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on Development |
| By: | Alessandro Schiavone (Bank of Italy); Claudia Maurini (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether IMF programmes have had a catalytic effect on flows of development aid to low-income countries (LICs) between 2002 and 2019. We use an entropy balancing methodology to obtain correct estimates, taking account of the characteristics of the countries assisted by the IMF. The findings suggest that IMF programmes catalyse development aid to LICs and, according to our baseline estimates, for each year of programme activity this catalytic effect amounts to 1.6 per cent of the GDP of assisted LICs. These findings apply to both multilateral and bilateral donors. However, the effect is significantly smaller for countries that fail to fulfil the IMF conditionality by not meeting the quantitative performance criteria subject to programme review. Official donors, especially multilateral ones, adopt a selective approach, allocating more development aid to relatively poorer, more institutionally reliable, and more politically stable countries. |
| Keywords: | International Monetary Fund, catalysis, official development assistance (ODA) |
| JEL: | F33 F35 F53 F63 O19 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_782_23 |
| By: | Block, Steven; Ecker, Olivier; Headey, Derek D.; Comstock, Andrew R. |
| Abstract: | Agricultural and food policies are increasingly asked to do more to improve the dietary quality of populations in lower and middle income countries (LMICs), especially severely malnourished rural populations. However, the appropriate strategy for improving diet quality remains an open question. Agriculture has traditionally focused on food security and poverty reduction, mostly through investments in staple crops, while social protection programs have also sought to improve diets through poverty reduction. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs traditionally emphasize farm-level diversification into nutrient-dense crops and/or livestock, combined with nutrition education. More recently, some researchers have moved beyond the farm to assessthe role of market access and local food environments more generally, though little research has focused on food environments in rural Africa. In this study we explore the determinants of a new and improved measure of household diet deprivation(s) that measure consumption gaps for diets as a whole as well as gaps for individual food groups. Using national datasets for rural Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, we conduct a “racehorse†regression analysis that reveals strong support for the role of wealth in reducing dietary deprivation, evidence that livestock diversification is important but not crop diversification, and indications that local farming systems are also strongly associated with dietary outcomes, but market access indicators are not. While more research is needed, we conclude that the evidence supports strategies that combine income/wealth enhancement objectives with livestock diversification where possible. Evidence on the linkages between food environments and diet quality in rural areas of LMICs is currently too limited and warrants further research of the observational and experimental variety. |
| Keywords: | NIGER; WEST AFRICA; ETHIOPIA; TANZANIA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; agriculture; agricultural policies; food policies; diet; food security; poverty reduction; crops; social welfare; nutrition; market access; diversification; farming systems; food markets; lower and middle income countries (LMICs); dietary deprivation |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2194 |
| By: | Marina Dodlova; Michelle Escobar Carias; Michael Grimm |
| Abstract: | We assess the impact of the 2010 Haiti earthquake on children’s nutrition and education. We combine geo-coded shaking intensity data with four waves of the Haiti Demographic Health Survey, two administered before and two after the earthquake. We find lasting negative impacts of the earthquake on children’s stunting and wasting as well as on school enrolment and attendance. A one standard deviation increase in shaking intensity raises infant stunting by 0.08 standard deviations and wasting by 0.04 standard deviations. Our estimates account for the millions in aid funds allocated by the World Bank to overcome the earthquake’s aftermath. This aid mitigated but could not fully prevent the adverse effects on children’s health and education. The results are robust to alternative specifications and different measures of exposure to the earthquake. Our results highlight the need for aid in poor areas affected by natural disasters to prevent infant malnutrition and poor education. Reduced children’s health and education will have lasting private and social costs, which could easily exceed the necessary costs to counter these effects. |
| Keywords: | natural disasters, earthquake, nutrition, education, school attendance, Haiti |
| JEL: | I15 I25 Q54 O10 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10505 |
| By: | Liu, Zhen; Kornher, Lukas; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | In many developing countries, food environments are changing rapidly. One emblematic trend is the proliferation of supermarkets and other modern retailers. While changing food environments likely influence the types of foods supplied and consumed, research on the implications for people’s diets and nutrition is still scant. Here, we analyze the effects of supermarkets on child diets and nutrition in China. We use nationally representative panel data that include information on households’ access to supermarkets and individual-level anthropometric and dietary indicators. Results show that improved access to supermarkets leads to higher child dietary diversity and nutrient intakes, especially among children in rural areas and from low-income households. Supermarkets are also found to increase child height, but not weight. Estimates with different model specifications and placebo tests confirm the results’ robustness. The effects are mediated through supermarkets contributing to more variety in local food supplies and lower average food prices. Our findings suggest that the spread of supermarkets improves child dietary quality and nutrition in China. |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2023–06–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:335389 |
