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on Development |
| By: | Broussard, Nzinga; Poppe, Robert; Tekleselassie, Tsegay |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we empirically test the effect that food aid had on children's educational attainment and work decisions following the 2002 drought. Difference-in-differences and inverse-propensity score weighting regression results suggest that participation in Ethiopia's food-for-work program following the 2002 drought decreased the number of years of schooling for younger children and increased the likelihood that older children were not enrolled in school because of work responsibilities. Participation in Ethiopia's free distribution program following the 2002 drought increased the number of years of schooling for younger boys. This paper contributes to our understanding of determinants of schooling decisions and child labor. It provides valuable lessons on how unconditional transfers can impact schooling decisions and child labor. |
| Keywords: | Safety Net, Child Labor, Schooling, Inverse Propensity Score Weighting, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, O15, I25, I38, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235219&r=dev |
| By: | Zaveri, Esha; Wrenn, Douglas H.; Fisher-Vanden, Karen |
| Abstract: | Investments in water infrastructure remain key to climate change adaptation plans in many countries, and rank high in adaptation costs for developing countries (Narain et al., 2011). In this paper, we use district-level panel data from 1970-2005 across India’s major agricultural states to investigate the role played by subsidized access to electricity, groundwater wells, tank and dam projects in mediating the vulnerabilities associated with monsoonal variation. We focus on wheat, a staple of India’s food supply, as it requires irrigation and represents a significant portion of India’s total agricultural output. Results show that the impact of negative precipitation shocks is significantly dampened when a particular district has access to a more reliable source of irrigation – e.g., access to tubewells helps to dampen the impact of negative precipitation shocks on irrigation decisions associated with wheat, while upstream dams do not significantly contribute to this dampening effect. In contrast, having access to dugwells exacerbates the impact of a fall in monsoon precipitation curtailing irrigation of wheat. Our results suggest that historical agricultural policies that increased access to tubewells and the subsequent electrification of regions naturally endowed with more groundwater have equipped farmers with the ability to withstand monsoonal shocks and fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | Water infrastructure, Adaptation, Agriculture, Irrigation, Indian Monsoon, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, O13, Q15, Q25, Q54, Q56, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236216&r=dev |
| By: | Li, Yanan; Liu, Yanyan |
| Abstract: | This paper answers the question that, does having some household members working in public work program increase other household members' wage bargaining power in private sectors? we use DID matching method to estimate NREGS's effect on participating households' labor market outcomes. Results show that non-participants from participating households (i.e. households with at least one person participating in the program) receive a 5\% wage increase compared to individuals from non-participating households. This result is consistent with a unitary household utility model and wage bargaining story. Intuitively, when a household participates in the program, the benefit obtained from this program may transmit from participants to household non-participants, hence leading to a higher reservation wage for the latter. This wage effect only exists in Karif season, an agricultural busy season. %Relevant to gender and inequality literature, we find the effects are usually greater in magnitude for female than for male workers. This is consistent with the initial goal of this program, i.e. empowering women. |
| Keywords: | Wage Bargaining, NREGS, Wage effect, Rural labor market, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236181&r=dev |
| By: | Afridi, Farzana (Indian Statistical Institute); Barooah, Bidisha (International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)); Somanathan, Rohini (Delhi School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study how attendance rates of primary school children respond to cost neutral changes in the design of India's school meal program. Municipal schools in the capital region of Delhi switched from packaged food to on-site cooked meals in 2003, with insignificant changes in the budget available per meal. We use the staggered implementation of this transition and child-level panel data to find that cooked meals resulted in a 3-4 percentage point rise in average monthly attendance with the largest effects observed for early grades. The impact on girls was especially large, but since they attend morning shift schools while boys attend the afternoon shifts, these gender effects may simply reflect benefits from better timed meals. We also find attendance gains concentrated in schools that served diverse menus. Our results suggest that even within constrained budgets, better designed school transfer programs can improve student level outcomes. |
