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on Development |
| By: | Jeddi, Behzad; DePaula, Guilherme |
| Abstract: | This article examines the environmental impacts of agricultural intensification in Brazil, particularly the significant expansion of a double-cropping system involving soybeans and corn, which has transformed Brazil into the world’s leading exporter of corn. We use econometric models with instrumental variables to assess the impact of double-cropping on pesticide runoff and land-use change, focusing on regions near tropical forests. Our results indicate that double-cropping reduces pesticide runoff by acting as a cover crop that limits chemical leaching, although the effect size is small. In our analysis of land-use change, we observe notable regional variation. In traditional agricultural zones, double-cropping has minimal influence on cropland expansion due to high land-conversion costs. However, in frontier areas where land conversion barriers are lower, double-cropping significantly drives cropland expansion. We estimate that 44% of the cropland expansion in the frontier region would not have occurred without the practice of double-cropping. This finding suggests that the recent growth of second-crop corn for ethanol production may have more substantial environmental impacts than previously anticipated. |
| Date: | 2024–12–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genstf:202412021626120000 |
| By: | Stöcker, Alexander; Zintl, Tina |
| Abstract: | Gender inequality not only leads to poor labour market outcomes for women, both in terms of participation and the type of employment, but is also a constraining factor for economic development worldwide. While there is a sizeable pool of literature on the underlying barriers to female employment, it remains unclear how these barriers play out across different world regions. This paper discusses and compares the barriers to (decent) work faced by women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is inspired by the three labour market transitions as countries develop economically over time (paid work, wage work and occupational variety) as presented by Bandiera et al. (2022a). Against this background, we identify the factors that are most helpful in explaining why so many women (i) do not take up any paid work; (ii) cannot find more decent (wage) work; and (iii) are rarely employed in specialized, well-remunerated and highly productive work. We find that labour market outcomes of women in both regions are negatively affected by gender norms, yet in a remarkably different way. Women in the MENA region especially do not often take up paid work at all (first transition) due to strong prevailing social norms and prioritised personal commitments, such as care work and other household chores. Women in SSA are more often detained from finding wage work with better working conditions (second transition). For economic reasons, many African women need to contribute to the household income so gendered labour market barriers, such as care responsibilities and time constraints, frequently push them to accept precarious jobs. Possibilities to get into more specialised occupations (third transition) are slim for women in both our regions of interest, as they tend to continue working in traditionally female-dominated sectors. Yet, in MENA, occupational segregation often arises due to gender norms around appropriate workplace and tasks or transportation, while this link is less pronounced in SSA. Our approach, thus, allows us to compare the barriers to labour market inclusion and advancement that deny women better jobs and a more active role in economic development in different world regions. |
| Keywords: | gender equality, labour markets, labour force participation, female employment, occupational segregation, social norms, necessity entrepreneurship, decent work, barriers to employment |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:diedps:307590 |
| By: | Xinming Du; Lei Li; Eric Zou |
| Abstract: | This paper shows a cascading mechanism through which international trade-induced deforestation results in a decline of health outcomes in cities distant from where trade activities occur. We examine Brazil, which has ramped up agricultural export over the last two decades to meet rising global demand. Using a shift-share research design, we first show that export shocks cause substantial local agricultural expansion and a virtual one-for-one decline in forest cover. We then construct a dynamic area-of-effect model that predicts where atmospheric changes should be felt - due to loss of forests that would otherwise serve to filter out and absorb air pollutants as they travel - downwind of the deforestation areas. Leveraging quasi-random variation in these atmospheric connections, we establish a causal link between deforestation upstream and subsequent rises in air pollution and premature deaths downstream, with the mortality effects predominantly driven by cardiovascular and respiratory causes. Our estimates reveal a large telecoupled health externality of trade deforestation: over 700, 000 premature deaths in Brazil over the past two decades. This equates to $0.18 loss in statistical life value per $1 agricultural exports over the study period. |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2411.13516 |
| By: | Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri |
| Abstract: | Can radio campaigns affect fertility? This paper examines the impact of a national radio campaign promoting family planning clinics in late 1960s Colombia on the country’s rapid fertility decline. The campaign, initiated by Profamilia in 1969, provided information about the location of clinics without giving detailed contraceptive information. Using data from the full count 1973 census and information on clinic locations and radio programs, the study leverages exogenous variation in radio signal strength to estimate the campaign’s effect on fertility. I follow a difference-in-differences strategy to compare fertility before and after the start of the radio campaign at the individual level. The findings indicate that the radio campaign reduced between 4% to 16% the probability of having a child one year after the campaign. The effects are stronger for women living close to a Profamilia clinic. However, by 1973 motherhood was still almost universal. This research contributes to the understanding of the effects of family planning programs and media exposure on fertility decline, highlighting the role of media in overcoming geographical barriers and driving social change. **** RESUMEN: ¿Pueden las campañas de radio afectar la fecundidad? Este artículo examina el impacto de una campaña de radio que promovía clínicas de planificación familiar, en el descenso de la fecundidad en Colombia. La campaña, iniciada por Profamilia en 1969, proporcionó información sobre la ubicación de las clínicas sin ofrecer información detallada sobre anticonceptivos. Utilizando datos del censo completo de 1973 y la información sobre la ubicación de las clínicas y los programas de radio, este artículo usa la variación exógena en la intensidad de la señal de radio para estimar el efecto de la campaña en la fecundidad. Utilizando una estrategia de diferencia en diferencias se compara la fecundidad antes y después del inicio de la campaña de radio. Los resultado indican que la campaña de radio redujo entre un 4% y un 14% la probabilidad de tener un hijo un año después de la campaña. Los efectos son más fuertes para las mujeres que viven cerca de una clínica de Profamilia. Sin embargo, en 1973 la maternidad seguía siendo casi universal. Esta investigación contribuye a nuestro conocimiento sobre los efectos de los programas de planificación familiar y la exposición a los medios en la disminución de la fecundidad, destacando el papel de los medios en superar las barreras geográficas e impulsar el cambio social. |
| Keywords: | fertility transition, mass media, family planning, Colombia, transición de la fecundidad, medios de comunicación, planificación familiar |
| JEL: | O15 D63 I24 J15 J12 N36 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:cheedt:65 |
| By: | Ahmad Shabir Faizi; Weerachart Kilenthong |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the role of parenting styles in child development in rural Thailand using early childhood panel data. Our results from various specifications indicate that authoritarian parenting style was negatively and significantly associated with the child’s non-cognitive skills, while the results for cognitive skills were generally insignificant. These results imply that parenting styles affect non-cognitive skills but not cognitive skills of children aged between five and eleven years. However, we found that the impact of authoritative parenting is less conclusive. |
| Keywords: | Parenting style; Cognitive; Non-cognitive; Human capital; Child development; Developing country |
| JEL: | D91 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pui:dpaper:225 |
| By: | Ghislain B. D. Aïhounton (Laboratory of Analysis and Research on Economic and Social Dynamics, University of Parakou, Benin; Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Arne Henningsen (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | While price premiums incentivise farmers to engage in organic farming, these premiums are frequently insufficient to compensate for lower yields, resulting in no monetary benefits from adopting organic farming. This study goes beyond purely monetary outcomes and investigates how organic farming is related to both monetary and non-monetary outcomes, including farmers’ general life satisfaction or ‘happiness’. We use data collected from organic and conventional cotton growing households in Benin and employ Structural Equation Modelling in order to investigate the pathways through which organic farming is related to happiness. Our findings indicate that organic farming is positively associated with happiness through farmers’ improved (self-reported) health and increased satisfaction with their work as well as through a direct relationship between organic farming and happiness. While a negative association between organic farming and income exists, it only reduces the overall positive relationship between organic farming and happiness to a very limited extent. Thus, our results show that non-monetary outcomes may be important drivers of the adoption of sustainability standards as well as relevant measures of farmers’ welfare when evaluating policies and programmes. |
| Keywords: | organic farming, happiness, life satisfaction, non-monetary measures of wellbeing, income, farm households. |
| JEL: | D60 I31 O13 Q12 Q18 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2024_01 |
| By: | Dolislager, Michael; Belton, Ben; Reardon, Thomas; Awokuse, Titus; Ignowski, Liz; Nejadhashemi, A. Pouyan; Saravi, Babak; Tschirley, David |
