|
on Development |
| By: | Emilio Depetris-Chauvin; Ömer Özak |
| Abstract: | We explore the effect of historical ethnic borders on contemporary conflict in Africa. We document that both the intensive and extensive margins of contemporary conflict are higher close to historical ethnic borders. Exploiting variations across artificial regions within an ethnicity’s historical homeland and a theory-based instrumental variable approach, we find that regions crossed by historical ethnic borders have 27 percentage points higher probability of conflict and 7.9 percentage points higher probability of being the initial location of a conflict. We uncover several key underlying mechanisms: competition for agricultural land, population pressure, cultural similarity, and weak property rights. |
| Keywords: | Borders, Conflict, Territory, Property Rights, Landownership, Population Pressure, Migration, Historical Homelands, Development, Africa, Voronoi Tessellation, Thiessen Tessellation |
| JEL: | D74 N57 O13 O17 O43 P48 Q15 Q34 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:573&r=dev |
| By: | Attanasio, Orazio P.; Lopez Boo, Florencia; Perez-Lopez, Diana; Reynolds, Sarah Anne |
| Abstract: | Gaps in child development by socioeconomic status (SES) start early in life, are large and can increase inequalities later in life. We use recent national-level, cross-sectional and longitudinal data to examine inequalities in child development (namely, language, cognition, and socio-emotional skills) of children 0-5 in five Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay). In the cross-section analysis, we find statistically significant gaps with inequality patterns that widely differ across countries. For instance, gaps in language and cognition for Uruguay and Chile are much smaller than those for Colombia and Peru. When turning to the longitudinal data, average SES gaps are similar to those of the cross-section in language but differ substantially in cognition, mainly in Uruguay where they emerge as more unequal when cohort effects do not operate. Importantly, we also find that the ECD gaps found at early ages (0-5), still manifest 6-12 years later in almost all locations and realms in which we have measures of early child development, but they do not increase with age. Results are robust to using different measures of inequality (income and maternal education). Gaps are smaller but generally remain when adjusting for possible explanatory factors (e.g., family structure, parental education, geographic fixed effects). To reduce ECD inequality and promote equality in later life outcomes, policymakers should look to implementing evidence-based interventions at scale to improve developmental outcomes of the most disadvantaged children in society. |
| Keywords: | child development;inequalities;Latin America and the Caribbean |
| JEL: | I14 I24 I25 J13 J24 O54 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13316&r=dev |
| By: | César Huaroto; Francisco Gallego |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the persistent effect on social unrest of the Mining Mita- a colonial forced labor and migration institution that affected indigenous communities in Peru between 1573 to 1811. Using a geographical regression discontinuity design for identification, we provide causal evidence that Mita areas have experienced higher levels of social unrest since the end of the 18th century. We present a simple conceptual rationale with historical and causal evidence indicating that at least part of the roots of such persistence is cultural. Specifically, people living in Mita districts identify more with the indigenous groups and indigenous institutions, are more likely to speak native languages, are less likely to migrate, and have different beliefs about development and democracy. |
| JEL: | D74 I38 J15 N26 O10 O43 P14 Z10 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:568&r=dev |
| By: | Bancalari, Antonella; Berlinski, Samuel; Buitrago, Giancarlo; García, María Fernanda; Mata, Dolores de la; Vera-Hernández, Marcos |
| Abstract: | Health constitutes a fundamental aspect of our well-being. It is also a key factor in determining our contribution to market and non-market output. Health inequality refers to the unequal realization of health outcomes between different groups in the population. Systematic disparities in health outcomes and in access to health resources not only undermine basic principles of fairness and social justice but also contributes towards perpetuating poverty and disadvantage. In this chapter, we start by presenting evidence on how the burden of disease in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has changed during the last 30 years. Consistent with the fall in fertility and population aging, the region has shifted from a burden of disease dominated by maternal, neonatal, and communicable disease in the 1990s to one dominated by cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, and increasingly by mental health disorders. The poorest in the region are burdened by worst access to maternal care and higher levels of infant mortality and stunting. Despite being knowledgeable about contraceptive methods, young women in Latin America and the Caribbean have very high levels of teenage pregnancy with a steep socio-economic gradient. Noncommunicable diseases also affect the poor disproportionately in many countries. Finally, mental health is a growing source of lost days of healthy living among women and the poor. Overall, our results highlight that despite the epidemiological transition which is underway, socio-economic health disparities in the LAC region are still more important on early childhood and teenagerhood than in adulthood, at least as it pertains to the outcomes analyzed in this chapter. At the same time, we show that while socio-economic inequalities in child health are smaller in the richest countries, the contrary happens with inequalities in some adult outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Contribution;Health inequality;women in Latin America;Mental health;Socio-economic health disparities |
| JEL: | I14 I15 I12 D6 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13158&r=dev |
