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on Development |
| By: | Mounu Prem (Universidad del Rosario); Juan Vargas (Universidad del Rosario); Miguel E. Purroy (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Anti-personnel landmines are one of the main causes of civilian victimization in conflict-affected areas and a significant obstacle for post-war reconstruction. Demining campaigns are therefore a promising policy instrument to promote long-term development. We argue that the economic and social effects of demining are not unambiguously positive. Demining may have unintended negative consequences if it takes place while conflicts are ongoing, or if they do not lead to full clearance. Using highly disaggregated data on demining operations in Colombia from 2004 to 2019, and exploiting the staggered fashion of demining activity, we find that post-conflict humanitarian demining generates economic growth (measured with nighttime light density) and increases students’ performance in test scores. In contrast, economic activity does not react to post-conflict demining events carried out during military operations, and it decreases if demining takes place while the conflict is ongoing. Rather, demining events that result from military operations are more likely to exacerbate extractive activities. |
| Keywords: | Landmines, demining, conflict, peace, local development, Colombia |
| JEL: | D74 P48 Q56 I25 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:esocpu:28&r= |
| By: | Rasmane Ouedraogo; Nicolas Syrichas |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 crisis has a severe impact on education and employment and exposed the many social inequities that make some populations more vulnerable to shocks. Despite a vast literature on social mobility in advanced economies, little is known about it in African countries, mainly due to data limitations. Using a large harmonized dataset of more than 72 million individuals, we fill this gap and examine socioeconomic status mobility across generations, measured by educational and occupational attainment. We uncover the substantial geographical variations in the degree of upward/downward educational and occupational mobility across and within African countries, and the gender and rural/urban divide. Additionally, we explore the determinants of social mobility in the African region. We find that social mobility on the continent could be partly explained by observable individual characteristics (gender, marital status, age, etc.), and that educational mobility is a driver of occupational mobility. Lastly, we show that the quality of institutions, the level of public spending on education, social protection coverage, natural resource endowments, and countries' fragility are strong predictors of social mobility in Africa. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility; occupational mobility; social mobility; educational mobility; socioeconomic status mobility; Africa |
| Date: | 2021–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/215&r= |
| By: | Anti, Sebastian; Salemi, Colette |
| Abstract: | We examine nutritional outcomes in host communities exposed to refugee camps within a multi-country difference-in-differences framework across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Our study uses new spatially explicit data on refugee camps in SSA merged with the Demographic and Health Surveys to estimate the cross-country average treatment effect of camps. To test against bias in the coefficients of interest under staggered treatment timing, we use a diagnostic test to evaluate treatment effect homogeneity. We find that being within 10 kilometers of a camp decreases children’s weight-for-age z-scores by 10 percent of the sample mean. Children with married household heads experience improved nutrition outcomes near camps. We consider adult loss of employment and worsening child health as explanatory mechanisms: we find no significant evidence of worsening child health or a reduction in employment opportunities. We argue that rising child malnutrition among hosts is due to the changing composition of the host population or to price shocks under localized price dispersal. |
| Keywords: | Food Security and Poverty |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:umaemp:316035&r= |
| By: | Benson John (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Natalie Nitsche (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Despite education expansion, age at first marriage stalled in some sub-Saharan African (SSA) regions, a pattern whose underlying drivers remain poorly understood. We argue that a deeper investigation of birth cohort changes in education-specific ages at first marriage and how they are aligned with changes in girls’ school participation can illuminate this puzzle. Using Demographic Health Survey data from 34 SSA-countries, survival analyses and decomposition techniques, we examine education-specific marital behavior and change therein for the cohorts born between 1940 and 1999. Three key findings come to the fore. First, median age among all education groups stalled or reversed over some birth cohorts in all SSA regions. Second, these education-specific stalls or reversals correspond to different stages of education expansion across SSA regions. For some regions, these occurred long before the proportion of women attaining some schooling had increased substantially. Third, behavioral rather than education group composition changes explain the largest component of cohort differences in marriage rates in these education group. We conclude that increases in secondary education would be the most likely pathway to further delays in age at first marriage in West, Central and East Africa. |
| Keywords: | Africa, age at marriage, cohort analysis, education of women |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2021-022&r= |
| By: | Neumayer, Eric; Plumper, Thomas |