| By: | Carranza, Rafael; De Rosa, Mauricio; Flores, Ignacio |
| Abstract: | How wealth has accumulated in the region and how is it distributed across households? Despite being widely recognized for its extreme income inequality, reliable data on wealth is scarce, partial and oftentimes contradictory, making it difficult to answer these basic questions. In this study, we estimate aggregates based on macroeconomic data, and inequality based on recently available surveys. We contrast our results with the literature, with a handful of state-of-the-art estimates from administrative sources, and with more available but extrapolated estimates from Credit Suisse and wid.world. Considering all the evidence, we distinguish reliable facts from what can only be conjectured or speculated. We find that aggregate wealth increased over two decades in four countries, now ranging close to 3.5 the national income for market value estimates and 5-6 times at book values. We also find that wealth inequality is amongst the highest in the world were it can be measured. Given data limitations, one can only speculate about aggregates in opaque countries and about inequality trends in any country in the region. Although recent research in the developed world has focused in combining data sources to better understand wealth, the region lags behind and urgently requires more and better public information. |
| Keywords: | wealth distribution; wealth-to-income ratios; household surveys; national accounts; Latin America |
| JEL: | D31 E01 E22 |
| Date: | 2023–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:119426 |
| By: | Pablo Celhay; Sebastian Gallegos (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new evidence on educational mobility across three generations in six Latin American countries (LAC). Combining survey information with national census data we build a data set with 50, 000 triads of grandparents-parent-children born between 1890 and 1990. We estimate a five mobility measures, to show that (i) the empirical multi-generational persistence is high in LAC; (ii) it is much larger than what Becker & Tomes (1986) theoretical model predicts, with a bias that is twice as large for LAC compared to developed countries; (iii) Clark’s theory (2014) of high and sticky persistence provides a better approximation for describing mobility across multiple generations in developing countries. We also uncover that while relative measures suggest stagnant mobility across generations, there are significant improvements according to non-linear measures suggested by Asher, Novosad & Rafkin (2022). This result is especially relevant for developing countries such as LAC, where historical educational expansions have especially benefited the lower end of the schooling distribution. |
| Keywords: | developing countries, Latin America, intergenerational mobility, educational policy, multiple generations, compulsory schooling |
| JEL: | J62 J12 N36 P36 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2023-013 |
| By: | Cortes, D; Gallegos-Vargas, A; Perez, J |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of adverse health shocks on households’ expenditure shares in different good categories using a fixed-effects approach and a structural approach based on microeconomic theory. We find that households substitute health and food expenditure in response to adverse health shocks. We find substantial heterogeneity in this trade-off between current and future health mediated by access to social protection, job contract type, and location (urban rural). Households from rural areas –where household heads are more likely to hold informal jobs and lack access to safety nets– are more vulnerable than others. Our findings suggest that access to formal employment and a higher quality of local institutions can help mitigate the negative consequences of health shocks. |
| Keywords: | health shocks, household expenditure, informal labor, urban-rural |
| Date: | 2023–06–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:020787 |
| By: | Marica Valente; Timm Gries; Lorenzo Trapani |
| Abstract: | We propose a new approach to detect and quantify informal employment resulting from irregular migration shocks. Focusing on a largely informal sector, agriculture, and on the exogenous variation from the Arab Spring wave on southern Italian coasts, we use machine-learning techniques to document abnormal increases in reported (vs. predicted) labor productivity on vineyards hit by the shock. Misreporting is largely heterogeneous across farms depending e.g. on size and grape quality. The shock resulted in a 6% increase in informal employment, equivalent to one undeclared worker for every three farms on average and 23, 000 workers in total over 2011-2012. Misreporting causes significant increases in farm profits through lower labor costs, while having no impact on grape sales, prices, or wages of formal workers. |
| Keywords: | Informal employment, Migration shocks, Farm labor, Machine learning |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J43 J46 C53 |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2023-09 |
| By: | Arellano Gonzalez Jesus |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I use an 18-year long panel data set of maize yields and high resolution weather data at the municipality level in Mexico to shed light on the differentiated effects that climate change may have in rainfed and irrigated agriculture. I find that rainfed maize is sensitive to both temperature and precipitation. This sensitivity is weakened in irrigated maize suggesting that the use of irrigation reduces not only the dependency of production on direct precipitation but also the damaging effects of warmer temperatures. When the panel estimates are applied to climate change projections for 2100 I conclude that, in the absence of adaptation, rainfed maize yields could decrease by 3.3-4.0% on average depending on the climate model and scenario with rising temperatures accounting for about 80% of the loss and a declining precipitation accounting for the remaining 20%. Areas with high levels of rural poverty could be among the most affected with some municipalities losing up to 13.5% of maize yields. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change;Adaptation;Irrigation;Agriculture;Panel Data |
