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on Development |
| By: | Akeliwira, Ayuune George |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between natural resource rents and poverty in 45 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2011 to 2020. The measure of poverty used is the percentage of the population living below income thresholds of $3.65 and $2.15 per day, which are commonly used by the World Bank to measure poverty in low-income countries. Data for the analysis are drawn from international sources, including the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, World Bank Development Indicators, Global Financial Development Indicators, IMF Direction of Trade Statistics, and the Political Regimes of the World dataset (Herre & Roser, 2023). The econometric results, derived from fixed-effects regression models, account for unobserved heterogeneity across countries. The findings indicate that, in aggregate, natural resource rents (from oil, minerals, natural gas, coal, and forests) do not have impact on poverty at any threshold. However, when disaggregating by resource type, the results show that natural gas rents and mineral rents are positively and significantly associated with poverty at all poverty thresholds. These findings strongly support the resource-curse hypothesis, which posits that resource wealth, if not effectively managed, can increase poverty and hinder long-term economic growth. Policymakers in SSA should focus on improving governance and directing resource rents into productive sectors to ensure that resource wealth contributes positively to broader economic development. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, natural resource rents, resource-curse, Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:334396 |
| By: | Pedrazzi Julián; Berniell Inés; Marchionni Mariana |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how temporary spikes in caregiving demands affect women’s labor market outcomes in developing countries. We focus on the school break period in Colombia, which intensifies unpaid care responsibilities that fall disproportionately on women. Using high-frequency household survey data from 2008 to 2019, we show that women’s labor force participation drops by 2 percentage points during school breaks, a decline equivalent to one-third of the drop observed during the COVID-19 crisis. This effect is entirely concentrated among informal workers and is especially pronounced for mothers of young children and married women. These findings underscore how even short-term caregiving shocks can significantly disrupt women’s attachment to the labor market in settings where flexibility is prevalent but closely tied to job precarity. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4826 |
| By: | Akeliwira, Ayuune George; Owusu-Mensah, Isaac |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between natural resource rents and income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The empirical analysis covers 24 countries over the period 1998-2020. Econometric estimations are conducted using both fixed and random effects models to account for country-specific and time-invariant factors. Using the Gini coefficient as a proxy for inequality, the results suggest that total natural resource rents do not have a statistically significant effect on income inequality in the region. In contrast, access to financial services and digital technologies appear to be more influential in reducing inequality. The findings highlight the potential importance of inclusive development policies, such as allocating resource wealth to social programs in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Additionally, promoting economic diversification and strengthening governance institutions may support more effective management of natural resources. The observed negative and statistically significant associations between information and communication technology (ICT) and financial development with inequality indicate that investments in ICT infrastructure and measures to enhance financial inclusion could contribute to addressing income disparities in the region. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Sub-Saharan Africa, Natural Resource Rents, Gini Coefficient, Economic Growth |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:334397 |
| By: | Agustin Benetrix (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Hayley Pallan (The World Bank); Ugo Panizza (Geneva Graduate Institute and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper reassesses the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in emerging and developing economies. Using cross-country data, it first shows that the relationship between FDI, growth, and local conditions such as financial depth and human capital is not stable over time: complementarities documented in studies based on data from the 1970s and 1980s largely disappear in more recent decades. It then builds a new dataset on sectoral FDI covering 112 emerging and developing economies over the period 1975‐2023 and documents substantial heterogeneity in the association between FDI and sectoral growth. FDI inflows are positively associated with growth in the primary sector, show no robust relationship in the secondary sector, and are negatively associated with growth in the tertiary sector. To interpret these patterns, we examine the role of global value chains (GVCs). We find that FDI is most strongly associated with growth in country‐sectors with low GVC participation, while this relationship weakens or disappears as GVC integration increases. Moreover, the growth effects of FDI depend critically on the type of GVC integration. Backward participation amplifies the positive growth effects of FDI in the primary sector but attenuates them in the secondary sector and worsens the negative effects in tertiary sector, whereas forward participation strengthens the association between FDI and growth in manufacturing. Taken together, the results suggest that the elusive aggregate relationship between FDI and growth reflects a structural transformation in how foreign investment is embedded in global production networks: in highly fragmented value chains, FDI can expand gross activity without generating commensurate domestic value-added growth. |
