|
on Development |
| By: | Richard G. Harris (Simon Fraser University); Peter E. Robertson (UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia); Jessica Y. Xu (The University of New South Wales) |
| Abstract: | China’s international trade flows have increased by 500% since 1992, far outstripping GDP growth. Likewise tertiary education enrollments have increased by 300%. We simulate these changes using a multi-sector growth model of the Chinese and USA economies. A decade of trade biased growth in China is found to have a large effect on the USA economy – raising GDP approximately 3-4.5 percentage points. We also show that the trade bias in China’s growth accounts for more than half of the observed growth in tertiary enrolments in China. In contrast neutral growth has practically no effect on USA incomes or China’s stock of skilled labour. Finally the simulations reveal that China’s education boom per se has practically no long run impact on the USA economy. The results thus indicate that the pattern of productivity growth in exports sectors, as might be caused by falling trade costs, has been critical in transmitting benefits of Chinese growth to the world economy. They also point to an important link between falling trade costs and human capital formation. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth, China, Human Capital, Trade Costs |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:10-04&r=dev |
| By: | Morten Bøås (Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies); Ingunn Bjørkhaug (Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies) |
| Abstract: | This report questions mainstream approaches to the reintegration of youthful ex-combatants. In Liberia, the disarmament and demobilisation was implemented quite effectively, but several questions can be asked about the components of reintegration and rehabilitation in the DDR-process. Most ex-combatants are currently unemployed or underemployed as the programmes initiated first and foremost prepared them for jobs that did not exist. The programmes also worked from the assumption that wartime experiences, networks and command structures had to be broken down as they were seen as counterproductive to peace and reconciliation. Drawing on previous research in Liberia the hypothesis is that reintegration can better be achieved through peaceful remobilisation that allows the ex-combatants to make use of the skills, experiences and networks gained through the war. This is illustrated by the recent experience of a nightwatch patrol in Voinjama in Lofa County that was based on rank and command structure from the war which responded to local community demands and filled a security vacuum. This is an alternative path to reintegration that needs further analysis, and the article argued that this should be based on the premises of a genuine understanding of the background of Liberia’s young ex-combatants and the nature and form of their involvement in violent conflict. Many people were involved in the war, but most only fought for certain periods. The motivations for joining varied, but the collected data from our various studies shows that security considerations were among the most important factors. Most combatants were ordinary people who joined for the sake of protection for themselves, their families and their communities. DDR in Liberia, as elsewhere, is, however, built on the assumption that there is something particularly dangerous and marginalised about the group of people who constituted the rank-and-file of the factions involved in the war. This is, as we have seen, not necessarily the case. DDR is very much a reaction to the notion that these people are unattached to society, set apart in their own world, and therefore needs particular attention. The article will therefore suggests that DDR approaches are in dire need of a rethinking that links them more directly to programmes aimed at social cohesion and societal security. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:28&r=dev |
| By: | Eleonora Nillesen (Wageningen University); Philip Verwimp (University of Antwerp) |
| Abstract: | This paper challenges the idea that farmers revert to subsistence farming when confronted with violence from civil war. While there is an emerging macroeconomic consensus that wars are detrimental to development, we find contrasting microeconomic evidence. Using several rounds of (panel) data at the farm and community level, we find that farmers in Burundi who are confronted with civil war violence in their home communities increase export and cash crop growing activities, invest more in public goods and reveal higher levels subjective welfare evaluations. We interpret this in the light of similar recent micro-level evidence that points to post-traumatic growth effects after (civil) warfare. Our results are confirmed across specifications as well as in robustness analyses. |
| Keywords: | Civil war, investment, post-traumatic growth |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:25&r=dev |
| By: | Kindi Fredrick Immanuel (Makerere University) |
| Abstract: | Since the late 1980s to 2006, the northern region of Uganda underwent an armed conflict between the government of Uganda and the rebel group led by Joseph Kony. The conflict displaced virtually the entire population in the region, and by 1990 people were living in Internally Displaced peoples’ camps. As the war winds up, many people have left the camps returning to their former villages. The journey back home has not been easy, however. For women in particular, many are facing a lot of challenges especially related to access, ownership and use of land. Using data that was qualitatively gathered in two IDP camps in Gulu district, northern Uganda, the paper examines these challenges. It argues however that despite the challenges, opportunities do exist that can be exploited, if there is commitment by various stakeholders, to ensure that women access, own and use land in the return process. |
| Keywords: | armed conflict, women, land rights, IDPs, reconstruction |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:26&r=dev |
| By: | Ingunn Bjørkhaug (Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies) |
| Abstract: | Based on in-depth interviews with former child soldiers in Colombia, this article presents the findings from fieldwork conducted among demobilized child soldiers in Colombia. The findings add to the state of knowledge by going in-depth into the circumstances surrounding the processes and mechanisms of recruitment of children and adolescents into armed groups. The former child soldiers had generally joined the armed groups voluntarily. However; one of the challenges with a strong division between ‘voluntary’ and ‘coerced’ recruitment, is that it indicates a sharp dichotomy between two very different situations. This article argues that most cases of recruitment takes place in the grey zone between voluntary and coerced recruitment. However, the demobilization policies work under the assumption that even when the children classify themselves as voluntarily recruited it is considered force due to children’s inability to make a free or conscious choice. This indicates that demobilization programs are based on an assumption that is incorrect. The former child soldiers, both girls and boys, were affected by their involvement in the conflict. They did not, however, constitute a homogeneous group of passive victims, but rather a group of vital agents each one with their choices shaped by their particular experiences and circumstances. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:27&r=dev |
| By: | Shamim Hossain; Md. Kamruzzaman; Syed Masud Ahmed |