| Keywords: | school meals, school participation, program design |
| JEL: | D1 E31 F01 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9924&r=dev |
| By: | Anglade, Boaz; Useche, Pilar; Deere, Carmen D. |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the extent of the gender wealth gap in Ecuador as well as its sources. Among unpartnered heads of household, we find a significant wealth gap favoring men across the distribution, particularly at the lower tail. Among partnered heads, throughout the distribution, the gap is less pronounced. Regression decomposition analyses show that differences in returns to investment in education, as well as differences in age, educational attainment, receipt of inheritance, and ownership of formal savings accounts for an important portion of the gender wealth gap at the median and upper quantiles among unpartnered heads. The notable gender wealth gap among the poorest sole heads is largely explained by gender differences in the returns to characteristics, mainly women’s lower returns for residing in the highlands as opposed to the coastal region, and their lower returns to parenthood. As for partnered heads, the gap across the distribution is mainly driven by gender differences in age, educational attainment, receipt of inheritance, and ownership of formal savings accounts. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, O54, D13, D31, I31, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236177&r=dev |
| By: | Negash, Martha |
| Abstract: | Smallholder farmers in poor economies like Ethiopia dominate the agriculture sector. Energy crop supply for biofuel processing will likely depend on the adoption behavior of farmers. The drivers of energy crop adoption at household level are predicted to include access related factors, assets and household characteristics. Using data from castor outgrower scheme in Ethiopia and applying a double-hirdle model, we analyze adoption as a two-step decision process. The results show that higher price of maize (a major staple crop) is strongly associated with lower size of land allocation to castor. Contrary to the widely accepted notion, access indicator variables such as distance from village centers (where most decentralized public service centers are located) and number of visits by public extension agents do not influence the decision to adopt. But interestingly, conditional on positive participation, farmers who live furthest from the village centers tend to allocate bigger proportion of their land to the energy crop. |
| Keywords: | adoption, biofuels, castor, Ethiopia, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, International Development, Q42, Q16, O13, Q12, |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae15:230226&r=dev |
| By: | Garbero, Alessandra; Songsermsawas, Tisorn |
| Abstract: | Investments in irrigation have been shown to improve farmers' agricultural outcomes and alleviate poverty. Specifically in areas where irrigation coverage is low such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the returns to investments in irrigation can be substantial. Our study provides an example of such investment, the Participatory Small-Scale Irrigation Development Programme (PASIDP) in Ethiopia. Combining a primary household survey with detailed geographical information, we estimate the impact of the project on agricultural production and households expenditures using a novel quasi-experimental approach. PASIDP beneficiaries benefit from the project mainly through improved crop yields, which help raise crop revenues, and allow farmers to switch from relying mainly consuming their own produce to purchasing greater amount of food from the market. However, we do not find increases in the area of land under cultivation or expenditures on non-food items among the PASIDP beneficiaries. Although we rule out that the project may have targeted specific farmers based on their agricultural performance, summary statistics indicate notable differences between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, an indication that the project might have targeted specific locations. Systematic targeting of a project is often favoured by project implementers either to ensure the highest rate of success or to deliver the project to those who may need it the most, but it may limit the generalizability of the project, which might be crucial in the efforts to scale up the project in the future. |
| Keywords: | irrigation, agriculture, Africa, Ethiopia, impact evaluation, participatory adoption, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, O13, Q15, Q16, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235949&r=dev |
| By: | Gupta, Anubhab; Taylor, J. Edward; Davis, Benjamin; Luca, Pellerano; Ousmane, Niang |