| Abstract: | on), influenced by four conditioners (time, income, non-farm employment, and space). We find that: (1) Diets are converging over time and space. food purchases, non-staples, and processed foods occupy high shares of food consumption value, irrespective of urban or rural location. Controlling for income, rural landless households and households in urban areas have very similar diets. Households in ‘peripheral’ and ‘non-peripheral’ rural areas experience similar levels of diet transformation. (2) Food purchases and processed food consumption are conditioned mainly by non-farm employment (NFE). (3) Diet diversification is positively associated with income, but not with NFE or land ownership. We characterize the spatial convergence of diets as an outcome of ‘time-space compression’ (the accelerating volume and velocity of economic and social transactions resulting from advances in transport and communications technology), and the distinct form of peri-urbanization under conditions of extremely high population density found in Bangladesh. |
| Keywords: | diet; rural urban relations; food systems; household surveys; food prices; food consumption; off-farm employment; economic geography; Southern Asia; Bangladesh |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprwp:159534 |
| By: | Malena Dolcet (IIE-FCE-UNLP); Natalia Porto (IIE-FCE-UNLP); Joaquín Zarrilli (IIE-FCE-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | Young people entering the labor markets face several and important challenges. These issues deepen due to rooted structural barriers such as informality or precarity, low-paid jobs, and low economic growth in regions like Latin America and sectors such as tourism (Abramo, 2022). Tourism has great potential to employ many of these young people because it provides opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers, it has low barriers to entry and flexible conditions, and it provides critical skills for their professional life. However, the youth population needs to reduce the gap between their available skills and experienced gained and the future requirements of labor markets to avoid being socially excluded. We apply the multidimensional poverty methodology developed by Alkire and Foster (2011) to build a Quality of Employment index (QoE) for young workers employed in the tourism industry in Latin America for the period 2015-2019. Focusing on two groups of young workers -super young for those aged 15 to 24 and young those aged 25 to 35- we consider several aspects of working conditions and discuss some differences in job quality across countries by gender and education considering different levels of deprivation in the index. The results suggest a high level of deprivation in the young workers, specially in the super young group. However, employment quality increased in both groups for all countries in the region during the period 2015-2019. |
| JEL: | J81 L83 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0341 |
| By: | Luis Armando Galvis-Aponte |
| Abstract: | Este documento analiza la informalidad laboral urbana en Colombia, destacando su relación con el nivel educativo, las desigualdades de género y las brechas regionales. Utilizando datos de la Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares (GEIH) para las veintitrés principales áreas metropolitanas entre 2010 y 2023, se estiman las probabilidades de informalidad mediante un modelo probit con variable endógena, que permite abordar la relación entre la educación y la informalidad laboral empleando variables instrumentales. Los resultados muestran que cada año adicional de educación está asociado con una disminución de más de dos puntos porcentuales en la probabilidad de ser informal. El análisis también revela diferencias significativas entre hombres y mujeres, con una mayor incidencia de informalidad en las mujeres, especialmente en las regiones Caribe y Pacífica, que enfrentan condiciones económicas más precarias. A pesar de las mejoras en la formalización observadas en los últimos años, las brechas de género y región persisten, destacando la desigualdad estructural en el acceso a empleos formales. Estos hallazgos subrayan la importancia de implementar políticas públicas que promuevan la formalización del empleo, reduzcan las desigualdades de género y aborden las disparidades regionales, fomentando la inclusión laboral en las áreas más afectadas del país. **** ABSTRACT: This paper examines urban labor informality in Colombia, highlighting its relationship with educational attainment, gender inequalities, and regional disparities. Using data from the Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares (GEIH) for the 23 main metropolitan areas between 2010 and 2023, the probabilities of informality are estimated through a probit model with an endogenous variable, which addresses the relationship between education and labor informality by using an instrumental variable approach. The results show that each additional year of education is associated with a reduction of more than two percentage points in the probability of being informal. The analysis also reveals significant differences between men and women, with a higher incidence of informality among women, particularly in the Caribbean and Pacific regions, which face more precarious economic conditions. Despite improvements in formalization observed in recent years, gender and regional disparities persist, underscoring structural inequality in access to formal employment. These findings underline the importance of implementing public policies that promote employment formalization, reduce gender inequalities, and address regional disparities, fostering labor inclusion in the most affected areas of the country. |
| Keywords: | informalidad, educación, género, economía urbana, labor informality, education, gender, urban economics |
| JEL: | E26 I26 J16 R00 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:region:332 |