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on Development |
| By: | Eynde, Oliver Vanden; Wren-Lewis, Liam |
| Abstract: | Complementarities between infrastructure projects have been understudied. This paper examines interactions in the impacts of large-scale road construction, electrification, and mobile phone coverage programs in rural India. We exploit variation over time in when villages received the programs to study the individual and joint impacts on a range of outcomes. Notably, we find strong evidence that villages increase dry-season cropping when they receive both electricity and roads, but not when they receive one without the other. This increase in dry-season cropping is associated with a move towards market crops and improved economic conditions (i.e., higher assets and consumption). These findings have implications for the optimal implementation of infrastructure programs. |
| Date: | 2024–06–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ejb8x&r= |
| By: | Balza, Lenin; Gómez Parra, Nicolás; Cuartas, Jorge; Serebrisky, Tomás |
| Abstract: | Access to essential infrastructure services such as water, sanitation, and garbage collection can considerably affect children's environment and may play a significant role in shaping early childhood developmental and health outcomes. Using data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), we show a significant positive association between access to water and sanitation and early childhood development, as well as reduced instances of stunting. In addition, we identify a negative association between access to improved garbage collection services and the rates of stunting and underweight among children under five. Our findings are robust after using alternative measures for access and controlling for individual, maternal, and household factors, alongside considerations of household wealth and caregiver's stimulation activities. Similarly, the economic relevance of the relationship is highlighted by the substantial gap relative to the size of the vulnerable groups, persisting even after adjusting for confounding variables. Our results also suggest that households may be able to lessen the potential impact of pollutants through mitigation measures such as treating water to make it safe for consumption, using handwashing cleansers, and storing household trash in lidded containers. The current findings underscore the importance of investing in basic infrastructure services as a critical component of comprehensive strategies to enhance early childhood development and health in low- and middle-income countries. We emphasize the importance of considering the quality and type of infrastructure services alongside their availability. Future research should incorporate more complete and detailed data to improve understanding of the causal relationship between water, sanitation, and garbage collection and early childhood development, as well as the mechanisms underlying the observed associations. |
| Keywords: | early childhood development;Water and sanitation access;Waste management infrastructure;Low- and middle-income countries;Mitigation strategies. |
| JEL: | H41 I15 J13 Q53 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13576&r= |
| By: | Hanol Lee (Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Sichuan, China); Dainn Wie (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan); Eunbi Song (Department of Economics, School of Business, Monash University, Selangor, Malaysia) |
| Abstract: | Bangladesh has long been exposed to climate-induced disasters, and the literature has paid little attention to their impact on child marriage. This study empirically explores the gendered impact of extreme rainfall on child marriage in Bangladesh and provides a comprehensive yet detailed analysis using high-resolution weather data and nationally representative rural household survey. The duration analysis in this paper shows that women exposed to one standard deviation more extreme rainfall are at an increased risk of child marriage by 5.5%. However, we find no evidence that child marriages driven by extreme rainfall lead to early childbirth in women. We also report that extreme rainfall has no statistically significant impact on men’s child marriages. The main finding is consistent across several decades of cohort and robust to migration, which might threaten internal validity. We also highlight that our main findings are driven by households living in non-coastal regions, with significant heterogeneity across divisions. |
| Keywords: | Bangladesh, child marriage, extreme rainfall, survival analysis, weather shock |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:22-10&r= |
| By: | Sharma, Smriti (Newcastle University); Sunder, Naveen (Bentley University) |
| Abstract: | It has been demonstrated that violent crime has profound effects on a number of socioeconomic outcomes. But, does day-to-day crime also shape human capital accumulation? We answer this question in the Indian context by combining multiple years of district-level data on the incidence of various types of crime with a nationally representative survey on learning achievement of school-aged children. Our empirical strategy leverages the within-district across-year variation in crime to estimate the crime-learning gradient. We show that an increase in violent crime is associated with lower achievement in reading and math, while non-violent crimes have no discernible correlation with learning outcomes. The effects are short-lived, driven by contemporaneous crime, and are similar for boys and girls. Additionally, we find that violent crimes impose greater costs on learning of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. We find evidence that both household-level factors (reduced child mobility and poorer mental health) and school-level factors (lower availability of teachers) are possible mechanisms underpinning these findings. |
| Keywords: | crime, education, learning, India |
| JEL: | I25 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17037&r= |
| By: | Leila Pereira; Rafael Pucci |
| Abstract: | We investigate how a private market deregulation affected the incentives for monitoring gold transactions in Brazil, ultimately leading to an increase in illegal gold mining and violence. Employing a Difference-in-Differences design and a unique database that combines the geological occurrence of gold deposits and protected areas, where mining is forbidden, we first show that the deregulation encouraged illegal gold mining. We use high-resolution data on deforestation as a proxy for illegal mining activity. Then, we demonstrate that municipalities more exposed to illegal gold mining experienced almost eleven additional homicides per 100, 000 people - roughly 30% more - after the deregulation. |
