familia} is deemed more efficient given its better targeting system and lower operational cost. Nevertheless, the 4Ps’ targeting efficiency and administrative costs associated with the delivery of transfers have improved within a short period. The findings also indicate that both programs contribute more to the reduction in poverty than inequality. |
| Keywords: | Social rate of return, Gini social welfare function, poverty social welfare function, inequality, targeting, beneficiary and benefit analysis, cost effectiveness, poverty, education, conditional cash transfer program, Bolsa Familia, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, social assistance. |
| JEL: | D61 D63 I24 I32 I38 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-383&r=dev |
| By: | Pfutze,Tobias; Rodriguez Castelan,Carlos |
| Abstract: | One of the primary motivations behind the establishment of noncontributory pension programs is to allow beneficiaries to retire from the labor force. Yet, as with other unconditional cash transfer schemes, their aggregate effects may be more complex. Using panel data and instrumental variable techniques, this paper shows that the effect of one such program, Colombia Mayor, has been to raise the labor force participation of relatively younger male beneficiaries. This increase occurred precisely in the occupations with characteristics that are likely to require some up-front investment. The paper concludes that the transfer effectively loosened the liquidity constraints to remaining in these occupations. However, no such effect is found among women or older beneficiaries. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Population Policies,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Debt Markets,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2015–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7516&r=dev |
| By: | Kaminski,Jonathan; Christiaensen,Luc; Gilbert,Christopher L. |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the extent of seasonality in African livelihoods. It uses 19 years of monthly food prices from 20 markets and three years of nationally representative household panel surveys from Tanzania. Trigonometric specifications are introduced to measure the seasonal gap. When samples are short and seasonality is poorly defined, they produce less upward bias than the common dummy variable approach. On average, the seasonal gap for maize prices is estimated to be 27 percent; it is 15 percent for rice. In both cases it is two and a half to three times higher than in the international reference market. Food price seasonality is not a major contributor to food price volatility, but it does translate into seasonal variation in caloric intake of about 10 percent among poor urban households and rural net food sellers. Rural net food-buying households appear able to smooth their consumption. The disappearance of seasonality from Africa's development debate seems premature. |
| Keywords: | Regional Economic Development,Rural Poverty Reduction,Markets and Market Access,Climate Change Economics,Food&Beverage Industry |
| Date: | 2015–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7520&r=dev |
| By: | Paolo Brunori (University of Bari); Flaviana Palmisano (University of Luxembourg); Vito Peragine (University of Bari) |
| Abstract: | In the last decades inequality of opportunity has been extensively studied by economists, on the assumption that, in addition to being normatively undesirable, it can be related to low potential for growth. In this paper we evaluate inequality of opportunity in 11 Sub-Saharan Africa countries. According to our results, the portion of total inequality which can be attributed to exogenous circumstances is between 30% and 40% for the generality of countries considered. We also find a positive association between total consumption inequality and inequality of opportunity and we study the di?erent sources of unequal opportunities. Finally, we address a number of methodological issues that typically arise when measuring inequality of opportunity with imperfect data, which is the typical case in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Consumption inequality, Equality of opportunity, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | D63 E24 O15 O40 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bai:series:series_wp_08-2015&r=dev |
| By: | Eric Nazindigouba Kere (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Somlanare Romuald Kinda (Université Ouagadougou - Université Ouagadougou - Université Ouagadougou); Rasmané Ouedraogo (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | According to several reports, natural disasters and climate change will intensify and dampen development if appropriate measures are not implemented. Our paper contributes to this literature and analyzes the impact of natural disasters on domestic resource mobilization in developing countries. Using propensity score matching estimators over the period of 1980-2012 for 120 developing countries, our results conclude that government revenues decrease in the aftermath of natural disasters. Moreover natural disasters that occur in border countries have a negative impact on government revenues of neighbor countries. However, the adverse effects of natural disasters are dampened in countries with high level of resilience capacity and stronger governance. |
| Keywords: | Natural disasters , Tax revenue , Resilience capacity , Corruption. |
| Date: | 2015–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01242968&r=dev |