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on Development |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Informal commercialisation of agricultural products is widespread in Colombian food systems. It plays a central role in supporting rural livelihoods and affordable food access, but may limit value creation, create fiscal pressures, and undermine the evidence base for policymaking. This paper examines why small-scale farmers in Colombia rely on informal markets, with particular attention to Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities. It situates informality within the broader context of rural areas and the structure of the agri-food supply chain. It proposes a characterisation of the main barriers that hinder small-scale farmers’ engagement with formal buyers, drawing on desk research and interviews with government officials, industry stakeholders, community representatives, and academics. It suggests that formal market participation could be facilitated by prioritising the provision of rural public goods, improving data and evidence on informality in food systems, better aligning agricultural policies with producer-financed parafiscal funds, and adopting a demand-driven approach to agricultural policy. |
| Keywords: | Afro-Colombians, Agri-food supply chains, Indigenous, Informality, Small-scale farmers |
| JEL: | O17 Q13 Q18 R11 O54 |
| Date: | 2026–06–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:227-en |
| By: | Pinghan Liang (Sun Yat-sen University); Shu Tian (Asian Development Bank); Yichuan Zhang (Sun Yat-sen University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of digital connectivity on income of women-headed households in Viet Nam. Using the Viet Nam Digital Economy Access Index and the Viet Nam Household Living Standards Survey, empirical evidence shows that increased digital connectivity significantly improves the income of women headed households. Disadvantaged groups, such as those with limited educational attainment and lower income levels, and living in rural areas, benefit more from having digital connectivity. We explore the mechanisms behind this relationship and find that digital connectivity is related to increased participation in the labor market, particularly in the services sector. This paper offers new insights into the inclusive effects of digital connectivity and provides policy recommendations for advancing digital infrastructure development. |
| Keywords: | digital connectivity;digital access;household income;women-headed household |
| JEL: | O33 O15 J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2026–05–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:022585 |
| By: | Shweta Gupta; Gaurav Datt; Shreekant Gupta |
| Abstract: | With an exhausting land frontier, raising agricultural production to meet future global demand for food is highly contingent on higher crop yields. Yet, continued yield growth is increasingly threatened by climate change. This paper presents new evidence on significant effects of climate change on yields across ten major crops for 563 districts of India over half a century. The impacts are larger than those in the literature not only for India, but also relative to global benchmarks. Larger impacts are attributable to our use of a dynamic specification to capture persistence and to making an allowance for nonlinearity of marginal effects. We estimate 1◦C higher temperature reduces the national average all-crop yield by 8%. For individual crops, yield losses are as high as 16% for maize and 19% for pearl millet. For individual districts, they range from under 1% to 39% |
| Keywords: | climate change, agriculture, India, yield loss |
| JEL: | Q54 O13 O53 |
| Date: | 2026–03–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:paper_1775627283163_892 |
| By: | Brunckhorst, Ben James; Doan, Miki Khanh; De la Fuente, Alejandro; Freije-Rodriguez, Samuel; García, Catalina; Nguyen, Minh Cong |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses two main questions. First, what proportion of people are exposed to climate hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially among the poor versus the nonpoor? Second, do certain areas—hotspots—have high rates of bothhazard exposure and poverty that require targeted policy? Using poverty maps and georeferenced climate hazard data, three innovations are introduced: five climate hazards are analyzed (droughts, hurricanes, heatwaves, floods, and landslides); official poverty data at administrative level 2 are used, instead of only administrative level 1; and an interpolation method estimates poverty-plus-exposure rates across countries with varying data sources. The estimates indicate that 36.9 percent of the population is exposed to at least one of the five climate hazards under consideration. Considering the population in poverty only, the percentage is higher, 44.6 percent, whereas the exposure rate for the nonpoor is 34.0 percent. Some areas experience high exposure to climate hazards and high poverty rates. These hotspots include about 10 percent of the region’s population. These areas are in the Brazilian northeast; the upper-Amazon region of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil; the Chaco region of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay; the islands of the Caribbean; the western coast of the Gulf of California; and the Yucatan Peninsula. |
