|
on Development |
| By: | Jade Siu; Olivier Sterck; Cory Rodgers |
| Abstract: | Should cash transfer programmes restrict consumer choice? For example, should food assistance delivered in cash be restricted to food and exclude temptation goods? Theoretically, if transfers are extra-marginal, restrictions induce (1) a substitution effect away from restricted goods and (2) a negative wealth effect if transfer recipients resell unrestricted goods at a loss to access restricted goods. The welfare impact on transfer recipients is negative. We test and corroborate these predictions by exploiting a natural experiment in a refugee settlement in Kenya, where some refugees receive monthly cash transfers restricted to food while others get unrestricted cash transfers. |
| Keywords: | Cash transfers; Vouchers; Restrictions; Debt |
| JEL: | O12 O15 I38 G51 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-14&r= |
| By: | Ashley Pople; Ruth Hill; Stefan Dercon; Ben Brunckhorst |
| Abstract: | In the face of increasing climate volatility and stretched aid budgets, more effective ways to support households in times of crisis are needed. This paper examines the welfare impact of an anticipatory cash transfer provided to households forecasted to experience extreme floods in Bangladesh. Evidence on the impact of a one-off transfer in a disaster are limited, despite the widespread use of such transfers in crises, reflecting more broadly a dearth of evaluations in the humanitarian sector. To assess impact, we exploit administrative constraints experi-enced during the programme roll-out caused by the quick onset of the flood and restrictions on movement as a result of Covid-19, to compare treated households with otherwise comparable households which did not receive the cash transfer. We find that the anticipatory cash transfer was mostly spent on food and water, and that treated households were 36% less likely to go a day without eating during the flood. Three months after the flood, households that had received the transfer reported significantly higher child and adult food consumption and well¬being. They also experienced lower asset loss, engaged in less costly borrowing after the flood, and reported higher earning potential. Our results are robust to alternate control group defi¬nitions and model specifications. These benefits from the anticipatory cash transfer occurred before a traditional humanitarian response would normally arrive, highlighting the benefits of being early. We find that small changes in timing matter: receiving the cash a day earlier resulted in a small and marginally significant increase in welfare. |
| Keywords: | finance and microfinance; climate change; anticipatory humanitarian action |
| JEL: | D12 O12 Q54 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-07&r= |
| By: | Pushkar Maitra (Monash University); Sandip Mitra (Indian Statistical Institute); Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University); Sujata Visaria (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a field experiment in India comparing two approaches to appointing a local commission agent to select eligible smallholder farmers for a subsidized credit program: a private trader in TRAIL, versus a political appointee in GRAIL. Both schemes had similar loan take-up, repayments and similar treatment effects on borrowing and farm output, but farmers' profits increased significantly only in the TRAIL scheme. This is explained by a larger reduction in the unit costs of production. While there is evidence that the TRAIL agent selected farmers of higher productivity, differences in selection (on productivity or other relevant attributes) is unable to explain much of the observed differences in average treatment effects on farmer profits. We explain the larger treatment effects in TRAIL conditional on selection, as the result of the TRAIL agents' superior motivation and their capacity to offer treated farmers' business advice and lower their production costs. |
| Keywords: | Targeting, Intermediation, Decentralization, Community Driven Development, Agricultural Credit |
| JEL: | H42 I38 O13 O16 O17 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2021-19&r= |
| By: | Aymo Brunetti; Konstantin Büchel; Martina Jakob; Ben Jann; Daniel Steffen |
| Abstract: | Good teachers are the backbone of a successful education system. Yet, in developing countries, teachers’ content knowledge is often inadequate. This study documents that primary school math teachers in the department of Morazan in El Salvador only master 47 percent of the curriculum they teach. In a randomized controlled trial with 175 teachers, we further evaluate a computer-assisted learning (CAL) approach to address this shortcoming. After a five months in-service training combining CAL-based self-studying with monthly workshops, participating teachers outperformed their peers from the control group by 0.29 standard deviations, but this effect depreciated by 72 percent within one year. Our simulations show that the program is unlikely to be as cost-effective as CAL interventions directly targeting students. |
| Keywords: | education quality, teacher performance, teacher training, student learning, basic math education, computer-assisted learning |
| JEL: | C93 I20 I21 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2021–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bss:wpaper:41&r= |
| By: | Benfica, Rui; Nin-Pratt, Alejandro |
