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on Development |
| By: | Kumar, Santosh (University of Notre Dame); Shandal, Monica (University of California, Santa Cruz); Zucker, Ariel (UC Santa Cruz) |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of rural road connectivity on economic and social outcomes in the context of India’s PMGSY, the world’s largest rural road program. Using a novel village-level survey explicitly designed around PMGSY’s rollout, we exploit quasi-random variation in road placement to estimate causal effects. We find that roads increase producer prices by 1.4 SD, reduce consumer prices by 0.6 SD, shift labor from agriculture to local casual work, and decrease short-term migration. Additionally, road connectivity improves governance, delays marriages, and improves wedding quality. Our findings highlight the role of infrastructure in shaping rural economies and social institutions. |
| Keywords: | migration, wages, prices, PMGSY, rural roads, India |
| JEL: | I15 J43 O12 O18 R23 R42 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17775 |
| By: | Cirilo Mendoza, Elibeth (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | The use of traditional biomass fuels such as wood and dung for cooking is a prevalent practice in low-income countries, leading to significant indoor air pollution and adverse health outcomes. Previous studies have found that the promotion of subsidized Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) had a negative impact on health outcomes in Peru. This study revisits this evidence by leveraging the national FISE program, which provided discounted LPG to low-income households. Using a staggered difference-in-differences approach combined with district-level data from the Peruvian DHS from 2005 to 2020, this study evaluates the effects of the FISE program on infant mortality and respiratory health outcomes. The findings reveal that the program increased LPG adoption as a primary cooking fuel by 8% (or 2.8 pp). However, the evidence on the program’s impact on reducing infant mortality and acute respiratory infections remains inconclusive, highlighting the complexity of measuring health impacts in the context of energy transitions. JEL classifications: I15 ; O13 ; Q53 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:83 |
| By: | Aminjonov, Ulugbek (University of Bordeaux); Bargain, Olivier B. (Université de Bordeaux); Colacce, Maira (University of Bordeaux) |
| Abstract: | Since intra-household resource distribution is unobserved, it is difficult to compare how women and children fare across countries. To address this, we analyze 45 household expenditure surveys from predominantly low- and middle-income countries, i.e. an international sample of around 2.4 million individuals. Using harmonized estimations of intra-household resource sharing, we construct globally comparable measures of gender inequality and child poverty in consumption. Our findings reveal a widespread imbalance: women receive about one-fifth less than men, leading to a 60% higher poverty rate. Children appear to fare even worse, though this is partly explained by differences in needs and sibling economies of scale. Intra-household inequalities are more pronounced in poorer countries and among low-income households within countries. Cross-checks with nutritional proxies tend to validate our results, linking household poverty and intra-household disparities to child undernutrition. Finally, we decompose global individual consumption inequality and find that 13%-32% (across measures) stems from inequality within households. |
| Keywords: | resource sharing, intra-household inequality, child poverty, gender inequality, scale economies, nutrition |
| JEL: | D13 I32 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17767 |
| By: | Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Kishore, Avinash |
| Abstract: | Despite recognition of the potentially significant cumulative effects of input use on annual crop output—such as the effect of applying inorganic fertilizer in one year on crop output in the subsequent year—real-world evidence from smallholder farmers’ fields in lower-income countries remains scarce. We narrow this knowledge gap using unique district-level and farm-household-level annual panel datasets in India. We start with flexible translog production functions, which are well-suited for identifying cumulative effects in farmers’ actual production environments. We then apply shrinkage methods (LASSO and GMM-LASSO) to approximate the production function with reduced parameter dimensions, addressing various challenges such as multicollinearity among multiple inputs, including the same inputs from the current and previous years, and potential endogeneity in inputs. Our results indicate that, throughout the shrinkage process, potassium remains a key predictor of outputs, while other inputs (land, labor, capital, irrigation, and other fertilizer nutrients) drop out. More important, the cumulative quantity of potassium from both the previous and current years is a consistently more critical determinant of production than the quantity of potassium from the current year alone, demonstrating the potassium’s significant cumulative effects. These patterns hold at both the district and farm levels across diverse agroecologies and cropping systems. Furthermore, the dynamic panel data analyses suggest that farmers’ use of potassium in the current year is significantly negatively affected by its use in the previous year, potentially stabilizing outputs across years. Our results support earlier agronomic findings suggesting that the cumulative effects of potassium may be relevant across wider geographic regions than previously thought. |