| Keywords: | FDI, Economic Growth, Global Value Chains |
| JEL: | F21 F23 F14 C23 F60 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0126 |
| By: | Gao, Yujuan |
| Abstract: | This study examines the causal impact of 3G mobile network coverage on fertility decisions in Nigeria using geo-referenced data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys (2013-2018) combined with mobile coverage information. Employing two-way fixed effects for fertility analysis, the analysis reveals that increased 3G coverage significantly reduces birth rates among adolescent women aged 12-20. The spatial gradient of effects—stronger within 30km of network coverage and diminishing beyond 40km—provides evidence of a causal relationship. The primary mechanisms driving these effects include delays in age at first marriage, postponement of first childbirth, and increased adoption of modern contraception methods. These findings suggest that investments in telecommunications infrastructure may yield substantial demographic benefits through reduced fertility rates, particularly among adolescent women. |
| Keywords: | Farm Management |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360944 |
| By: | Humphreys, Aaron; Ubilava, David |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of local prices on conflict, using global prices as an instrument. Our analysis focuses on incidents of social unrest—protests and riots—observed at monthly frequency, and is based on a subset of local maize markets across multiple African countries. We find that an increase in the price of maize—a change that presumably benefits net producers but harms consumers reduces social unrest near markets with substantial crop agriculture. This effect is mitigated—and in some instances reversed—near markets characterised by ethnically diverse groups with varying involvement in crop agriculture. We relate these findings to the existing economics of conflict literature. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361190 |
| By: | Jiaying Chen (Renmin University of China); Rhea Molato-Gayares (Asian Development Bank); Albert F. Park (Asian Development Bank); Donnie-Paul Tan (Asian Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Which poverty context matters for long-term outcomes—family or community, economic or social? We construct a measure of poverty along these dimensions and analyze individual-level longitudinal data spanning 21 years in Indonesia to examine the long-term outcomes associated with different types of deprivation experienced in childhood. We find that adverse outcomes in adulthood are associated not only with growing up in a poor family but also in a poor community. Family poverty generally has a stronger influence than community poverty, except for health and life satisfaction, which are shaped more by the community. We also find that both economic and social domains matter, with the economic domain’s influence being stronger. Girls’ education suffers more from exposure to early deprivations, whereas boys’ health is hit harder. Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for different dimensions of childhood deprivation, and they have strong policy implications for addressing inequality of opportunity. |
| Keywords: | poverty;inequality;neighborhood effects;childhood;gender |
| JEL: | I32 R23 J11 |
| Date: | 2026–01–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:022034 |
| By: | Hector Galindo-Silva; Paula Paula Herrera-Idarraga |
| Abstract: | How do religious identities change? We study the effects of civic education reforms on religious identification using Colombia's 1991 Constitution, which dismantled the country's confessional regime and mandated constitutional instruction in high schools. Exploiting cohort-based variation in exposure to the reform and nationally representative survey data, we implement a difference-in-differences design. We find that exposure to the constitutional curriculum reduced Catholic self-identification by about three percentage points. This decline reflects a reallocation of religious identities rather than a generalized decline in religiosity. In regions where Catholic institutional presence was historically weaker, Catholic losses translate into switching toward non-Catholic Christian denominations and higher religious attendance. In contrast, in regions where Catholic dominance was stronger, the decline is associated with increased secular identification and lower attendance. These patterns hold across ethnic and non-ethnic groups and are shaped primarily by regional religious supply rather than ethnicity per se. Overall, the results show that civic education can reconfigure religious identities by reshaping the relative legitimacy of competing affiliations. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2601.09561 |
| By: | Liu, Zhen |