| Abstract: | This study quantifies the long-run impacts of Social Cash Transfers (SCTs) and carries out the first ever (to our knowledge) long-run cost-benefit analysis of a SCT program. The impacts of SCTs include socio-economic and productive outcomes in beneficiary households as well as the economic spillovers that result from linkages between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries within local economies. Using data from the PtoP impact evaluation of Lesotho’s Child Grants Program (CGP), we parameterize a cost-benefit model and estimate costs and benefits for both beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. The long-run benefits accruing to beneficiary households include the transfers themselves, plus a future stream of returns from human, physical and social capital formation stimulated by the program. These income gains, in turn, generate income multipliers in treated economies. We use unique panel data from Lesotho to model capital formation within treated households, together with the effect of this capital on household income. Then we link the cost-benefit model for CGP beneficiaries with a local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE) model. We find that the discounted future stream of benefits from the CGP substantially exceed the program’s costs in the village clusters initially included in the program. The CGP produces 42.11 million Lesotho loti (LSL) in discounted benefits over a ten-year period, compared to a total discounted program cost of 22.38 million LSL. |
| Keywords: | Long-run, SCTs, Lesotho, CGP, capital formation, cost-benefit analysis, International Development, O12, C21, D61, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235474&r=dev |
| By: | Smale, Melinda; Kergna, Alpha; Theriault, Veronique; Assima, Amidou; Keita, Naman |
| Abstract: | In Mali, stagnating yields of dryland cereals—excepting maize—are often attributed to limited use of fertilizer and declining land quality. In the Sudanian Savanna of Mali, as elsewhere in the West African Sahel, dryland cereals are grown on fields managed collectively and individually by extended families that span multiple generations and several households, headed by a responsible elder. The roles of women and youth in farm production are changing. We contribute to the empirical literature on agricultural intensification in this region by exploring intra-household differences in fertilizer use. We test differences by: 1) plot management type (collective, individual); 2) gender of plot manager given plot management type; and 3) and plot manager status in the family (youth, relationship to head). We compare findings between major cereal crops (maize, sorghum). Fertilizer use is greater on individually managed plots, which is explained primarily by use on sorghum fields allocated to women, which are very small, frequently intercropped with groundnuts, and serve as “food security” reserves. Use rates in maize production are lower on individual plots managed by men who are not household heads. Further, use is lower on plots managed by youth under 25 years of age (specifically, maize plots) and sons (in particular, sorghum plots). On sorghum plots, wives of the head have higher intensity of fertilizer use on sorghum plots than other managers. Findings have implications for the design of extension programs to support inclusion of women and younger generations in the intensification of dryland cereals production. |
| Keywords: | Mali, fertilizer, adoption, gender, youth, household farm, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, International Development, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235544&r=dev |
| By: | Bucheli, José R.; Bohara, Alok K.; Villa, Kira |
| Abstract: | Although the effect of rural road development projects on income poverty has been well studied, little research has been undertaken on the impact on the multiple dimensions of poverty. In this study, we examine the effect of the improvement and construction of rural roads in rural Nepal on household deprivation of health, education, and living standards. We use data from two rounds of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (2001, 2011) and a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the average treatment effect on multidimensional poverty. Our study finds evidence of reductions in household deprivation, mainly driven by improvements in asset ownership and dwelling infrastructure. We fail to observe significant effects on the health and education indicators. We test these findings by using propensity-score matching and inverse-probability weighting methods as robustness checks, and generally find similar estimates. In line with the literature in the field, we find heterogeneity in the results across socioeconomic groups and poverty dimensions. Further exploration suggests that household land ownership and economic activity might be driving this heterogeneity. Our work highlights the importance of using multidimensional measures to assess poverty and to empirically evaluate the impact of infrastructure projects on the development of countries, especially their rural regions. |
| Keywords: | multidimensional poverty, infrastructure, living standards, health, education, rural development, road construction, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235214&r=dev |
| By: | Schwab, Benjamin; Armah, Ralph |