| Abstract: | This analysis explores the relationship between agricultural R&D investments and rural poverty reduction, and the prevalence of undernourishment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It uses a panel data set of internationally comparable poverty dis-aggregated by urban and rural areas, country level undernourishment, and ASTI data on R&D investments and derived indicators. The study uses agricultural R&D knowledge stocks (KS) to account for the lagged effects of research through depreciation and gestation period of investments, and applies causal mediation analysis to assess the impact of KS on poverty and hunger and measure the relative contribution of KS-induced agricultural productivity growth on those outcomes. Evidence suggests that, while SSA growth in KS has been relatively slow, it helped reduce rural poverty and undernourishment – the percentage point reduction in rural extreme and moderate poverty of a 1% annual increase in KS is 0.218 and 0.146 percentage points per year, respectively. Mediation analysis indicates that a fifth of the KS effect on extreme rural poverty, and a quarter of the KS effect on moderate rural poverty, can be attributed to KS driven gains in agricultural labor productivity. Likewise, KS growth reduces undernourishment – a 1% annual increase in KS leads to a drop of 0.132 percentage points per year in the prevalence of undernourishment, with about 40% of that effect mediated through gains in agricultural land productivity. These results indicate that KS supports poverty and hunger reduction through benefits on-farm and beyond it. They also suggest that there is room for strengthening the role of R&D KS productivity enhancing innovations. Given the current low levels of investments in R&D and resulting KS, increasing its levels will be critical, but that alone is not sufficient. Policy makers will have to rethink the way the innovations from R&D get scaled up and pay attention to the necessary complementary policies and investments that enable a sustainable pathway leading to greater productivity growth and development impacts. |
| Keywords: | AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; research; development; agricultural research; poverty; investment; malnutrition; agriculture; knowledge; rural areas; knowledge stocks; mediation; undernourishment |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2048&r= |
| By: | Matthew Sharp |
| Abstract: | Women often migrate within developing countries for different reasons than men and female migrants tend to be very differently distributed across economic sectors as compared to male migrants. This paper provides some of the first evidence on the labour market impacts of female internal migration, examining effects in both the productive and household sectors. I merge large sample migration data from South African censuses with detailed labour force survey data, and exploit substantial time-variation in female migrant inflows into over 200 districts. To identify the causal effects of migration on labour market outcomes, I make use of the unique history of South Africa to construct a plausibly exogenous shift-share instrument for female migrant concentration based on earlier male migration flows from reserves during the Apartheid period. I firstly find that this migration increases the employment and hours worked of high-skilled women (but not men). I demonstrate that this effect is driven by substitution in household work as many female migrants find work as domestic helpers. I also find that female migration leads to a (short-term) reduction in the employment of low-skilled female non-migrants suggesting an increase in competition at the bottom of the economic ladder. |
| Keywords: | internal migration; economics of gender; natural experiment |
| JEL: | R23 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-01&r= |
| By: | Tom Carlowitz |
| Abstract: | Billions of dollars are spent each year on electrification infrastructure projects in the hope to benefit the 770 million people who still lack access to electricity. However, the evidence to date on the effects of such projects is mixed. In this paper, I study the effect of rural electrification on firm creation in Ghana by focusing on the effect on female-owned microenterprises. I combine firm census data covering over 638,000 firms (including informal and rural establishments) with electricity access and geo-spatial data. I address the endogeneity of the grid expansion using an instrumental variable approach. The instrument is the distance to a hypothetical grid connecting historical regional capitals, border towns, and main hydropower plants. I find that a 10% increase in district-level electrification leads to the creation of 152 female-owned firms, which corresponds to a 37% increase. I show that this effect is largely driven by two channels: i) a reduction in home production activities by women and ii) a lowering of required startup capital for microenterprises. The findings of this paper are consistent with previous literature, showing large effects of electrification particularly for women. |
| Keywords: | rural electrification; infrastructure; microenterprises; firms; Ghana |
| JEL: | L26 O13 O14 O18 Q41 R11 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-10&r= |
| By: | Philip; Roessler; Peter; Carroll; Flora; Myamba; Cornel; Jahari; Blandina; Kilama; Daniel; Nielson |