| Date: | 2026–05–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11389 |
| By: | Dang, Hai-Anh H.; Do, Minh; Lahiri, Partha; Gualavisi, Melany; Newhouse, David; Kilic, Talip; Lanjouw, Peter; Van der Weide, Roy |
| Abstract: | This paper uses five rounds of Mexican and Brazilian census extracts to evaluate the accuracy of different model specifications and estimation methods that use survey and census data to generate small area estimates of poverty. Models that utilize more granular data for prediction (household- and/or village-level predictors) tend to produce more accurate estimates of poverty than models estimated only using area-level predictors. Differences in accuracy across models and methods that utilize household or village level predictors are minor. Models that omit household-level predictors tend to be more robust than unit-level models to the use of old census data and classical measurement error in survey predictors. The performance of the Fay-Herriot area-level model falls in the presence of sample selection bias and small sample sizes. Rescaling sample weights is important in Mexico, where the sample is informative within areas. Applying raw sample weights without rescaling in this case greatly reduces the accuracy of estimates from linear models and distorts methodological comparisons. Overall, no one approach dominates across all contexts, but when sample weights are rescaled there is no downside to using more granular data for prediction. |
| Date: | 2026–05–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11396 |
| By: | Olivieri, Sergio; Razzu, Giovanni; Wambile, Ayago Esmubancha |
| Abstract: | This study examines intergenerational educational mobility in Bangladesh across cohorts born between the 1950s and 1990s, using data from the 2022 Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Intergenerational regression coefficients and intergenerational correlations are estimated, yielding three main findings. First, while the intergenerational regression coefficient declines for the 1990s cohort, suggesting reduced persistence of the effect of parental education on children's outcomes, the intergenerational correlation, which accounts for inequality in educational attainment across both generations, follows an inverted U-shaped pattern, resulting in no net mobility change. This finding reverses earlier evidence of increasing persistence through the 1970s and indicates that educational expansion since the 1980s has progressively benefited children of less-educated parents. Second, unlike patterns observed elsewhere in the region, where urban residence confers mobility advantages, Bangladesh exhibits no urban premium. Overall mobility remains higher in rural areas, although substantial convergence occurs in the 1990s cohort. At the regional level, an East-West convergence is observed, driven by mobility improvements in traditionally less-mobile Eastern regions. Third, women historically exhibited higher mobility than men through the 1980s, with gender convergence emerging only in the 1990s cohort, largely due to accelerated male mobility gains among urban males. Ba ngladesh's educational mobility trajectory is thus characterized by convergence across gender, urban-rural, and region dimensions, a pattern distinct from both its historical experience and broader South Asian trends, although educational gains remain disconnected from labor market outcomes. |
| Date: | 2026–05–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11386 |
| By: | Kumar, Anjani; Singh, Dhiraj K.; Kumar, Nalini Ranjan |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a nationally representative assessment of changes in women’s work in livestock rearing in rural India using unit-level data from the Time Use Surveys (TUS) 2019 and 2024. By situating the analysis within debates on the feminization of agriculture, the study examines shifts in participation and time allocation in livestock rearing among rural working-age individuals (15–59 years). While women’s participation in economic work increased modestly between 2019 and 2024, this expansion continues to coexist with a persistently high burden of unpaid domestic and caregiving services. Within agriculture, livestock emerges as a relatively more dynamic and gendered domain of work. Using the 2016 International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS), livestock activities are disaggregated into own use and market-oriented livestock activities. Descriptive evidence shows that women’s participation in livestock activities increased from 11 percent in 2019 to 15 percent in 2024, with a particularly notable rise in