| Abstract: | The international health community has recently increased the focus on raising the consumption of animal-source foods in developing countries. While much of the literature has highlighted the high nutritional potential of such foods, little attention has been paid to infrastructure deficiencies for handling and processing animal-sourced foods, particularly meat. Such shortfalls in food safety have the potential to counteract some health gains, especially if renewed international efforts to increase animal consumption are not combined with improved processing capacity. The spike in meat consumption among Muslims worldwide on Eid al-Adha provides a natural experiment to test the extent to which such food safety concerns are justified. Meat processing on this holiday often exceeds the capacity of formal slaughter and processing infrastructure, and thus provides an excellent opportunity to observe the implications of a rapid intensification of meat production and consumption across several countries. Using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from nine countries in Africa and Asia, we estimate the impact of meat consumption during this holiday on the incidence of diarrheal illness among children. Eid al-Adha provides a plausibly exogenous source of variation in meat consumption among Muslims, a natural comparison group (Non-Muslims) and independence from seasonal influences (the holiday follows the lunar Islamic calendar). We find that Eid al-Adha increases the incidence of diarrhea in Muslim children, relative to non-Muslims, by approximately 20 percent. These findings lend suggest food safety issues should be an important consideration for livestock intensification programs. |
| Keywords: | Food Safety, Agriculture for Nutrition, Child Nutrition, Meat Consumption, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Q18, I12, I15, J24, |
| Date: | 2016–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236188&r=dev |
| By: | Owusu, Victor; Kakraba, Isaac |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the impact of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) adoption on yields and gross margins of vegetable farmers using survey data from the Ashanti Region in Ghana. A parametric approach that accounts for selection bias in IPM adoption is employed to evaluate the direct impact of adoption of pest monitoring only, pesticide application only and both pest monitoring and pesticides application on yields and gross margins. The empirical results from the study show selectivity effects for the impact of adoption of pest monitoring and adoption of both IPM practices on yields of vegetable farmers but no selectivity effects for the impacts on gross margins. Assessment of yield and gross margin of IPM adopters in sub- Saharan Africa must account for selectivity effects. |
| Keywords: | Ghana, Gross Margin, Impact Assessment, Integrated Pest Management, Selection Bias, Yield, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, C35, J24, Q16, Q18, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae15:212606&r=dev |
| By: | Maiga, Eugenie W. H. |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Living Standards Measurement Surveys-Integrated Surveys of Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), this paper investigates the determinants of changes in youth and women participation in agriculture. Participation in the agricultural labor force is measured using hours per week in agriculture and change in hours worked per week in agriculture between two survey waves for Nigeria and Uganda. Ordinary Least Squares and Tobit methods are used to estimate the model. The findings suggest that age is a strong determinant in hours worked per week in agriculture in Nigeria but not in Uganda. For both countries, age does not seem to have an impact on changes in hours worked per week in agriculture by the youth or by women. Nigerian men work more hours per week in agriculture than women while the opposite is true for Uganda. Education, gender, rural residence, and non-agricultural wage income strongly affect hours worked per week in agriculture. |
| Keywords: | Youth, Women, Agricultural Labor, Participation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235997&r=dev |
| By: | Seymour, Greg; Doss, Cheryl; Marenya, Paswel; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Passarelli, Simone |
| Abstract: | Despite recent evidence that decisions about technology adoption often involve input from both men and women, the literature on technology adoption rarely considers gender and intrahousehold issues. In this paper, we use survey data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to investigate the influence of women’s empowerment on the adoption of improved maize varieties (IMVs). While our results are mixed as to whether or not women’s empowerment is positively correlated with higher rates of adoption, we find overwhelmingly that women’s empowerment is positively correlated with greater participation by women in decisions about the adoption of IMVs, the acquisition of credit for the purchase of IMVs, and the acquisition of extension services related to IMVs. |
| Keywords: | gender, women's empowerment, technology adoption, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236164&r=dev |
| By: | Kibrewossen Abay; Kalle Hirvonen; UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti |
| Abstract: | Seasonality in agricultural production continues to shape intra-annual food availability and prices in low-income countries. Using high-frequency panel data from northern Ethiopia, this study attempts to quantify seasonal fluctuations in children's weights. In line with earlier studies, we document considerable seasonality in children’s age and height adjusted weights. While children located closer to local food markets are better nourished compared to their counterparts residing in more remote areas, their weights are also subject to considerable seasonality. Further analysis provides evidence that children located closer to food markets consume more diverse diets than those located farther away. This leads us to conclude that households located near these food markets are not able to insulate their children from seasonal weight fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | africa; anthropometric measurements; child nutrition; food consumption; nutrition indicators; |