| Keywords: | Monitoring; Violence; Illegal mining; Deforestation; Amazon |
| JEL: | Q34 K42 D74 O13 O17 L72 |
| Date: | 2024–06–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2024wpecon18&r= |
| By: | Chaudhary, Latika (Naval Postgraduate School); Iyer, Lakshmi (University of Notre Dame) |
| Abstract: | We examine the human development consequences of transferring responsibility for public service provision to local governments in India, using state-level variation in the timing of administrative decentralization reforms. We find that devolution of the responsibility for health functions from state to local governments, without concomitant authority over personnel or taxation, results in a worsening of neonatal, infant and under-5 child mortality. Such partial devolution results in worse indicators of public health provision, as well as lower rates of primary school completion. Our results cannot be attributed to differential pre-trends, omitted variables bias, or heterogeneous treatment effects. |
| Keywords: | decentralization, infant mortality, primary schooling, local governments, India |
| JEL: | H77 H75 D73 H41 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17053&r= |
| By: | Heresi, Rodrigo |
| Abstract: | While there is widespread evidence of increasing markups in the United States and other developed economies in the last several decades, little is known about that evolution in developing economies, particularly Latin American countries. Using a harmonized dataset on listed firms from 70 countries in the period 2000-2022, I document four stylized facts about market power--measured as price-cost markups--in the six largest Latin American economies from a worldwide perspective. First, average markups in LAC are high relative to other emerging and developed economies, although they have slightly declined from prevailing levels during the commodity boom period. Second, aggregate markup dynamics are primarily driven by already high-markup firms in the top decile of the markup distribution, with little changes in the market power measured for the remaining nine deciles. Third, in contrast to the prediction of most theories about endogenously variable markups, I document a nonlinear relationship between firm-level markups and size, which is significantly negative for most of the size distribution and significantly positive for very large corporations. Fourth, the relationship between markups and investment depends heavily on the markup level. For a typical firm with median market power, a 1% increase in its markup implies a 0.86% rise in the investment rate. In contrast, for firms at the 99th percentile of the markup distribution, a 1% increase in its markup implies a -0.44% reduction in investment. |
| Keywords: | Market power;pricing;Firm size;TFP |
| JEL: | D22 D24 L11 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13610&r= |
| By: | Collante Zárate, Sofía (Universidad de los Andes); Rodríguez Orgales, Catherine (Universidad de los Andes); Sanchez Torres, Fabio (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | Does a meal make a difference in the educational process? This article presents the results of the evaluation of Colombia’s School Feeding Program (PAE) on educational outcomes. The estimates exploit that the program’s rollout varies over time across municipalities, schools, and grades between the same school. The analysis uses information from seven years of the universe of students attending public schools and the census information of the students enrolled in higher education. Compared to grades without PAE, we find that the dropout rate of grades with PAE is between 10% and 25% lower, and grade repetition is between 7% and 13% lower. We also find that the PAE increases high school completion rates by 39%, improves educational achievement measured with the Saber 11 test by 0.1 standard deviations, and elevates access to higher education by 20%. The program is perceived as an incentive for students to attend school and a mechanism for improving the learning process, resulting in higher human capital. |
| Keywords: | School feeding; education; school permanence; educational achievement; impact evaluation; Colombia |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–07–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:021155&r= |
| By: | Karina Acosta; Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverr; Daniel Lasso; Alejandro Sarasti-Sierra |
| Abstract: | Se estima que más del 50 % de la población laboral en Colombia pertenece al sector informal, un fenómeno persistente durante las últimas tres décadas. A pesar de la amplia literatura sobre la informalidad laboral y sus determinantes a nivel nacional o en las principales áreas urbanas, las tasas de informalidad municipales permanecen inexploradas en el país, debido a la falta de disponibilidad y calidad de los datos. En general, la información necesaria para medir la informalidad subnacional, ya sea a través del tamaño de la empresa, la afliación al régimen contributivo o la existencia de un contrato escrito, es escasa o incompleta, lo que difculta una estimación directa. En este trabajo se propone un ejercicio de medición para avanzar en el estudio de la informalidad en Colombia, estimando la informalidad laboral municipal entre 2005 y 2021. Los resultados muestran que, aunque la informalidad es persistentemente alta, está fuertemente concentrada. Además, se observa que, aunque la informalidad cayó paulatinamente entre 2005 y 2016 en todos los municipios, aquellos con tasas de informalidad más altas experimentaron un retroceso en estas ganancias en 2021. **** ABSTRACT: It is estimated that more than 50 % of the labor force in Colombia belongs to the informal sector, a persistent phenomenon over the last three decades. Despite extensive literature on informality and its determinants at the national level or in the main urban areas, municiapl informality rates remain unexplored in the country due to the lack of availability and quality of data. In general, the information necessary to measure sub-national informality, whether through frm size, afliation to social security, or the existence of a written contract, is scarce or incomplete, making direct estimation difcult. This study proposes a measurement exercise to contribute to the study of informality in Colombia, estimating municipal informality between 2005 and 2021. The results show that, although informality is persistently high, it is strongly concentrated. Furthermore, it is observed that, although informality gradually declined between 2005 and 2016 in all municipalities, those with higher informality rates experienced a setback in these gains in 2021. |