| By: | Schling, Maja; Pazos, Nicolás; Corral, Leonardo; Inurritegui, Marisol |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the impact of a rural land administration program in Ecuador on female empowerment and household food security. Using a double robust estimation that combines the difference-in-difference approach with inverse probability weighting, we explore whether receiving a georeferenced cadastral map of ones parcel provides women with increased bargaining power, empowering them to participate more actively in productive and consumption decision-making that leads to improved diversification of the production portfolio and the households food security. Although we find no significant effects on aggregate levels of empowerment, results show that female beneficiaries became more empowered with regards to access to resources, particularly in terms of applying for and receiving credit. Program participation also significantly affected womens time use, as beneficiary women spent more hours working in non-agricultural activities, investing in their own businesses, and generating off-farm wages. Households who received jointly titled cadastral maps also increased their food security and shifted their production portfolios towards crops and livestock products of both higher market and nutritional value. These results suggest that increasing informal tenure security through cadastral mapping may spur female empowerment, which enables women to increase their bargaining power within the household in order to improve their own and the family's overall welfare. |
| Keywords: | Female empowerment;food security;land property rights;Ecuador;Latin America |
| JEL: | H43 J16 O12 O13 Q15 Q18 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13321&r=dev |
| By: | Pérez S., Rodrigo; Castillo, Mayarí; Cazzuffi, Chiara |
| Abstract: | Climate change is a pressing issue, affecting the lives of all people across the world. However, poorer and excluded communities are usually more affected, especially in low-income countries. Among them, women but particularly indigenous groups in rural areas seem to bear the bulk of the impacts produced by climate change and its many manifestations. We study the relationship between droughts and incomes and labor market outcomes in Chile over the period 1990-2017, focusing in particular on indigenous women. Our results show that overall indigenous women are the group most severely affected by droughts, decreasing their income, their probability of working in agriculture, and increasing their likelihood of working as an unpaid family worker or being out of the labor force. Results are robust to the use of different variables to measure droughts and to different econometric specifications. Our study corroborates the existence of marked heterogenous effects of climate change on different population groups and the vulnerability of indigenous communities to these shocks. |
| Keywords: | climate change;women;Indigenous groups;Water scarcity;Chile;Droughts |
| JEL: | E24 I31 J16 Q54 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13231&r=dev |
| By: | Vivien Huelsen; Makaiko Gonapanyanja Khonje; Matin Qaim |
| Abstract: | Child malnutrition and low-quality diets remain widespread public health problems in sub-Saharan Africa. Providing access to nutritious and healthy foods for all is key, but it is not at all clear how this can be achieved in various local contexts. Here, we analyze the role of markets and food environments for child diets and nutrition in Malawi along an urban-rural continuum. We develop a new methodology to characterize food environments in terms of the variety of fresh and processed foods available in local market settings. Geocoded data of market food variety are combined with individual-level child diet and anthropometric data collected through a household survey. We find large differences in food environments and diet and nutrition outcomes between urban, rural, and remote locations. The spatially-explicit analysis shows that market food variety is positively associated with child dietary diversity and negatively associated with child stunting, even after controlling for household wealth, own farm production, and other confounding factors. Our findings stress the importance of improving the functioning of markets for nutritious foods, especially in rural areas. Conceptually, we add novelty to the literature on measuring food environments. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gausfs:340816&r=dev |
| By: | Yoshimichi Murakami (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | Local sourcing of intermediate inputs by foreign affiliates is a major source of the positive spillover effects of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in emerging countries. However, few studies have analyzed the determinants of local sourcing; studies using panel data in a specific emerging country are particularly rare. Considering that Chile is well-integrated into global value chains (GVCs) and that its position in GVCs is relatively upstream compared to that of other Latin American countries, this study empirically analyzes whether foreign affiliates' upstream positions have positive effects on their local sourcing, which is defined as the share of local material inputs to total costs. By matching industry-level panel data, including positions in GVCs, to plant-level panel data, this study constructs a unique dataset for the period from 1995 to 2006. We find that the upstream positions of foreign affiliates in GVCs are positively associated with the share of local material inputs to the total costs. We find that this positive effect is robust to the difference in entry modes between joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries, use of lagged affiliate-level variables, exclusion of affiliates with changes in industry affiliation, and different periods of analysis. Moreover, we find that the magnitude of the coefficient of the GVC position index is substantially larger than that of a previous study that analyzed other developing countries. Thus, the findings indicate that foreign affiliates operating in upstream industries have successfully developed backward linkages with local suppliers in Chile, contrary to the traditional view that FDI in natural-resource-related sectors has an enclave nature with very limited backward linkages. Therefore, this study provides new evidence on the role of FDI for productive linkages in resource-based economies. |