| Keywords: | fertilizers; inputs; machine learning; potassium; India; Asia; Southern Asia |
| Date: | 2025–04–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:174101 |
| By: | Iván Albina (CCEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP); Jessica Bracco (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP); Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Luis Laguinge (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET) |
| Abstract: | There have been widespread public expressions of discontent throughout Latin America since the early 2010s. We exploit harmonized microdata from national household surveys covering nearly all Latin American countries to explore potential sources of discontent driven by income changes along the income distribution. We also estimate fixed-effects models that link discontent measures to changes in household incomes. Our results suggest that discontent may stem less from absolute economic performance during the 2010s than from the significant deceleration relative to the previous decade. |
| JEL: | O1 I31 I24 |
| Date: | 2028–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0349 |
| By: | Ioana Botea (World Bank); Markus Goldstein (Center for Global Development); Kenneth Houngbedji (DIAL, LEDa, CNRS, IRD, Université Paris-Dauphine); Florence Kondylis (World Bank); Michael O’Sullivan (World Bank); Harris Selod (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | In settings where women’s land rights are informal, the death of a husband can severely limit a widow’s access to land and her ability to remain in her home— especially in the absence of a male heir. This paper examines whether large-scale land formalization programs can improve widows’ land access. Using data from a randomized controlled trial in rural Benin, the analysis finds that widows in villages with land formalization are more likely to stay in their homes four years after the program, with the strongest effects among those without a male heir. The paper identifies two key mechanisms: enhanced community recognition of women’s land rights and greater decision-making power over land resources. These findings highlight the potential of land formalization to strengthen women’s tenure security and promote their long-term economic stability in similar settings. |
| Keywords: | property rights, land administration, gender, widowhood, intra-household insurance |
| JEL: | D23 I31 J12 J16 O17 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt202503 |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier B. (Université de Bordeaux); Colacce, Maira (University of Bordeaux) |
| Abstract: | Whether gender-targeted cash transfers effectively redistribute resources to women and children in poor households remains an open question. We examine Uruguay’s largest social assistance program, Asignaciones Familiares (AFAM), which is directed at poor families with children and paid to women. We estimate the intra-household distribution of resources and how it is discontinuously affected by AFAM eligibility. The regression discontinuity design (RDD) embedded in structural estimations points to a significant increase in resource shares for eligible women in rural areas–where traditional gender norms likely created greater margins for improvement. In contrast, children’s resource shares are already substantial ex ante and do not increase further with AFAM. Translating these findings into individual poverty outcomes, we observe that while all family members benefit from the program’s income effect, the bargaining effect leads to a greater reduction in poverty for women. |
| Keywords: | cash transfers, intra-household allocation, regression discontinuity, individual poverty |
| JEL: | D12 D13 C31 I32 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17768 |
| By: | Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Kramer, Berber; Trachtman, Carly; Abate, Gashaw T. |
| Abstract: | In developing countries, semi-subsistence farmers typically assume dual roles as both consumers and producers of the same crops, which shape their adoption decisions as they balance household food security with market-driven incentives. This study, conducted in eastern Uganda, employs a field experiment with two intervention arms to assess the relative importance of these factors in farmers’ decisions to adopt improved maize seed varieties. The first intervention focuses on production traits, distributing free sample packs of an improved hybrid maize variety to showcase benefits such as higher yields, pest resistance, and drought tolerance. The second intervention emphasizes consumption traits, offering cooking demonstrations and blind taste tests using flour from the same improved maize variety to highlight its taste, texture, and ease of preparation. Our findings reveal that while seed sample packs positively influenced farmers’ perceptions of both production and consumption traits, cooking demonstrations primarily affected perceptions of consumption qualities. We find some evidence that the cooking demonstrations and tasting sessions significantly boosted adoption of the improved maize seed variety promoted by the intervention. However, farmers who received seed sample packs tended to recycle the harvested grain as seed in subsequent seasons, thereby crowding out fresh seed purchases. This practice led to productivity losses, suggesting that the seed trial packs did not translate into lasting improvements in food security or increased market participation. |