| Abstract: | We study the causal impact of reducing the mobile gender gap. Leveraging one of the first large-scale experimental studies on women’s mobile phone ownership, we find that in Tanzania over thirteen months smartphones increased households’ annual consumption per capita by 20% compared to control. Consumption gains operated through women’s control and use of the smartphones. However, treatment effects were attenuated by handset turnover. By endline only 34% in the smartphone condition still possessed their handsets. This highlights the economic benefits of closing the mobile gender gap but also the tenuous nature of productive asset ownership for women in low-income households. |
| Keywords: | finance and microfinance; climate change; anticipatory humanitarian action |
| JEL: | J16 L96 O12 O33 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-05&r= |
| By: | Takahashi, Ryo (Waseda University, Graduate School of Economics); Otsuka, Keijiro (Kobe University, Institute of Developing Economies); Tilahun, Mesfin (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Birhane, Emiru (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Holden, Stein T. (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we argue that while community forest management is effective in protecting forest resources as argued by Ostrom, it may fail to provide proper incentives to take care of such resources because of collective sharing of benefits of forest management. This study proposes a mixed private and community management system as a desirable arrangement for timber forest management in Ethiopia, which is characterized by communal protection of community-owned forest area and individual management of individually owned trees. By conducting a randomized experiment in Ethiopia, we found that the mixed management system significantly stimulated intensive forest management activities, including pruning, guarding, and watering. Furthermore, the treated members extracted more timber trees and forest products, which are byproducts of tree management (thinned trees and pruned branches). In contrast, the extracted volumes of nontimber forest products unrelated to tree management (fodder and honey) did not change by the intervention. |
| Keywords: | property regimes; individual rights commons; community forest management; RCT |
| JEL: | O13 P48 Q23 Q24 |
| Date: | 2021–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2021_006&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); Jorge A. Bonilla (ULA - Universidad de Los Andes [Venezuela]) |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the literature on air pollution and health by assessing an additional channel, the effect of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on health. Currently, there is a vast literature on the effects of urban pollution on health. Our research, unlike other studies, jointly investigates the effects of pollution, ENSO and local weather on health. On the one hand, ENSO manifests itself as an extreme climatic shock that follows certain seasonality and influences weather. It may also have an impact on floods, droughts and agriculture inducing changes in food markets or a loss of household income, which also affect health. On the other hand, health outcomes are affected by other factors which follow separate mechanisms to the previous ones. Therefore, pollutant impacts on health may be interpreted as separate effects from other shocks mediated through ENSO. Using a database from 1998 to 2015 on air quality and vital statistics for Bogotá, and ENSO information, we find that across several specifications, ENSO affects birth weight and the probability of low birth weight after separating pollution and classical local weather impacts. Interestingly, the effect on birth weight of ENSO are several times larger than the impacts of pollution. Being exposed to ENSO may decrease birth weight up to 1.3%, while an increase of 1 ppb of SO2 or 1 µg/m3 of PM25 might reduce birth weight up to 0.3% or 0.14%, respectively. From a policy point of view, these results are relevant because regardless of the measure of pollution that we employ, the amount of the impacts exhibited by climatic shocks via ENSO events dominate. |
| Keywords: | Climate change,Health,ENSO Index,El Niño,La Niña,weather,Pollution,Bogotá |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03429482&r= |
| By: | Garance Genicot (Department of Economics, Georgetown University); Maria Hernandez de Benito (University of Alicante) |
| Abstract: | Strengthening women's ownership of and control over land is an important development goal. This paper studies the extent of women's land rights in rural Tanzania and how patrilineal norms affect them. We show that married women in rural Tanzania still own little land without their husbands and have limited rights over the jointly owned land. In Tanzania, an inherent tension lies in the recognition of customary laws that explicitly discriminate against women and statutory laws that establish equal rights for men and women. Customary patrilineal practices persist. In particular, we find that firstborn sons are expected to inherit more land than firstborn daughters, and widows' inheritance rights are affected by the gender of their children. We also show that women's tenure security in case of divorce or inheritance is fragile. In Tanzania, village institutions play a key role in the management of land rights and the mediation of land disputes. We find that members of village institutions have more pro-women views on land rights than the average household respondent. However, using randomized vignettes to measure gender bias, we show they do not always make gender-neutral recommendations in case of land disputes. Classification- O17, O12, D13, K11 |