market-oriented livestock activities across several states and agroecological zones. Although crop husbandry continues to dominate agricultural employment, both incidence and intensity of participation of women in livestock rearing has visibly increased. Regression results indicate a positive and significant year effect for total livestock and livestock activities, but not for livestock own-use activities, suggesting that the observed increase is primarily associated with market-oriented engagement rather than subsistence expansion. Education exhibits a strong negative association with livestock time use, especially for women, indicating that livestock remains a fallback activity under constrained employment options. Gelbach decomposition further shows that changes in age composition and educational attainment account for a substantial share of the explained variation, while monthly per capita consumption expenditure has a stronger and more consistently significant association with women’s livestock time use than men’s. Overall, the findings point to incremental change within a persistently gendered structure of rural time allocation. |
| Keywords: | gender; rural women; women farmers; livestock; livestock production; livestock-raising; feminization; time use patterns; working hours; agricultural practices; India; Southern Asia |
| Date: | 2026–05–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:183033 |
| By: | Mutita Ariyavutikul; Minchung Hsu; Trang Le; Trisukon Sawatrukkiat |
| Abstract: | This paper examines life-cycle patterns of earnings and consumption inequality in a developing economy, focusing on employment informality, risk sharing, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using household survey data from Thailand, with robustness checks for Indonesia and Vietnam, we find that in Thailand both earnings and consumption inequality rise with age during prime working years, and earnings inequality continues to increase after retirement. Inequality patterns differ by employment status: formalworker- headed households show limited risk sharing at younger ages, while informal-worker-headed households display flatter consumption-inequality profiles, with consumption inequality generally below earnings inequality. During the COVID-19 period, overall inequality declined, but consumption inequality increased among younger households. Finally, a standard life-cycle model calibrated to match earnings inequality fails to replicate the observed age profile of consumption inequality, suggesting that key developing-economy features, such as informal insurance mechanisms, are not fully captured. |
| Keywords: | Life-cycle inequality; Risk sharing; Informal employment; Developing economy; COVID-19 crisis |
| JEL: | D31 E21 J46 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pui:dpaper:251 |
| By: | Tripathi, Pragya; Goli, Srinivas |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether early-life adversity (ELA) affects later-life health in India using nationally representative LASI data and quasi-experimental variation from cohort differences and the Bengal Famine. We estimate probit models, KHB mediation, and GSEM across seven outcomes: underweight, food insufficiency, poor self-rated health, low cognition, depression, ADL, and IADL. ELA shows a monotonic dose-response relationship with all seven outcomes. Education mediates most of the ELA effect on cognition and IADL, while life satisfaction dominates for depression. Direct effects persist, indicating biological scarring. The Bengal Famine produced lasting health deficits, except for IADL where mortality selection dominates. Heterogeneity reveals larger cognitive penalties for women, stronger physical/functional penalties in Central/Eastern India, and wealth buffers underweight but not depression or self-rated health. These findings survive extensive robustness checks (IV-PSM, inverse probability weighting, alternative ELA measures, birth cohort analysis, and machine learning). Results imply that early-life interventions, especially universal education, can substantially reduce later-life health inequalities in India. |
| Keywords: | Early-Life Adversity, Later-Life Health, Ageing in India, Life-Course Epidemiology, LASI, Health Inequality, Bengal Famine |
| JEL: | I10 I12 J14 O15 I14 C26 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:341148 |
| By: | Yamauchi, Futoshi; Balana, Bedru B.; Bawa, Dauda; Edeh, Hyacinth; Shi, Weilun |