| Abstract: | There is a large variation across countries of origin in the gender composition of migrants coming to Germany. We argue that women's economic rights in developing countries of origin have three effects on their migration prospects to a place like Germany that is far away and difficult to reach. First, the lower are women's economic rights the fewer women have access to and control over the resources needed to migrate to Germany. Second, the lower are the rights the lower is women's agency to make or otherwise influence migration decisions. These two constraining effects on the female share in migrant populations dominate the opposing third effect that stems from low levels of women's economic rights generating a potentially powerful push factor. We find corroborating evidence in our analysis of the gender composition of migration to Germany over the period 2009-2017. |
| Keywords: | migration; economic rights; gender; resources; agency; Internal OA fund |
| JEL: | F22 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–10–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:112557&r= |
| By: | Choudhuri, Pallavi; Desai, Sonalde |
| Abstract: | The use of solid cooking fuels—wood, straw, crop residue, and cow-dung cakes—is associated with higher levels of environmental pollution and health burden. However, even in an era when incomes have grown and poverty has declined, the proportion of Indian households using clean cooking fuels such as kerosene or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has increased only slightly. Even among the wealthiest quintile, only about 40 percent of the households rely solely on clean fuel. Since the chores of cooking and collection of fuel remain primarily the domain of women, we argue that intra-household gender inequalities play an important role in shaping the household decision to invest in clean fuel. Analyses using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), a panel survey of over 41,000 households conducted in two waves in 2004-05 and 2011–12, respectively, show that women’s access to salaried work and control over household expenditure decisions is associated with the use of clean fuel. |
| Keywords: | LPG, clean fuel, gender inequality, resource dependence, intra-household, India |
| JEL: | J1 Q4 |
| Date: | 2020–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110340&r= |
| By: | Upasak Das; Karan Singhal |
| Abstract: | Mathematical ability is among the most important determinants of prospering in the labour market. Using multiple representative datasets with learning outcomes of over 2 million children from rural India in the age group 8 to 16 years, the paper examines the prevalence of gender gap in performance in mathematics and its temporal variation from 2010 to 2018. Our findings from the regressions show significant gender gap in mathematics, which is not observable for reading skills. This difference in mathematics scores remains prevalent across households of different socio-economic and demographic groups. This gap is found to be persistent over time and it appears to increase as the children get older. We also find significant inter-state variation with the north Indian states lagging behind considerably and the south Indian states showing a reverse gender gap. As an explanation to this, we observe evidence of a robust association between pre-existing gender norms at the household and district level with higher gender gap. The findings, in light of other available evidence on the consequences of such gaps, call for the need to understand these gender specific differences more granularly and periodically to inform gender-specific interventions. |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2110.15312&r= |
| By: | Kehinde Abiodun (Department of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines); Ben Gilbert (Department of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines) |
| Abstract: | Universal electrification is a necessary but not sufficient condition for reliable electricity supply. We examine the effect of power outages on firm performance in four middle-income countries with universal electrification. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey on over 8,000 firms from 39 regions across Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Indonesia, we find no discernable average effect on firm performance. There is considerable cross-country heterogeneity, however. Firms in Tunisia and Egypt --- the two countries in our sample with the greatest frequency of outages --- suffer statistically and economically significant losses from outages, while firms in Indonesia and Morocco show no effect. The losses are high in both Tunisia and Egypt, where outages reduce total annual sales by 15 and 25 percent, respectively. These findings suggest that while universal electrification is an important development goal, it should be considered together with investments in reliability. |
| Keywords: | universal electrification, power outages, reliability, middle-income countries |
| JEL: | D24 H54 O13 O14 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mns:wpaper:wp202103&r= |
| By: | KASHIWAGI Yuzuka; TODO Yasuyuki |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether and how natural disasters affect intergroup perceptions, particularly focusing on subjective expectations for dependability on other groups in emergencies. We conduct a household survey in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, which has experienced religious conflicts and was heavily hit by the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake. Our estimation results from the survey data indicate that individuals who suffered from the earthquake exhibit higher expectations for access to emergency support from other religious groups in the future. As a possible mechanism of this change, we show that the direct and indirect experience of actual cooperation between groups after the earthquake contribute to the higher expectations of sufferers. We also find heterogeneity in the effect of the earthquake on intergroup perception, depending on, for example, the types of damage and past experiences. |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21082&r= |
