|
on Africa |
|
Issue of 2005‒08‒03
two papers chosen by Suzanne McCoskey Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State |
| By: | Mariapia MENDOLA |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the interrelationship between determinants of migration, conceived as a family strategy, and the potential impact of having a migrant household member on people left behind . Labour migration is often related to poverty but given its lump y-investment nature, poverty may constitute a motivation to migra te as well as a constraint to do it. We use cross-sectional house hold data from two rural regions of Bangladesh to test whether mi gration is a form of income diversification strategy that signifi cantly influences the risk-taking behaviour of source farm househ olds in agricultural activities. We account for heterogeneity of migration constraints differentiating between domestic (temporary and permanent) and international moving destinations. We find th at richer and large-holder households are more likely to particip ate in costly high-return migration (i.e. international migration ) and employ modern technologies, thereby achieving higher produc tivity. Poorer households, on the other hand, are not able to ove rcome entry costs of moving abroad and fall back on migration wit h low entry costs, and low returns (i.e. domestic migration); the latter does not help them to achieve production enhancements and may act as a poverty-trap locking households into persistent pov erty. |
| Keywords: | Internal and International Migration, Farm Household Behaviour, Agricultural Production Choices. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mil:wpdepa:2005-15&r=afr |
| By: | Chris Papageorgiou; Shankha Chakraborty; Fidel Perez-Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This paper examines two related questions: what effects do infectious diseases exert on growth and development, and are they quantitatively important? We present evidence on the effect of health and infectious diseases on economic development using Hansen’s (2000) endogenous threshold methodology. Taking into account various proxies for infectious diseases as potential threshold variables we show that countries are clustered in regimes that obey different growth paths and thus provide direct evidence of threshold effects. Motivated by this evidence we propose an epidemiological overlapping generations model where the transmission and incidence of an infectious disease depend upon economic incentives and rational behavior. The economic cost of the disease comes from its effect on mortality (infected individuals can die prematurely) and morbidity (lower productivity and/or lower flow of utility from a given consumption bundle). Our main theoretical finding is that if infectious diseases are particularly virulent or debilitating, growth- or development-traps are possible. Numerical results from a calibrated version of the model show that threshold effects of diseases are quantitatively important and in particular, significant health interventions are required to propel disease-afflicted countries to a high-growth trajectory. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2005-12&r=afr |