| Abstract: | Food loss is a significant source of economic inefficiency in value chains. In many developing countries, including Nigeria, a majority of fruits, vegetables, and other perishable foods are lost after harvest, due in large part to inadequate postharvest handling or low adoption of post-harvest management technologies, particularly cooling technologies such as temperature-controlled transportation and cold storage. To examine the economic impacts of cool transportation connecting vegetable-producing states in northeast Nigeria to large demand centers in Nigeria’s southern regions, we introduced a randomized controlled trial. Cool transportation was found to have a large and statistically significant impact: sales price, revenues, and profits increased substantially for the origin-state marketers. A larger portion of sales price increase at the destination market is attributed to refrigeration, that is, quality preservation through cooling. About 66 percent of this increase comes from cooling, with an additional 34 percent from transportation. An information experiment further showed that improved quality information through labelling that identifies the origin of the produce creates price premiums at the destination market. This implies that significant economic gains can be generated not only from narrowing supply–demand gaps in different markets but also, potentially, through mitigating spatial asymmetric information. |
| Keywords: | food losses; food waste; food preservation; fruits; vegetables; solar energy; evaporative cooling; cooling; cold storage; randomized controlled trials; Nigeria; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Western Africa |
| Date: | 2026–04–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:182475 |
| By: | Gaurav Datt; John Nguyen; Pedro Salas-Rojo; Francisco H.G. Ferreira; Paolo Brunori; Vito Peragine; Albert Park; Arturo Martinez Jr.; Joseph Albert Nino Bulan |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the extent, nature and persistence of unfair inequality in the Asia Pacific region, building on a rich literature on the measurement of inequality of opportunity (IOp). As part of a project to build a global database of IOp, the paper uses microdata from 39 nationally representative household surveys to present IOp estimates for 14 countries that account for about three-quarters of the region’s population. We use consistent data protocols to ensure a high degree of cross-country comparability of IOp estimates. A distinguishing feature of the exercise is the use of machine learning methods to construct IOp estimates, which efficiently balances the risks of potential under- or over-fitting. The resultsshow that, on average, nearly two-fifths of income or consumption inequality across the Asia-Pacific region represents inequality of opportunity attributable to inherited circumstances, though with wide variation across countries, ranging from about a quarter to over half. The cross-country variation in IOp is consistent with a Great Gatsby curve for the Asia-Pacific. A decomposition analysis assesses the relative contributions of different circumstances to IOp. |
| Keywords: | inequality of opportunity, economic mobility, Asia-Pacific, machine learning |
| JEL: | D31 D63 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–04–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:paper_1775627852525_205 |
| By: | Jaleta, Moti; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yirga, Chilot; Kidane, Sisay; Hailu, Mekonnen; Shifa, Abdulaziz; Beyene, Habekristos; Mohammed, Abdu; Mohammed, Belay; Spielman, David J. |
| Abstract: | Although continuous genetic improvement of crops cultivated by smallholder farmers is a well-known route to increasing agricultural productivity, our understanding of varietal adoption, turnover, and concentration in farmers’ fields is limited. Often, the greatest challenge to our understanding lies in the measurement approach (farmer self-reports versus DNA fingerprinting), as well as in the analysis and interpretation of the available data. To address this issue, we explore variety-level data on four main crops (wheat, maize, teff, and common bean) in Ethiopia. We estimate the area-weighted average varietal age (AWAVA) of each crop using data from a nationally representative sample survey of farm households and a unique genotyping dataset based on seed samples collected from the fields of sampled farm households. We also calculate indices to explore the concentration of varieties in farmers’ fields, which serves to substantiate the varietal age analysis. Overall, results show considerable variation in average varietal age across crops, ranging from 12.5 years for wheat to 28.2 years for common bean. Analysis of area shares of individual varieties for each crop indicates that slower varietal turnover (i.e., higher varietal age) is driven by the continued dominance of older varieties, despite the presence of newer varieties in the market. Slow varietal turnover in the presence of new varieties suggests the need for greater investment in the systems and markets through which seed is distributed to farmers. This includes stronger coordination of research and extension activities, improvement of variety-specific popularization and marketing efforts, and continued experimentation in seed sector development in Ethiopia. |
| Keywords: | food security; food systems; fortified foods; cereal products; genotyping; DNA fingerprinting; Ethiopia; Eastern Africa |
| Date: | 2026–05–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:183034 |