| JEL: | Q15 Q54 Q56 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2023-05 |
| By: | Ackah, Charles; Osei, Robert Darko; Owusu, Nana Y. A.; Acheampong, Vera |
| Abstract: | The study evaluates the impact of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) on household welfare (per capita consumption expenditure (PCE) and poverty status) in Ghana using the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey Dataset. SEZs spillover effect on household welfare within a binary treatment condition may lead to finding inadequacy for policy. Therefore, in this study, a paired Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and an Augment Inverse Probability Weighing (AIPW) for multivalued treatment effect (MTE) models were used to correct the potential selection bias and to estimate the effect of SEZs on household poverty. Households located within 30km radius near SEZs seems to have an improved PCE and reduced poverty compared with households farther away. The results on the poverty effect using different household characteristics provide a strong basis for a deeper understanding of the heterogeneous state of SEZs and poverty in Ghana. While data limitations prevented the study from drawing conclusions on the direct channels at work, it was able to investigate the indirect channels, which suggests that SEZs in Ghana may induce employment restructuring effects for individuals in paid employment or farming, albeit for different reasons, which can have important implications for the SEZ-employment-poverty relationship. |
| Keywords: | Special Economic Zones, Household, Poverty, Propensity Score Matching, Ghana |
| JEL: | I31 L52 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kcgwps:25 |
| By: | Renner, Laura; Schmid, Lena |
| Abstract: | While the determinants of refugee migration are well-studied, heterogeneities within the group of refugees have received little attention. In this paper, we use data on female and male refugee movements among African and Asian countries in the years 2002-2018 to explore gender differences in flight behavior along three dimensions: reasons for leaving, associated costs, and factors attracting individuals to specific asylum countries. Most prominently, our results show that women are more deterred by longer distances than men and flee significantly more often to neighboring countries. In addition, the number of battle-related fatalities increases male flows to neighboring countries significantly more than female flows. This gender difference decreases when conflict intensity is high. We also find significant differences concerning the economic situation: extreme poverty has a larger impact on women whereas GDP per capita plays a more important role for male than for female flows. |
| Keywords: | Refugees, International Migration, Distance, Conflict, Gender |
| JEL: | F22 O15 J16 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wgspdp:202301 |
| By: | Galor, Oded (Brown University); Klemp, Marc (University of Copenhagen); Wainstock, Daniel Crisóstomo (Brown University) |
| Abstract: | Why does inequality vary across societies? We advance the hypothesis that in a market economy, where earning differentials reflect variations in productive traits among individuals, a significant component of the differences in inequality across societies can be attributed to variation in societal interpersonal diversity, shaped by the prehistorical out-of-Africa migration. Exploring the roots of inequality within the US population, we find supporting evidence for our hypothesis: variation in the inequality across groups of individuals originating from different ancestral backgrounds can be traced to the degree of diversity of their ancestral populations. This effect is sizable: a move from the lowest to the highest level of diversity in the sample is associated with an increase in the Gini index from the median to the 75th percentile of the inequality distribution. |
| Keywords: | inequality, diversity, culture, out-of-Africa migration |
| JEL: | D60 O10 Z10 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16210 |
| By: | Malek, Mohammad Abdul (Asian Development Bank Institute); Kikkawa, Aiko (Asian Development Bank Institute); Azad, Abul Kalam (Asian Development Bank Institute); Sawada, Yasuyuki (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | The Mahabub Hossain Panel Data (MHPD) was initiated in 1988 and maintained by and named after the late Mahabub Hossain, a well-known agricultural and development economist who led a number of reputed organizations in Bangladesh (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and BRAC) and in the region (International Rice Research Institute). We portray the historical context, sampling evolution, survey structure and methodology, and academic and policy contributions of the MHPD with some lessons learned for the next step forward. The MHPD has tracked rural households for a period of over 3 decades (1988–2014) with five waves of household surveys covering over 2, 800 households and has collected a wide range of information on household composition, schooling of household members, assets, cropping intensity and patterns including cost and return, employment and income, consumption, participation in different government and nongovernment programs. We reviewed several books and journal articles authored by Mahabub Hossain and related academic papers and documents and collated information on MHPD, including (i) mapping out information on past and ongoing panel or cross-sectional household survey data series in Bangladesh; (ii) undertaking the review of all past rounds of MHPD survey documents, such as survey implementation plans, questionnaires, codebooks, databases, and processed data; (iii) consulting relevant stakeholders, including the past implementers of the surveys and the users of the data as needed to validate documented information; (iv) taking stock of the contribution of MHPD to academic literature and policy development; and (v) drawing a number of lessons learned for future data collection and policy making. The report aims to (i) serve as a comprehensive reference document for scholars and policy makers who wish to understand MHPD for possible use in their research; and (ii) provide a comprehensive baseline from which we can consider ways to enhance MHPD further to continue contributing to understanding the economic and social issues of today and near future. By compiling all associated research work based on MHPD, we offer a historical landscape of Bangladesh’s social and economic development and a credible explanation for the Bangladesh development model for global comparison. |