| JEL: | L15 O1 Q18 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa846&r=dev |
| By: | Nakasone, Eduardo; Torero, Maximo |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effectiveness of upper intergenerational transmission of knowledge (from children to parents) to promote awareness and behavior changes among adults. We designed and implemented a field experiment in a rural high school in the northern highlands of Peru, where we screened agricultural extension videos to students in the school's computer lab. We separately interview the parents of these high school students to assess their knowledge about the agricultural practices taught to their children. We find that, even when the information was not directly available to them, the information provided to the teenagers increased parents' knowledge of agricultural practices by 26%-34%. We also find that our intervention increased parents' adoption of the agricultural practices in the videos by 14-18%. Our intervention highlights the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to deliver information to children and reach adult populations (who are not usually familiar with ICTs). While our intervention delivered agricultural advice, this method can potentially be expanded to provide other types of information to increase the knowledge and change the behavior of ICT-illiterate populations. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236114&r=dev |
| By: | D'Souza, Anna; Tandon, Sharad |
| Abstract: | Utilizing a novel data source from rural Bangladesh that reports individual-level food intake, we find substantial inequities in the intra-household distribution of calories and nutrients, with household heads consuming disproportionately large shares. Importantly, these results do not appear to be driven by assumptions regarding energy requirements. Due to the inequities, aggregate household-level data misclassify the nutritional status of a large share of the population. Additionally, we find that both women’s disempowerment and economic stressors are associated with more inequitable calorie distributions. And we find that in households with more empowered spouses, either the spouse or the children, or both are less likely to be undernourished than in households with less empowered spouses. These findings have implications for food and nutrition program targeting, which often is based on using household-level data with strong assumptions regarding the equitable distribution of calories across household members. |
| Keywords: | Bangladesh, Food Consumption, Intra-household Allocation, Food Security, Undernourishment, International Development, D12, I15, O12, O53, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235832&r=dev |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Essex); Chakravarty, Abhishek (University of Essex); Mookherjee, Dilip (Boston University); Pino, Francisco J. (University of Chile) |
| Abstract: | While land reforms are typically pursued in order to raise productivity and reduce inequality across households, an unintended consequence may be increased within-household gender inequality. We analyse a tenancy registration programme in West Bengal, and find that it increased child survival and reduced fertility. However, we also find that it intensified son preference in families without a first-born son to inherit the land title. These families exhibit no reduction in fertility, an increase in the probability that a subsequent birth is male, and a substantial increase in the survival advantage of subsequent sons over daughters. |
| Keywords: | land reform, property rights, gender, infant mortality, sex ratio, fertility |
| JEL: | I14 I24 J71 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9930&r=dev |
| By: | Larochelle, Catherine; Alwang, Jeffrey; Travis, Elli |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence from a randomized control trial (RCT) conducted among potato farmers in Northern Ecuador about the impact of receipt of text message reminders on farmer knowledge about and adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) practices. The paper provides novel empirical evidence of the potential roles of reminders as post-training follow-ups in an agrarian setting. Using psychological constructs, we examine competing explanations for non-standard decision making such as low adoption of beneficial agricultural technologies. Farmers who received text messages have significantly higher knowledge scores and are more likely to adopt most IPM practices than those in the control group. The experiment provides evidences that text messages lead to behavioral changes by reducing inattention and sub-optimal heuristics in the case of complex decisions. |
| Keywords: | Technology adoption, agricultural extension, information and communication technology, program evaluation, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, O13, Q12, Q13, |
| Date: | 2016–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235423&r=dev |
| By: | Chakrabarti, Suman; Kishore, Avinash; Roy, Devesh |
