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on Development |
| By: | Leone Walters (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Carolyn Chisadza (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Matthew W. Clance (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that contrary to previous findings, present-day education outcomes in Africa cannot be independently attributed to colonial or pre-colonial ethnic institutions. We propose that it is instead the complementarity or contention between colonial and precolonial institutions that result in education outcomes we observe today. Using geolocated DHS literacy outcomes for Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, our findings suggest that the positive effect of British rule on contemporary literacy is diminished in centralised ethnic regions. This paper contributes to debates on colonial and pre-colonial ethnic influences on African development, moving beyond country-level analysis. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Ethnic Institutions, Education |
| JEL: | I25 N17 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:2020102&r=all |
| By: | Gantier Mita, Marcelo (IISEC, Universidad Católica Boliviana) |
| Abstract: | Natural resources are often related to conflicts. The Dal Bó & Dal Bó (2011) theory states that income shocks affect capital- and labor-intensive sectors differently. Using sub-national cells covering the African continent for 1997-2010, I find that conflicts react differently to positive commodity price shocks depending on their factor intensity. The results show that a positive shock in the capital-intensive mining sector increases conflict likelihood, whereas a positive shock in the labor-intensive agricultural sector reduces it. These impacts are higher for sub-Saharan Africa. When testing heterogeneous effects for the degree of commodity appropriability, historical African-specific factors, and quality of institutions, I find that easily taxed crops behave differently to an increase in international crop prices. In the same vein, I find that neither historical African-specific factors nor the quality of institutions seem to induce differential responses in conflicts to commodity price shocks. |
| Keywords: | Recursos Naturales; Conflictos; Commodity Shocks; Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas; IISEC. |
| Date: | 2020–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:iisecd:2020_006&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Razzu (Department of Economics, University of Reading); Ayago Wambile (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative survey data, we provide estimates of three generation educational mobility for six African countries: Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. We ask whether the extent of educational mobility across three generations differ by gender and whether the impact of grandparents differ depending on their residence status. We find that grandparents matter and the intergenerational effects can persist beyond two generations. These effects are however one fifth of those between two generations. They are generally higher for daughters than sons and stronger if grandparents live with their grandchildren than if they do not. |
| Keywords: | multigenerational social mobility, education, gender, methods |
| JEL: | J62 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2020-23&r=all |
| By: | Tendai Zawaira (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Matthew W. Clance (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa); Carolyn Chisadza (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | Using data on historical homelands of ethnicities from the Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock, 1959, 1967) and World Values Survey (WVS) data, we analyse how social institutions perpetuate social attitudes that legitimise gender inequality in the labour market, specifically on female labour force participation in sub- Saharan Africa. We find that patriarchal systems in general such as patrilineal kinship, patrilineal land inheritance and patrilocal residence upon marriage reduce female labour force participation, whilst matriarchal systems have the opposite effect. These results are partly influenced by unequal gender attitudes towards women and their work. The findings suggest that social institutions are an important element in understanding gender dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa because they have over time informed on gender identification and appropriate gender roles in most societies. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Africa, Institutions, Culture |
| JEL: | J16 O11 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:2020101&r=all |
| By: | Camilo Bohorquez-Penuela (Banco de la República de Colombia); Mariana Urbina-Ramirez |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between rising prices of tortilla - the Mexican staple par excellence - and household food insecurity between 2008 and 2014, a period in which global food prices experienced dramatic increases. The use of a unique combination of household-level data and oficial state-level information on prices allows us exploit significant variation in prices across the Mexican states. Since households cannot be tracked across time, we follow Deaton (1985) by constructing a series of pseudo-panels to control for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity and measurement error. The regression estimates suggest that increasing tortilla prices affected food insecurity rates in Mexico. More specifically, households with children or those in the second or third income quintile are more likely to be affected. **** ABSTRACT: Estudiamos la relación entre el aumento de precios de la tortilla - el alimento esencial por excelencia en México - y la inseguridad alimentaria de los hogares entre 2008 2014, un periodo en el que los precios globales de los alimentos sufrieron incrementos extraordinarios. El uso de una combinación única de datos de encuestas de hogares e información oficial de precios por estados nos permite explotar una variación significativa a través de las distintas unidades administrativas del territorio mexicano. Dado que los hogares no pueden ser seguidos a través del tiempo, nos apoyamos en Deaton (1985) para construir una serie de pseudo-páneles para controlar en nuestras estimaciones por error de medición y heterogeneidad no observada que no varía con el tiempo. Los estimadores sugieren que el incremento de los precios de la tortilla aumentó la inseguridad alimentaria en México, principalmente en hogares con niños y aquellos que se ubican en el segundo y tercer quintil de la distribución de ingresos per cápita. |
| Keywords: | Mexico, food insecurity, food prices, households, México, inseguridad alimentaria, precios de alimentos, hogares |
| JEL: | D12 O54 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:1144&r=all |
| By: | Arnaud Daymard (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA) |
| Abstract: | Most studies of structural transformation assume a closed economy when modeling. Is this assumption justified in a globalized world? I test the relevance of closed versus open economy models of structural transformation using data on the sectoral productivity levels of developed and developing countries over the 1950-2013 period. The empirical findings suggest that trade openness does affect the mechanics of structural transformation in the way predicted by the theory, but that the practical effect of trade is small. Nonetheless, the difficult creation of manufacturing jobs in Latin America and Africa—a trait commonly referred to as ”premature deindustrialization”—suggests that trade might have a significant role on the mechanics of manufacturing employment, a role that it does not play on agriculture and services. As an alternative to the role of trade, I also emphasize that large fixed costs in the formal manufacturing sector might explain the difficult industrialization of Latin America and Africa. |