| Keywords: | Bangladesh; rural development; household panel data; evidence-based policymaking |
| JEL: | C81 O18 Q12 Z18 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:1350 |
| By: | Rana, Sohel; Qaim, Matin |
| Abstract: | Migration from rural to urban areas is common in many low- and middle-income countries. However, temporary migration from rural to other rural areas also occurs and is not well understood. We explore what drives rural people in Bangladesh to migrate temporarily to other rural areas, rather than to urban areas where wages are higher. Temporary migration is influenced by income shortfalls during agricultural lean periods and various other sociodemographic factors. The decision for rural destinations is influenced by a lack of skills diversity, social networks, comparative income-cost ratios, and urban negativity. The notion that migration is primarily a rural-urban move needs re-evaluation. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2023–06–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:335388 |
| By: | Mohammad Reza Farzanegan; Sven Fischer |
| Abstract: | This study provides new causal evidence for the impact of a large-scale natural disaster on local economic activity in Iran using nighttime light intensity. We apply the synthetic control method (SCM) and nighttime light (NTL) data from 1992 to 2020 for 31 provinces and 429 counties to study the impact of the 2003 Bam earthquake in the Iranian Kerman Province. According to the results and statistical inference tests for the SCM, Bam County and four neighboring counties experienced a statistically significant boost in economic activity in the years following the earthquake. This increase in local economic activity can be explained by the combination of several factors, such as an unprecedented inflow of national and international disaster relief during the reformist government of President Khatami, the political trust and mobilization of civil society in this period, the cultural importance of Bam, the severity of the earthquake, and the media attention. Additionally, economic activity in Bam County returns to its pre-disaster development path after seven years. |
| Keywords: | natural disaster, natural hazard, synthetic control, earthquake, economic development, nighttime light, Iran, Bam |
| JEL: | E01 H84 O11 O44 O53 Q51 Q54 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10502 |
| By: | Chowdhury, Shyamal (University of Sydney); Singh, Prachi (University of Aberdeen) |
| Abstract: | Unintended consequences of public policies, while common, are under-studied and often unaccounted for in economic analysis. In this paper we study the unintended consequences of a public information campaign on water quality on the marriage market in rural Bangladesh. Despite being heavily contaminated with arsenic, groundwater was the main source of drinking water for rural dwellers in Bangladesh since the 1970s. This created a major health emergency in the country as arsenic exposure causes multiple health problems, ranging from skin lessons to various types of cancer. However, until the mid 1990s, the contamination remained largely unknown and became public knowledge only later through a nationwide information campaign. We study the impact of the campaign on marriage patterns in rural Bangladesh. Using a difference-in-difference model, we analyse the age at marriage, bride price agreed at the time of marriage and find that both of them decreased in arsenic affected areas compared to areas unaffected by arsenic contamination. The effect on age at marriage is primarily driven by younger cohorts who got married earlier. Additionally, we find an increase in the likelihood of females having their first child at an early age (between 16 to 20 years). These are important social consequences, however, often ignored in most analyses. |
| Keywords: | arsenic contamination, health shock, information campaign, age at first marriage, bride price, age at first birth, Bangladesh |
| JEL: | I12 J12 R11 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16214 |
| By: | Zelu, Barbara Ama; Iranzo, Susana; Pérez Laborda, Alejandro |
| Abstract: | Although the impact of micro-credit and direct cash transfers on women economic empowerment has been extensively studied. The impact of just having either a formal or informal bank account remains relatively understudied. This paper uses a detailed national representative data of female household heads in Ghana to analyze how having a formal and informal bank account economically empowers women. Using propensity score matching, our results elicit that having a bank account encourages women to be employed and also increases their per capita income. The results also indicate that, the level of education and sector of employment positively contributes to women’s economic empowerment. Additionally, the result reveal that female household heads living in the cities are more economically empowered than their counterpart living in the rural areas. Keywords: Financial Inclusion · Women Economic Empowerment · Gender Equality · Ghana Jel Codes : D14, D63, G21, G22, O12, O16 |
| Keywords: | Dones-Condicions econòmiques, Ghana, 331 - Treball. Relacions laborals. Ocupació. Organització del treball, |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/535075 |