| Abstract: | Would the households get to buy more of subsidized grains from a food safety-net program if the difference between the price of grains in the program and the open market were to increase? This is an important question for social safety-net programs everywhere in the world, but even more so for the Public Distribution System (PDS) of India—the largest food-based safety-net program in the world. The standard economic intuition suggests that price controls distort price signals and create incentives for unintended transactions and the unintended transactions increase in magnitude as the incentive (the arbitrage) increases. However, Dreze and Sen have argued that the increase in arbitrage between PDS and open market prices of grains increased the value of PDS entitlement, giving people much greater stake in the system leading to increased accountability and increase in household purchase of grains from PDS. We test these two opposing arguments empirically in this study using repeated cross sections of consumer expenditure surveys by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and panel datasets from India Human Development Survey (IHDS) and Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) and find evidence for both arguments. Our analysis shows that whether more subsidy in a food safety net program benefits the households or leads to higher diversion, depends on how well the system is managed. In states where PDS is better governed, households get to buy more rice from the PDS when the arbitrage increases. However, in states like Bihar and Jharkhand where PDS is poorly run, household purchase of subsidized grains goes down as the arbitrage goes up. |
| Keywords: | PDS, arbitrage, corruption, food subsidy, national food security act, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, Political Economy, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235763&r=dev |
| By: | Kafle, Kashi; Winter-Nelson, Alex; Michelson, Hope |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the impact of livestock transfer and associated training on women’s empowerment in Zambia. Women’s empowerment is measured with women’s ‘decision making power’ – a simple weighted index of women’s decision making and authority over different farm household activities and resources. We use a two-period panel data from a field experiment in the Copperbelt Province and the treatment effect is identified by using the difference-indifference method with household level fixed effects. First, we argue that women’s empowerment serves as a key driver of economic wellbeing of both individuals and households as we show empirically that empowered women contribute to dietary diversity and consumption expenditure. Results show a significant positive impact of the intervention on women’s empowerment. In particular, men and women from households receiving both livestock and training made most household decisions jointly and the proportion of joint decisions in these households is significantly greater than comparison households. While women’s control over most household activities have significantly increased, women’s role on decisions over livestock related activities increased the most. |
| Keywords: | livestock transfer, training, women’s empowerment, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Livestock Production/Industries, O12, J16, D04, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236271&r=dev |
| By: | Seidu, Ayuba; Onel, Gulcan; Moss, Charles B.; Seale, James L. |
| Abstract: | Full-time working within agriculture is now relatively uncommon; many farm households are still active in the off-farm labor markets, in and outside the local economy. This paper examines food consumption patterns and food security implications of off-farm income in rural transitional Albania. We estimate the impact of a portfolio of off-farm incomes on food consumption patterns using Working-Leser framework, under two-stage budgeting, to isolate the off-farm income effect from the pure expenditure elasticities. The results indicate that expenditure share on FAFH responds positively and elastically to increases in off-farm wage income, but negatively and inelastically to private remittances. We find the opposite impact on expenditure share on FAH, however not statistically significant. A disaggregated FAH analysis reveals that off-farm wage income is associated with reduction in household’s expenditure share on calorie-dense foods, such as cereals, and fats and oil. We find the opposite, and significant effect for remittances. These findings should be of interest to policymakers in Albania, especially in designing poverty and nutrition programs. |
| Keywords: | Off-farm work, remittances, income elasticities, nonlinear Engel curves, rural Albania., Consumer/Household Economics, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, D12, D13, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235851&r=dev |
| By: | Meemken, Eva-Maria; Veettil, Prakashan Chellattan; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Farmers’ preferences for sustainability certification are analyzed, building on a choice experiment conducted with smallholder coffee growers in Uganda. Farmers have positive general attitudes towards certification. While they dislike bans of productivity-enhancing inputs, benefits associated with agricultural training and special female support are appreciated. Many also see requirements that have to be met for certification as a welcome nudge to invest in better farm management and quality upgrading. Gender-disaggregated data reveal that female farmers have a higher preference for sustainability certification than male farmers. Also within households, significant preference heterogeneity between males and females is found for some certification attributes. |