| Keywords: | structural transformation, industrialization, agricultural productivity, international trade |
| JEL: | O11 O13 O14 O41 F41 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2020-07&r=all |
| By: | Samuel Ampaw; Simon Appleton; Xuyan Lou |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the heterogeneous effect of health insurance on out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure (OOPHE), using merged data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey and Ghana Health Service reports. It applies conditional-mixed process and censored quantile instrumental variable estimators to tackle censoring and endogeneity. We instrument household insurance rate with community insurance rate (exclusive of the observed household) and control for community unobservables. The quantile regression allows the insurance effect to differ across the distribution of OOPHE. We further perform separate analyses by the types of OOPHE and selected covariates. The results show that insurance reduced OOPHE and the incidence of catastrophic OOPHE in 2013, but not in 2017. Besides, households in the higher expenditure quantiles benefitted more from coverage than those in the median and lower quantiles did in 2013. Also, the insurance benefits accrued exclusively to the wealthiest households, households with older heads, and users of outpatient services in 2013. Lastly, the 2013 survey reveals that families with female heads and those whose heads had primary education benefitted more from health insurance than their counterparts in the other subgroups did. The paper concludes that same health insurance can have varied financial risk implications at different periods, across the distribution of OOPHE, and among various household categories. |
| Keywords: | health insurance, financial risk protection, out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure, catastrophic healthcare expenditure, quantile regression, Ghana |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcre:20/04&r=all |
| By: | Zhuldyz Ashikbayeva; Marei Fürstenberg; Timo Kapelari; Albert Pierres; Stephan Thies |
| Abstract: | This thesis studies the impacts of flooding on income and expenditures of rural households in Northeast Thailand. It explores and compares shock coping strategies and identifies household level differences in flood resilience. Drawing on unique household panel data collected between 2007 and 2016, we exploit random spatio-temporal variation in flood intensities on the village level to identify the causal impacts of flooding on households. Two objective measures for flood intensities are derived from satellite data and employed in the analysis. Both proposed measures rely on the percentage area inundated in the surrounding of a village, but the second measure is standardized and expressed in comparison to the median village level flood exposure. We find that household incomes are negatively affected by floods. However, our results suggest that rather than absolute levels of flooding, deviations from median flood exposure are driving negative effects on households. This indicates a certain degree of adaptation to floods. Household expenditures for health and especially food rise in the aftermath of flooding. Lastly, we find that above primary school education helps to completely offset potential negative effects of flooding. |
| Keywords: | Flooding, Household level effects, Southeast Asia, TVSEP |
| JEL: | Q54 D10 I10 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tvs:wpaper:wp-022&r=all |
| By: | Bethuel Kinyanjui Kinuthia |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the government input subsidy?the National Agriculture Input Voucher?on farmers' production and welfare in Tanzania as well as the factors that influence agricultural production in the country. The analysis is based on the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for 2008-13. The study uses panel fixed effects and difference-in-difference and propensity score matching methods to examine the two objectives. |
| Keywords: | Difference-in-difference, Subsidies, Production, panel, Propensity score matching, Welfare, Tanzania |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-149&r=all |
| By: | Elsa Kyander |
| Abstract: | Following the Indian trade reform in 1991, previously protected industries faced rapidly increasing import competition. This paper studies the effect of India’s trade liberalisation on female labour force participation in the manufacturing sector. The paper uses two rounds of the Indian Employment and Unemployment Survey to evaluate the effect of rising manufacturing imports over the time period 1987 - 2000 and exploits heterogeneous concentrations of industries across Indian states to construct a measure of import exposure. In addition to the OLS estimations, an instrumental variable approach is used to control for potential endogeneity of imports. The paper finds that import exposure is positively related to higher employment levels for women in the manufacturing sector, especially in export-oriented industries which employ a large number of female workers. In the main specification, the average increase in import exposure over the time period corresponds to a 3 percentage point increase in female employment. The effect differs extensively depending on the level of education and is strongest for women with no or limited schooling. In the import competing manufacturing sectors, the effect of increased import competition is still positive, but smaller in magnitude and largest for women with secondary schooling or a graduate degree. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2020-22&r=all |
| By: | Luis Sarmiento (European Institute of Economics and the Environment, and German Institute of Economic Research); Thomas Longden (Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | Even though a worker’s occupation is a crucial determinant of temperature-related mortality, only a handful of studies assess its effect across different labor groups. This study contributes to the literature on temperature and mortality by examining the impact of heat and cold across agricultural, informal, blue-collar, white-collar, and unemployed workers. Results show that white-collar workers are significantly more resilient to extreme temperatures than other labor groups, especially the elderly/retired, agrarian, and informal laborers. Additionally, we provide evidence that climate zones influence the effect and that extreme temperatures lead to a higher likelihood of heart attacks, diabetes, and influenza/pneumonia-related mortality. |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:2009&r=all |
| By: | Ishak, Phoebe W. |
| Abstract: | We study the spatial distribution of the effect of oil and gas revenues on Brazilian municipalities, using variations in the international prices of oil and gas to establish causality. Oil and gas revenues increase economic activity, measured by night-time light emissions, in oil-producing municipalities but impose negative spill-overs on neighbouring municipalities. Spill-overs dominate beyond 150 km from oil activities and compensate direct effects in micro-regions. In oil municipalities, oil and gas revenues increase royalties, population, local real prices, crime, and real wages, essentially in manufacturing and services. Spillovers are negative on wages and prices and positive on royalties and crime. |
| Keywords: | Natural resources curse,oil,spill-over effects,Night-time lights,Brazil |
| JEL: | O11 O13 Q32 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc20:224612&r=all |