| Keywords: | Global value chains (GVCs); Upstream position; Foreign direct investment (FDI); Local sourcing; Chile |
| JEL: | F21 F23 F61 O54 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2024-08&r=dev |
| By: | Henrique Barros; Rute Martins Caeiro; Sam Jones; Patricia Justino |
| Abstract: | We examine the long-term impact of forced labour on individual risk behaviour and economic decisions. For that, we focus on a policy of coercive cotton cultivation enforced in colonial Mozambique between 1926 and 1961. We combine archival sources about the boundaries of historical cotton concessions with survey data collected specifically for this study. By employing a regression discontinuity design to compare individuals living in areas inside and outside the historical cotton concessions, we document significant disparities in risk aversion and agricultural patterns between communities. |
| Keywords: | Long-run effects, Forced labour, Colonialism, Risk attitudes, Behaviour, Regression discontinuity |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-12&r=dev |
| By: | Gonzalez, Rodrigo Barbone; Haas Ornelas, José Renato; Silva, Thiago Christiano |
| Abstract: | Clean water has a largely unknown economic value, particularly to small communities whose agricultural activities take place on river shores. In November 2015, the rupture of a mining tailings dam in the municipality of Mariana led to a record disposal of toxic residuals in southeast Brazil. A mud avalanche ran out for 600 km (373 miles) until it reached the Atlantic Ocean, leaving behind extreme ecological and economic damage in the Doce River basin. This is the largest environmental disaster in Brazil to date. We quantify the negative externalities using rich, identified, and comprehensive data from firm-to-firm electronic payments and individual-level consumer credit usage. We find that agricultural producers in affected municipalities received cumulatively 41% to 60% fewer inflows (income) from customer firms outside the affected zone three years after the disaster. Effects are driven by municipalities where the river shore is larger relative to the farming area. In these municipalities, individuals also faced an 8% fall in their credit card and consumer finance expenditures. This result is stronger for non-formal and high-risk workers. Thus, water contamination led to (first) production and (later) consumption decline with real effects on municipality-level agriculture and services output, causing a 7% decline in local GDP. |
| Keywords: | water;Environmental disaster;Agriculture;Consumer credit;Payment system |
| JEL: | C63 G01 G20 G21 G28 O16 O40 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13273&r=dev |
| By: | Mary Di Santolo (UMR LEDa, DIAL, PSL, Université Paris Dauphine, IRD); Isabelle Guérin (IRD, CESSMA (Paris, France), IFP (Pondicherry, India)); Sébastien Michiels (IFP (Pondicherry, India)); Cécile Mouchel (CESSMA (IRD, INALCO, and Université Paris Cité), UMR LEDa, DIAL, PSL, Université Paris Dauphine, IRD); Arnaud Natal (BSE (University of Bordeaux, CNRS, and INRAE), French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)); Christophe Jalil Nordman (IRD, UMR LEDa, DIAL, PSL, Université Paris Dauphine, IFP (Pondicherry, India)); Govindan Venkatasubramanian (IFP (Pondicherry, India)) |
| Abstract: | Indian society has been experiencing significant changes since the nineties brought by a gradual set of reforms in favour of a market economy and the country’s integration into the global economy. However, despite outstanding economic growth for the last decades, India continues to be gripped by strong inequalities and the burden of social institutions such as caste, family or gender. Regarding the time pace of such changes, longitudinal studies appear to be particularly useful and revealing in analysing the extent of socio-economic dynamics. This paper aims to propose a new longitudinal data collection tool and a broad picture of socio-economic dynamics in rural areas of Tamil Nadu for the last decade. Data have been collected using the NEEMSIS survey. It is focused on more than 600 households from 10 villages in Tamil Nadu at three points in time; 2010, 2016-17 and 2020-21. The NEEMSIS survey encompass key topics including employment, indebtedness, agriculture, wealth, formation of skills, social networks, or social and spatial mobilities. |
| Keywords: | Panel data, household survey, caste, Tamil Nadu, labour, debt, gender, migration. |
| JEL: | C81 C83 D1 O1 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt202402&r=dev |
| By: | Moritz Wolf (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) |
| Abstract: | Economic development in Africa is among the most important global challenges today. Meanwhile, the G7 is under pressure due to system competition and the question of legitimacy and effectiveness. The recent PGII initiative uses investment to improve economic development in Africa. But what about other tools, like trade? While the literature suggests positive effects of trade on economic development, the trade efforts by the G7 have been underwhelming. Moreover, the trade share between Africa and the G7 has decreased over the last two decades. The question if both sides have incentives to reinforce trade links remains and leads to another question, namely if trading with the G7 countries offers specific benefits to African countries. This paper answers this question by using a system-GMM estimator and G7-specific trade data between 1997 and 2020. Using the relative G7 trade share as the explanatory variable and GDP and the HDI as indicators for economic development, the results suggest that both economic growth and human development have been positively affected by G7 trade shares. Moreover, this paper identifies potential channels and concludes that reinforcing the trade relations between the G7 countries and Africa is beneficial for both sides. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Economic Development, Trade, International Organizations |
| JEL: | I31 O19 O24 O55 |
| Date: | 2024–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2024-005&r=dev |