| Keywords: | informalidad, estimaciones en áreas pequeñas, clústeres, LISA, Colombia, informality, small area estimation, clusters, LISA, Colombia |
| JEL: | J46 O17 O54 R23 C38 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:region:327&r= |
| By: | Sidra Rehman; Laura Jaramillo |
| Abstract: | Do weather shocks worsen conflict around the world? To answer this question, this paper uses an innovative dataset created by using georeferencing to match weather and conflict data at the subregional level on a monthly frequency across 168 countries over 2013 to 2022.The empirical results show that higher temperature exacerbate conflict where it already exists. Estimations indicate that, in a high emissions scenario and all else equal, by 2060 conflict deaths as a share of the population for a median country facing conflict could increase by 12.3 percent due to rising temperatures. These findings underscore the importance of integrating climate resilience into peace and security efforts and designing climate adaptation policies that support conflict prevention and resolution. |
| Keywords: | conflict; temperature; precipitation; climate change |
| Date: | 2024–06–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2024/112&r= |
| By: | Seth R. Gitter (Department of Economics, Towson University); Grace Larocque (Towson University); Motunrayo Akinloye (Towson University) |
| Abstract: | The Taliban have devastated the rights of women in Afghanistan by limiting their ability to participate in society, potentially causing permanent harm to women's autonomy within their own marriages. We posit that women married during the Taliban rule may see reduced autonomy based on changes in gender norms from Taliban policy. We estimate the effect of being married during various levels of Taliban rule in 2002, 2009, and 2012 on outcomes in 2015. We use variation in the Taliban's control in a province at the time of marriage to estimate the effects of norms at the time of a marriage on outcomes measured in 2015. We find that women's decision-making power was higher in 2015 for those who married when their province was not under Taliban control, but surprisingly, their experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) also increased, suggesting that intrahousehold conflicts potentially increased from regime changes. We link these results to a previous literature that suggests that retaliatory IPV may occur as women gain more power and lower their fertility, with the finding that when the Taliban lost control, fertility fell substantially. These results suggest potential policies that address the long-term negative impacts of the Taliban rule on women's autonomy should the regime lose power again, with special attention given to potential increases in IPV. |
| Keywords: | Norms, Taliban, Marriage, Women Afghanistan. |
| JEL: | O2 J12 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2024-06&r= |
| By: | Dang, Hai-Anh (World Bank); Carletto, Calogero (World Bank); Gourlay, Sydney (World Bank); Abanokova, Kseniya (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Monitoring soil quality provides indispensable inputs for effective policy advice, but very few poorer countries can implement high-quality surveys on soil. We offer an alternative, low-cost imputation-based approach to generating various soil quality indicators. The estimation results validate well against objective measures based on benchmark surveys for Ethiopia and Uganda both for the mean values and the entire distributions of these indicators based on multiple imputation (MI) methods. Machine learning methods also perform well but mostly for the mean values. Furthermore, our imputation models can be combined with other publicly available, large-scale datasets on soil quality generated by model-based analysis with earth observations to provide improved estimates. Our results offer relevant inputs for future data collection efforts. |
| Keywords: | soil quality, multiple imputation, missing data, survey data, Ethiopia, Uganda |
| JEL: | C8 O12 Q1 Q2 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17064&r= |
| By: | Khanh Ngoc, Quach Thi (Faculty of Economics, Nha Trang University, Nha Trang, Vietnam); Xuan, Bui Bich (Faculty of Economics, Nha Trang University, Nha Trang, Vietnam); Nam, Pham Khanh (School of Economics, Law and Government Management, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) |
| Abstract: | Small-scale fisheries, are crucial to support the welfare of coastal communities. Nonetheless, in Vietnam prolonged overexploitation and inadequate management have led small-scale fisheries into an uncertain future, leaving fishing households vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity. This study examines the role of small-scale fisheries in Vietnam in promoting food security and alleviating poverty within fishing households. Utilizing latent profile analysis, we categorize fishing households based on dimensions of poverty and food insecurity as well as explore the potential of fisheries management measures in eradicating poverty and improving food security. Our findings reveal that, overall, small-scale fisheries in Vietnam have significantly contributed to the well-being of fishing households, enhancing both income and food security. However, we found two distinct groups of fishers. One group, representing 65 percent of households in our sample, is characterized by higher incomes and greater food security, is denoted in the study as “protected households”. The second group, comprising 35 percent of our sample, is challenged in both dimensions, and is denoted as “vulnerable households”. Protected households are more likely to be located in areas where access limitations are enforced, often accompanied by livelihood enhancement opportunities. These results imply that future policies for small-scale fisheries should foster synergies among various interventions aimed at conserving fisheries resources, alleviating poverty, and ensuring food security. |
| Keywords: | Poverty; food security; small-scale fisheries; Vietnam fisheries |
| JEL: | Q22 |
| Date: | 2024–06–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunefd:2024_007&r= |