| Keywords: | choice experiment, farmer preferences, food standards, gender, mixed logit models, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Q01, Q12, Q13, Q18, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:235484&r=dev |
| By: | Ogundari, Kolawole; Aromolaran, Adebayo |
| Abstract: | The study investigates the causal relationship between nutrition and economic growth in sub Saharan Africa (SSA). A dynamic panel causality test based on the Blundell-Bond’s system generalized methods-of-moment (GMM) employed. To make efficient inference for the estimates, we check for the panel unit root and cointegration relationship amongst the variables. The variables were found to be non-stationary at level, stationary after first difference and co-integrated. The results of the causality tests reveal evidence of long and short-run bi-directional causality between nutrition and economic growth; which implies that nutritional improvement is a cause and consequence of economic growth and vice versa. |
| Keywords: | Nutrition, Economic Growth, Causality, Cross-country, Panel data, SSA, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, B23, C23, E03, E21, I31, |
| Date: | 2016–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235352&r=dev |
| By: | Stephan Klasen (Georg-August University Göttingen); Malte Reimers (University of Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | Pro-poor growth has been identified as one of the most promising pathways to accelerate poverty reduction in developing countries. The diagnostic pro-poor growth toolbox has so far focused on the income dimension as well as key non-income achievements in education and health. This article contributes to the literature by expanding the toolbox with several new measures that take into account the extraordinary importance of agricultural productivity for poverty reduction in developing countries. We distinguish between land productivity and labor productivity and find that the poor identified by low incomes, poor education outcomes, poor health outcomes, low land productivity and low labor productivity overlap only to a small degree, suggesting that analyses of pro-poor growth from these different perspectives are complementary. The toolbox is then applied to three comparable household surveys from Rwanda (EICV data for the years 1999-2001, 2005- 2006, and 2010-2011), a country that has experienced impressive economic growth since the genocide in the mid-1990s and that has undertaken considerable efforts to increase agricultural productivity and improve the population’s access to social services over the first decade of the 2000s. Our application shows that the enormous progress made in the income, education and health dimension of well-being has been pro-poor according to most definitions of the concept. The new tools reveal that the land productivity-poor experienced pro-poor growth in the relative (and absolute) sense while the labor productivity-poor increased their labor productivity relatively (but not absolutely) faster than the labor productivity-rich even though the former dispose of considerably lower education levels. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Productivity; Inequality; Multidimensional Poverty; Pro-Poor Growth; Rwanda; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | E6 I3 O1 |
| Date: | 2016–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:201&r=dev |
| By: | Berazneva, Julia; McBride, Linden; Sheahan, Megan; Guerena, David |
| Abstract: | Bringing together emerging lessons from biophysical and social sciences as well as newly available data, we take stock of what can be learned about the relationship among perceived soil fertility, measured soil fertility, and farmer management practices in east Africa. We identify the correlates of Kenyan and Tanzanian maize farmers’ reported perceptions of soil fertility and assess the extent to which these subjective assessments reflect measured soil chemistry. Our results offer evidence that farmers base their perceptions of soil quality and soil type on crop yields. We also find that, in Kenya, farmers’ reported soil type is a reasonable predictor of several objective soil fertility indicators while farmer-reported soil quality is not. In addition, in exploring the extent to which publicly available soil data are adequate to capture local soil chemistry realities, we find that there is still immense value to the time-consuming collection of soil samples where highly accurate soil measures are important to research objectives. However, in the estimation of agricultural production or profit functions, where the focus is on averages and where there is low variability in the soil properties, there may be limited value to including any soil information in the analysis. |
| Keywords: | natural resource management, soil fertility, agricultural productivity, farmers’ perceptions, Kenya, Tanzania, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, O13, Q12, Q24, Q56, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235466&r=dev |
| By: | Anastasia Cozarenco; Ariane Szafarz |