| By: | Luis Guillermo Becerra-Valbuena (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the effects of droughts and climate variability on short-term and medium-term adaptation of Colombian rural households. I measure drought in a Differencesin-Differences (DID) framework, as an alternative to the standard approaches decomposing the effects from climate and yearly weather deviations on agricultural productivity and those using the growing degree days and harmful degree days. In the short-term and mediumterm, rural households adapt to the drought of 2010 by increasing the total area planted in crops and livestock, (increasing also the total gross agricultural productivity in value terms) and by working more on the farm. The droughts also increased the use of external sources of water in the farm and made rural households postpone non-housing investments in the farm. I find heterogeneous effects according to the long run mean of temperature in the municipality. Higher temperature affects positively gross agricultural productivity in low-temperature municipalities but negatively high-temperature municipalities. Cereals and coffee seem to benefit from higher temperatures, while vegetables and fruits are more affected. |
| Keywords: | Climate change,Weather,Agriculture,Gross productivity,Adaptation,Rural impacts |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03420657&r= |
| By: | Mr. Eugenio M Cerutti; Yiliang Li |
| Abstract: | Lagging labor reallocations outside agriculture amid sustained low agricultural productivity have been a key feature in the Philippines over the past 15 years. An analysis of the labor adjustments in and out of agriculture shows that a variety of factors have influenced this process. We find that the widening of wage differentials with non-agricultural sectors, improvements in labor market efficiency, and better transport infrastructure are largely associated with growing outflows of labor from agriculture, whilst the lack of post-primary education and the presence of agricultural clusters hinder such outflows. In contrast to the traditional view that agricultural employment outflows are largely driven by productivity differences and wage differentials, our results emphasize the roles of education as well as transport infrastructure in facilitating labor reallocations from agriculture to non-agriculture. |
| Keywords: | real wage wage differential; time series trend; efficiency index; job separation; agriculture performance; labor adjustment; Labor markets; Agricultural sector; Employment; Real wages; Global |
| Date: | 2021–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/220&r= |
| By: | Rossi, Martin |
| Abstract: | I exploit a unique historical event to explore the causal relationship between individual wealth and posterior political power. Shortly after the foundation of Buenos Aires, plots of land in the outskirts of the city were randomly assigned to all heads of household that participated in the expedition. Using this random allocation of land as a source of exogenous variation on individuals’ wealth, I find that wealth causes political power. I also explore possible mechanisms and find support for the hypothesis that wealth signals (or improves) ability. |
| Keywords: | elites; political dynasties; representative political power; natural experiment |
| JEL: | B00 J45 N46 |
| Date: | 2021–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110532&r= |
| By: | Katrin Gasior; David McLennan; Mbewe Kalikeka; Miselo Bwalya; Maria Jouste |
| Abstract: | A large share of the population in Zambia is living below the national poverty line. To reduce poverty, in 2019, the government initiated the Cash Plus reform, which aims to build on the existing Social Cash Transfer as a floor benefit with additional benefits to take account of the multidimensionality of poverty. We use the tax-benefit microsimulation model MicroZAMOD to analyse the coverage and poverty impact of the current social protection system and to assess the extent to which potential Cash Plus reform scenarios can improve the status quo. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Zambia, Social protection, Tax-benefit microsimulation, Tax-benefit policy |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-164&r= |
| By: | Gupta, Pallavi; Kothe, Satyanarayan |
| Abstract: | Gender gaps in wages are a reflection of inequality and discrimination. This exists across region, sector, type of work and other divisions. Discrimination, is a presence of inequalities between male and female workers with similar skills and in similar occupations. Therefore only understanding wage inequality may be looking at the problem partially. Using the Indian National Sample Survey, the paper examines the facets of gender-based wage inequality and discrimination in regular and casual workers. First, Theil index is calculated to interpret within and between groups inequalities. Then, a Three-fold Oaxaca decomposition method is utilised to divide the wage gaps between explained, unexplained and interaction components. Results show that even though the returns on education are higher for women than men at each level of education, females continue to earn less. Wage gaps largely attributed to unexplained components and more prominent in occupational divisions. Discrimination is greater in regular employment as compared to casual employment; higher in urban as compared to rural areas and gets worse at lower level of occupations. It is also observed that women workers are discriminated against on the basis of age; and gender inequalities are worse than social inequalities. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, Theil index, Threefold Oaxaca decomposition, wage discrimination. NSS (EUS) 68th round, NCO 2004, returns to education. |
| JEL: | I26 J10 J16 J31 J7 |
| Date: | 2021–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110205&r= |