| Abstract: | The rapid expansion of supermarkets is modernizing grain value chains in developing countries; however, its implications for grain farmers remain underexplored. This study introduces a location based framework and examines how supermarket expansion affects farmer income and resource allocation, using a panel of 5, 221 grain farmers in China from 2006 to 2015. The results show no effects on grain income at the aggregate level, but significant variation across locations. Remote farmers earn higher grain income due to increased farm-gate prices, greater commercialization, and more resources allocated to grain production. In contrast, peri-urban farmers experience losses in grain income, but manage to compensate for these losses through shifting to off-farm work. Our findings highlight a spontaneous transformation among farmers driven by adaptive diversification strategies in response to supermarket expansion, offering insights for agricultural and retail policies in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360615 |
| By: | Goli, Srinivas; Singh, Shreya; Balla, Shalem |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the theoretical basis and empirical evidence for understanding the links between neoliberal policies and health inequalities in the Indian context. The pathways in which inequality generates population health outcomes remain a major source of dispute within social epidemiology and health economics. Virchow’s philosophy, which undoubtedly galvanised thinking across the disciplines, emphasises how political–economic ideologies and income inequality shape the distribution of health and social problems. In this paper, we argue that the focus on health inequality, while important, understates the role of neoliberal discourses and practices in making sense of contemporary debates on health inequality. Many quantitative studies have demonstrated that more neoliberal countries have poorer health than do fewer neoliberal countries, but we rarely find comprehensive documentation of evidence in the Indian context. In light of the fast-changing political and social environment and policy priorities post-1990s in general and post-2014, this paper examines the impact of a rising share of private healthcare delivery on health inequalities. Using inequality in the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) as a health outcome and per capita NSDP, per capita public health expenditure, the share of private health care spending and the poverty ratio as indicators of neoliberal policies, through robust econometric assessment, we find that economic growth without poverty reduction and public health care spending increase health inequalities. The fixed effects model plots depicting the interaction effects of PCPHE and time on health inequality suggest that public health spending consistently has a negative association with health inequality. However, the period impact of PCPHE on reducing health inequality is declined over time. Random effects model plots that show the interaction effects of the share of private health care utilisation and time consistently show a positive association with health inequality. Our findings also suggest that a positive association exists between the poverty ratio and health inequality. We conclude that integrating understandings of neoliberalism into theorising about health inequality enriches the political economic and political demographic perspective of health. India must implement “post neoliberal” social and political economic policies to counter neoliberal models that emerged in the 1990s and rising social and health inequalities. Ending poverty and austerity towards public health spending are two key steps for reducing health inequalities. |
| Keywords: | Health inequalities, Neoliberalism, Political determinants of health |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:334356 |
| By: | Richard Blundell (University College, London); Mariano Bosch (Inter-American Development Bank); Nora Lustig (Tulane University); Marcela Melendez (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how the state can take actions to reduce the persistent and multifaceted nature of inequality in Latin America, where inherited factors account for 50-60% of disparities in individual earnings. Despite declines in income, education, and gender inequality, the region maintains the world's highest income inequality levels, with Gini coe icients above 0.45. Latin America continues to be characterized by significant ethnic and racial disparities, gender wage gaps, and fragmented market structures dominated by giant firms with excessive pricing and wage-setting power. The paper argues for comprehensive state intervention through a three-pronged approach : (1) closing earnings potential gaps through improved education, health, and skill development policies; (2) shaping labor and output markets through productivity-enhancing measures, minimum wage regulations, and competition policies; and (3) redistributing income via fiscal instruments including taxes, transfers, and social security systems. The paper emphasizes that effective inequality reduction requires a holistic policy mix integrating both pre-fiscal interventions addressing structural causes and post fiscal redistribution mechanisms, as purely redistributive approaches cannot adequately address deeper market ine iciencies and intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, intergenerational transmission, ethnic and gender disparities, state intervention, fiscal redistribution, education |
| JEL: | D31 D63 I24 I38 O54 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2505 |