| Abstract: | Subsidized microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide affordable credit to small entrepreneurs. Many industrialized countries regulate MFIs. But in a market with accessible small business financing, regulatory loan ceilings can jeopardize the supply of microcredit to the most disadvantaged people. This is because small entrepreneurs in need of above-ceiling credit have the option to combine a ceiling-high microcredit with a supplementary loan from a regular bank. By reducing information asymmetry, this type of co-financing may prompt MFIs to divert credit away from entrepreneurs seeking below-ceiling loans. This study uses hand-collected data from a French MFI to test, and partly confirm, this theory. |
| Keywords: | Microcredit; microfinance; regulation; loan ceiling; self-employment; entrepreneurs |
| JEL: | G21 L51 G28 O52 L31 I38 C25 M13 |
| Date: | 2016–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/229550&r=dev |
| By: | Shilpi,Forhad J.; Emran,Shahe |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the impacts of agricultural productivity on employment growth and structural transformation of non-farm activities. To guide the empirical work, this paper develops a general equilibrium model that emphasizes distinctions among non-farm activities in terms of tradable-non-tradable and the formal-informal characteristics. The model shows that when a significant portion of village income is spent on town/urban goods, restricting empirical analysis to the village sample leads to underestimation of agriculture's role in employment growth and transformation of non-farm activities. Using rainfall as an instrument for agricultural productivity, empirical analysis finds a significant positive effect of agricultural productivity growth on growth of informal (small-scale) manufacturing and skilled services employment, mainly in education and health services. For formal employment, the effect of agricultural productivity growth on employment is found to be largest in the samples that include urban areas and rural towns compared with rural areas alone. Agricultural productivity growth is found to induce structural transformation within the services sector with employment in formal/skilled services growing at a faster pace than that of low skilled services. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Crops and Crop Management Systems,Labor Policies,Labor Markets,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2016–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7685&r=dev |
| By: | Gori Maia, Alexandre; Cesano, Daniele; Miyamoto, Bruno C.B.; Eusébio, Gabriela dos Santos; Andrade, Patricia |
| Abstract: | The Brazilian Sertão is the most populous semiarid region in the world, and faces the highest rates of poverty and food insecurity in Brazil. Irregular rainfall and climate variability make these social constraints even more difficult to be solved in the short term, since basic economic activities in the region, as dairy farming and subsistence agriculture, tend to be mainly affected by recurrent and prolonged droughts. This study analyzes the impacts of climate conditions on the agricultural production and how adaptative strategies may alleviate such effects. First, it analyzes the dynamics of climate variables between 1974 and 2013 in the semi-arid region of the State of Bahia, the largest and most populous State of Sertão. Secondly, based on a panel with climatic and production data, it assesses the ex-poste impacts of these climate variables on the agricultural production of the municipalities in the region. Thirdly, it estimates the relation between several adaptive strategies and the agricultural family farmers’ production, based on microdata of the Brazilian Agricultural Census for small farmers in the region. The study evaluates four main agricultural productions: milk, cattle, goat, sheep and corn. The final and general aim of this study is to discuss the effectiveness of strategies for small farmers which would create climate resilience and attenuate the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural production of this vulnerable region. |
| Keywords: | natural resource economics, environmental policy, rural development, caatinga, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Q18, Q51, Q54, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236255&r=dev |
| By: | Kouser, Shahzad; Qaim, Matin; Abedullah |
| Abstract: | The literature dealing with impacts of Bt cotton is growing. Nevertheless, the question remains about how this technology can contribute to employment generation of rural poor. Bt-related yield benefit may intensify production and enhance labor demand for harvesting. Building on farm survey data of 352 cotton farmers in the South Punjab of Pakistan and using double-hurdle model, Bt employments effects are analyzed. Estimates show that Bt adoption has increased the probability and demand for hired labor by 6% and 17%, respectively. Cotton picking is labor intensive and female dominated activity in Pakistan. Labor disaggregation by gender enunciates the employment effects of Bt cotton for rural women, who belong to the neglected group of the society. Hence, Bt technology can play a vital role to poverty alleviation if seed quality and credit constraints are properly addressed. |
| Keywords: | Bt cotton, labor demand, women empowerment, double hurdle model, Pakistan, Crop Production/Industries, Labor and Human Capital, J43, O33, Q11, Q16, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae15:212014&r=dev |