| Keywords: | Tanzania, Gender, Land Rights, Inheritance, Institutions, Vignettes |
| Date: | 2021–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~21-21-21&r= |
| By: | Denis Cogneau (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, 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); Yannick Dupraz (UCD - University College Dublin [Dublin]); Justine Knebelmann (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); Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LEDA-DIAL - Développement, Institutions et Modialisation - LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres, PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres) |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on the fiscal trajectories of 18 former French colonies in Africa from colonial times to the present. Building upon own previous work about colonial public finance (Cogneau et al., 2021), we compile a novel dataset by combining previously available data with recently digitized data from historical archives, to produce continuous and comparable public revenue data series from 1900 to 2018. This allows us to study the evolution of the level and composition of fiscal revenues in the post-colonial decades, with a special focus on the critical juncture of independence. We find that very few countries achieved significant progress in fiscal capacity between the end of the colonial period and today, if we set aside income drawn from mineral resources. This is not explained by a lasting collapse of fiscal capacity at the time of independence. From 1960 to today, the reliance on mineral resource revenues increased on average and dependence on international commodity prices persisted, with few exceptions. The relative contribution of trade taxes declined after the structural adjustments, and lost trade revenues were not compensated by a sufficient increase in domestic taxes. However, for the most recent period, we do note an improvement in the capacity to collect taxes on the domestic economy. |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03420664&r= |
| By: | Rachel Glennerster; Joanna Murray; Victor Pouliquen |
| Abstract: | Mass media can spread information and disinformation, but its impact is hard to rigorously measure. Using a two-level randomized controlled trial covering 5 million people, we test both exposure to mass media (with 1,500 women receiving radios) and the impact of a high-quality, intensive 2.5 year, family planning mass media campaign in Burkina Faso (8 of 16 local radio stations received the campaign). We find women who received a radio in noncampaign areas reduced contraception use by 5.2 percentage points (p=0.039) and had more conservative gender attitudes. In contrast, modern contraceptive use rose 5.9 percentage points (p=0.046) in campaign areas and 5.8 percentage points (p=0.030) among those given radios in campaign areas. Births fell 10%. The campaign changed beliefs about contraception but not preferences, and encouraged existing users to use more consistently. We estimate the nationwide campaign scale-up led to 225,000 additional women using modern contraception, at a cost of US$7.7 per additional user. |
| Keywords: | Mass Media Campaign; Radio; Modern Contraception; Family Planning; RCT. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 L82 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-04&r= |
| By: | Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Balana, Bedru; Smart, Jenny; Edeh, Hyacinth; Oyeyemi, Motunrayo Ayowumi; Andam, Kwaw S. |
| Abstract: | Public expenditures (PE) are critical for key public sector functions that contribute to development and welfare improvements, including the provisions of necessary public goods and the mitigation of market failures. PE in social sectors, such as health, education, and social welfare, and in agriculture have been increasingly recognized as potentially important for income growth, poverty reduction, fostering increased private investment, improved nutritional outcomes, and greater economic resilience. Furthermore, the importance of the impact of subnational PE on these outcomes has also been recognized, as appropriately decentralized PE systems can potentially achieve greater effectiveness by enabling public sector support that is tailored more to local needs. However, direct evidence of these developmental effects of decentralized PE in developing countries like Nigeria has been relatively limited. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap by estimating the effects of shares of total subnational PE for agriculture, health, education, and social welfare, as well as PE size, on household-level outcomes using nationally-representative panel household data and both local government area and higher state-level PE data for Nigeria. We find that greater shares of total PE for agriculture, health, and social welfare, conditional on PE size, generally have positive effects on consumption, poverty reduction, and non-farm business capital investments. A greater share of total PE for agriculture benefits a broader range of outcomes than do greater shares of total PE for health and social welfare. These include improving certain nutritional outcomes, like household dietary diversity across seasons, and economic flexibility between farm and non-farm activities, which may be particularly important for building resilience in today’s rapidly changing socioeconomic environment due to shocks, including COVID19. Such multi-dimensional benefits of greater PE for agriculture are particularly worthy of attention in countries like Nigeria, which have historically allocated a lower share of total PE to agriculture than to health and other social welfare sectors and a lower share of total PE to agriculture compared to that allocated to agriculture in similar countries in Africa and elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | NIGERIA; WEST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; public expenditure; expenditure; households; welfare; resilience; social structure; agriculture; flexibility; poverty reduction; household consumption; consumption; subnational public expenditures |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:nsspwp:68&r= |
| By: | Nathaniel Lane |
| Abstract: | I study the impact of industrial policy on industrial development by considering a canonical intervention. Following a political crisis, South Korea dramatically altered its development strategy with a sector-specific industrial policy: the Heavy Chemical and Industry (HCI) drive, 1973-1979. With newly assembled data, I use the sharp introduction and withdrawal of industrial policies to study the impacts of industrial policy—during and after the intervention period. I show (1) HCI promoted the expansion and dynamic comparative advantage of directly targeted industries. (2) Using variation in exposure to policies through the input-output network, I show HCI indirectly benefited downstream users of targeted intermediates. (3) I find direct and indirect benefits of HCI persisted even after the end of HCI, following the 1979 assassination of the president. These effects include the eventual development of directly targeted exporters and their downstream counterparts. Together, my findings suggest that the temporary drive shifted Korean manufacturing into more advanced markets and created durable industrial change. These findings clarify lessons drawn from South Korea and the East Asian growth miracle |
| Keywords: | industrial policy; East Asian miracle; economic History; industrial development; Heavy Chemical and Industry drive |
| JEL: | L5 O14 O25 N6 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2021-09&r= |
| By: | Aditi Dimri (University of Warwick [Coventry]); Véronique Gille (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Philipp Ketz (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: | Current measurement of sex-selective abortion is based on observing an imbalance be tween the sex ratio at birth and the natural sex ratio, providing us with the number of missing female foetuses. However, this measure does not tell us how widespread this phenomenon is, i.e., how many women abort, which will not be equal to the number of sex-selective abortions if there is repeated sex-selective abortion. In this paper, we show that the number of women that abort between two consecutive births and whether they do so repeatedly can be inferred using sex ratios and information on birth spacing. We apply our model to Indian DHS data to estimate how many women abort and to assess whether they do so repeatedly between two births. The results depend on the birth order and siblings composition: For example, we find that women whose first born is a girl abort at most once before the birth of the second child, i.e., (almost) none of them abort a second time if again pregnant with a girl after a first abortion. In contrast, we find evidence of repeated sex-selective abortion before the birth of the third child among women whose first two children are girls. We also introduce a novel constrained maximum likelihood estimator that imposes a (set of) random constraint(s) and that may be of independent interest. |
| Keywords: | Sex ratio,Sex-selective abortion,Measurement,India,Constrained maximum likelihood estimation,Random constraint(s) |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03495964&r= |
| By: | Mohammad Reza Farzanegan; Mohammad Ali Kadivar |
| Abstract: | Existing research has pointed to the decreasing effect of revolutions and wars on income inequality. It is unclear whether this reduction is the result of ongoing changes within countries before revolutions and wars or if the results are standalone effects. In this study, we focus on the case of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988. We use the synthetic control method to study the effect of revolution and war on changes in income inequality levels. Had there been no revolution and war in Iran, how would income inequality have developed? Utilizing the synthetic control method, we created a counterfactual Iran that reproduces the socioeconomic characteristics of Iran before the Islamic revolution. Then we compare the income inequality of the counterfactual Iran, without the revolution and war, to the factual Iran with a new political regime, for the period of 1970-1988. Our results, based on two different indicators of Iran’s Gini, show a statistically significant effect of the revolution and war on reducing income inequality. Over the entire 1979–1988 period, on average and per year, the Gini index of Iran was reduced by approximately 3 times of the standard deviation of this index. The main findings are robust to a series of placebo tests. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, war, revolution, Iran, synthetic control, counterfactual |