| Keywords: | technology adoption; consumption; cooking; maize; Uganda; Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:173943 |
| By: | Bonander, Carl (University of Gothenburg); Hammar, Olle (Linnaeus University); Jakobsson, Niklas (Karlstad University); Bensch, Gunther (RWI); Holzmeister, Felix (University of Innsbruck); Brodeur, Abel (University of Ottawa) |
| Abstract: | Islam (2019) reports results from a randomized field experiment in Bangladesh that examines the effects of parent-teacher meetings on student test scores in primary schools. The reported findings suggest strong positive effects across multiple subjects. In this report, we demonstrate that the school-level randomization cannot have been conducted as the author claims. Specifically, we show that the nine included Bangladeshi unions all have a share of either 0% or 100% treated or control schools. Additionally, we uncover irregularities in baseline scores, which for the same students and subjects vary systematically across the author’s data files in ways that are unique to either the treatment or control group. We also discovered data on two unreported outcomes and data collected from the year before the study began. Results using these data cast further doubt on the validity of the original study. Moreover, in a survey asking parents to evaluate the parent-teacher meetings, we find that parents in the control schools were more positive about this intervention than those in the treated schools. We also find undisclosed connections to two additional RCTs. |
| Keywords: | field experiments, student outcomes, reproduction, Bangladesh |
| JEL: | B41 C12 I25 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17781 |
| By: | Bressler, R. Daniel (Columbia University); Papp, Anna (Columbia University); Sarmiento, Luis (Bank of Mexico); Shrader, Jeffrey G. (Columbia University); Wilson, Andrew J. (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how occupation influences the relationship between temperature and mortality in Mexico. Using multiple decades of nationwide death records---which include information on occupation---linked to local weather data, we find that heat-related mortality risk varies sharply by occupation. Young adults in climate-exposed jobs, especially in agriculture, experience significantly higher death rates from warm and hot temperatures. A 15 to 24 year-old agricultural worker is over 10 times more likely to die from heat exposure than a peer in professional or managerial employment, underscoring the role of occupation in climate vulnerability. These findings show that the burden of extreme heat disproportionately falls on the working poor. Our results suggest that implementing occupational safety measures and targeted heat adaptation policies (such as mandatory rest breaks and early warnings for outdoor workers) are essential to protect vulnerable workers. Furthermore, ongoing economic shifts away from highly exposed sectors may reduce increases in heat-related mortality due to climate change. |
| Keywords: | health, occupation, climate, temperature, mortality |
| JEL: | I10 J81 Q54 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17759 |
| By: | Miranda, Alfonso (CIDE, Mexico City) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of speaking Spanish as an additional language (SAL)—as opposed to speaking it as a native—on education, labor, and wellbeing outcomes among Mexico's indigenous ethno-linguistic minorities. Controls are appropriately comparable indigenous individuals who speak only Spanish. To address treatment endogeneity, we use 2SLS, maximum likelihood, and control function estimators, using parental indigenous language status as instruments. Unlike prior studies, we account for key confounders: parents' education, occupation, and imputed family income. SAL reduces education by one year—equivalent to a−0.2 standard deviations reduction on schooling. It also imposes a−23% penalty on permanent income (wealth). No significant effects are found on employment, life satisfaction, or health. |
| Keywords: | Spanish as additional language, indigenous ethno-linguistic minorities, economic outcomes, Mexico |
| JEL: | J71 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17741 |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier B. (Université de Bordeaux); Jara Tamayo, Holguer Xavier (University of Essex); Rivera, David (University of Bordeaux) |
| Abstract: | Latent feelings of economic vulnerability and social stagnation may have catalyzed the unprecedented uprisings that shook Latin America and other parts of the world in 2018-2019. We document this process in the context of Chile, leveraging survey data on protest participation and its potential determinants. Specifically, we construct a “social gap” index, measuring the disconnect between objective and perceived social status. Our findings suggest that this social gap predicts protest involvement beyond factors such as perceived living costs, the subjective value of public services, peer influence, or political demands. Notably, it complements broader feelings of anger toward inequalities in explaining protests. |
| Keywords: | protests, social gap, perceived inequality, social status |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17769 |