| JEL: | D63 D74 H56 Q34 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9428&r= |
| By: | Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel; Hirvonen, Kalle; Lind, Jeremy; Hoddinott, John F. |
| Abstract: | While social protection programs have multiplied over the last two decades across sub-Saharan Africa, these co-exist alongside humanitarian assistance in many places, calling for better integration of assistance delivered through the two channels. Progress on this front is hampered by limited evidence of whether and how these historically siloed sectors can work together. Using quantitative and qualitative data from districts covered by Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and where humanitarian food assistance (HFA) was delivered, we assess differences in targeting and transfer values. We find that PSNP and HFA were targeted to households with different characteristics. PSNP transfers did, on average, reach those households that were chronically food insecure. HFA, while delivered through PSNP systems, was targeted to households that were acutely vulnerable. These are promising findings as they suggest that social protection systems are able to effectively deliver a continuum of support in response to different types of vulnerability and risk. On transfer values, we find that the value of PSNP transfers is greater than those for HFA. One reason for this may be due to social pressure on local officials to distribute support more widely across a drought- affected population when faced with acute needs. |
| Keywords: | ETHIOPIA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; social protection; targeting; social safety nets; food assistance; humanitarian; transfers; Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP); humanitarian food assistance |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:esspwp:158&r= |
| By: | Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Bawa, Dauda; Kamaldeen, Salaudeen O.; Edeh, Hyacinth O.; Hernandez, Manuel A. |
| Abstract: | Modern cooling technologies that utilize renewable energy sources have been increasingly recognized as a promising tool to address a multitude of challenges emerging in progressively complex food systems in developing countries. When provided as cold-storages inside horticulture markets, cooling technologies can potentially contribute to improved quality of products and strengthened vertical linkages. Knowledge gaps about the actual impacts of these technologies in developing countries remain, especially in Africa south of Sahara (SSA). This study partly fills this knowledge gap by providing evidence from the evaluation of recent interventions in northeast Nigeria in which 7 small solar-powered cold-storages were installed across 7 horticulture markets. Combinations of difference-in-difference and variants of propensity-score-based methods suggest that using cold-storages significantly increased horticulture sales volumes and revenues of market-agents. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that increased net revenues for market-agents may be sufficiently large to recoup the investments and operating costs of cold-storages within a reasonable time frame. Using cold-storage also reduced the share of food loss and lengthened the products' shelf-life, while raised prices received by both market-agents and farmers, which were associated with improved product quality, expanded value-adding activities by market-agents, and increased use of advance payments. We find no evidence of negative spillover effects inside horticulture markets. Finally, additional food-science experiments confirm that cold-storages preserve original physical and nutritional qualities of key horticultural products several days longer than products stored under ambient temperature. |
| Keywords: | NIGERIA; WEST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; food systems; transformation; markets; solar energy; cold storage; sustainability; horticulture; food quality; food losses; market-agents |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2047&r= |
| By: | Djemaï, Elodie; Clark, Anrew E.; D'Ambrosio, Conchita |
| Abstract: | Public Goods aim to improve individual welfare. We investigate the causal consequences of roads on well-being in 24 African countries, instrumenting paved roads by 19th Century hypothetical lines between major ports and cities. We have data on over 32 000 individuals, and consider both their objective and subjective well-being. Roads reduce material deprivation, in terms of access to basic needs, but at the same time there is no relation between roads and subjective living conditions. The benefit of roads in providing basic needs then seems to be offset by worse outcomes in non basic-needs domains. |
| Keywords: | Roads, Subjective Well-being, Basic Needs, Material Deprivation, Africa |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:2110&r= |
| By: | Prem, Mounu; Purroy, Miguel E; Vargas, Juan F. |
| 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 increases economic activity and students’ performance in test scores. In contrast, economic activity does not react to postconflict 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 |
| JEL: | D74 P48 Q56 I25 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rie:riecdt:86&r= |