| Abstract: | The study shows that the three major communities had different explanatory models of malaria. Though they had many differences and similarities, some beliefs and practices of malarial treatment and prevention in the communities were very much remarkable. It is important for the community health workers/ programme practitioners to understand these aspects and then try to model IEC campaigns for prevention and treatment in a way so that the community can relate it to their everyday experiences. Understanding of the community perspective will also be helpful in identifying the barriers to programme implementation, and design appropriate strategies to overcome these. Thus, instead of a top-down affair, the interventions will be well understood and owned by the community and will be sustainable. [RED Working Paper No. 11] |
| Keywords: | malaria, malarial treatment, IEC campaigns, programme implementation, top-down affair, community, sustainable |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2709&r=dev |
| By: | van Doorn, Ralph; Suri, Vivek; Gooptu, Sudarshan |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces an"index of macroeconomic space"-- demonstrating the ability of a country to run a countercyclical fiscal policy or a fiscal stimulus at any point in time -- to show how a sample of 20 mostly middle-income countries had entered the 2008 global financial crisis with different initial conditions that, in turn, determined their ability to respond to this crisis. Since 2008, many have implemented expansionary fiscal policies and have used up available macroeconomic space. Most have had to resort to increased borrowing by the public sector, both externally and domestically. Canthe middle-income countries restore their pre-2008 macroeconomic space (to the level given by historical averages of key macroeconomic variables) or contain it from further deterioration in the medium term? In an endeavor to address this question, this paper shows, through illustrative scenarios, that the room to maneuver for some countries is somewhat limited unless they embark on severe, unprecedented fiscal adjustments or they may need more time to do so than current projections seem to suggest. |
| Keywords: | Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,External Debt,Economic Theory&Research,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5381&r=dev |
| By: | Keener, Sarah; Luengo, Manuel; Banerjee, Sudeshna |
| Abstract: | Standpipes that dispense water from utilities are the most common alternatives to piped water connections for poor customers in the cities of Sub-Saharan Africa. Fifty-five percent of the unconnected urban population relies on standpipes as their first water source. Other informal water providers include household resellers and a variety of water tankers and vendors, which are the first water source of 1 percent and 3 percent of the urban population, respectively. In the cities studied, the percentage of unconnected households ranges from 12 percent to 86 percent of the population. The percentage of unconnected people covered by standpipes is substantially higher for countries with higher rates of household connection, while the percentage of unconnected people covered by water tankers or water vendors is higher for countries with lower rates of household connection. Water prices in the informal market are much higher than for households with private connections or yard taps. Although standpipes are heavily subsidized by utilities, the prices charged by standpipe operators are closely related to the informal water reseller price. Standpipe management models also affect the informal price of water. For example, the shift from utilities management to delegated management models without complementary regulation or consumer information has often led to declines in service levels and increased prices. Standpipes are not the only or even the most efficient solution in peri-urban areas. Programs that promote private household connections and arrangements that improve pricing and services in the household resale market should also be considered by policy makers. |
| Keywords: | Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Urban Water Supply and Sanitation,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Water and Industry,Water Conservation |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5387&r=dev |
| By: | Gulyani, Sumila; Talukdar, Debabrata; Jack, Darby |
| Abstract: | In this paper the authors compare indicators of development, infrastructure, and living conditions in the slums of Dakar, Nairobi, and Johannesburg using data from 2004 World Bank surveys. Contrary to the notion that most African cities face similar slum problems, find that slums in the three cities differ dramatically from each other on nearly every indicator examined. Particularly striking is the weak correlation of measures of income and human capital with infrastructure access and quality of living conditions. For example, residents of Dakar’s slums have low levels of education and high levels of poverty but fairly decent living conditions. By contrast, most of Nairobi’s slum residents have jobs and comparatively high levels of education, but living conditions are but extremely bad . And in Johannesburg, education and unemployment levels are high, but living conditions are not as bad as in Nairobi. These findings suggest that reduction in income poverty and improvements in human development do not automatically translate into improved infrastructure access or living conditions. Since not all slum residents are poor, living conditions also vary within slums depending on poverty status. Compared to their non-poor neighbors, the poorest residents of Nairobi or Dakar are less likely to use water (although connection rates are similar) or have access to basic infrastructure (such as electricity or a mobile phone). Neighborhood location is also a powerful explanatory variable for electricity and water connections, even after controlling for household characteristics and poverty. Finally, tenants are less likely than homeowners to have water and electricity connections. |
| Keywords: | Housing&Human Habitats,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Urban Slums Upgrading,Urban Services to the Poor,Town Water Supply and Sanitation |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5388&r=dev |
| By: | J L Ford; S Sen; Hongxu Wei |
| Abstract: | Empirical investigations aimed at determining what relationship, if any, exists between FDI and economic growth has drawn ambiguous results. This is also the case for China, where all empirical studies have used the VAR methodology. In this study we outline a dynamic simultaneous equations model. The model captures the interrelationships between, aggregate output, domestic capital, FDI, human capital, and the state of technological development. As well as broadening the formulation of the production function, the model is defined to include possible influences from government capital expenditure on the infrastructure. Structural equations are then developed to determine those variables, and further factors are introduced into the model thereby, such as saving and wealth, and other exogenuous policy variables. The latter embrace monetary, commerical and fiscal policy. Two of the potential influences on the system, and hence upon economic development, are financial liberalisation and the general opening-up of the Chinese economy, since 1979. The dynamic multipliers from the estimated model indicate, amongst other things, that the general set of economic reforms has beneficial impact on long-run economic growth, directly and indirectly by its enhancement of FDI. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth factors, FDI, spill-over effects of FDI, monetary policy, commercial policy, fiscal policy, "opening out" reforms, GMM estimates, multipliers |
| JEL: | O23 O24 F23 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:10-25&r=dev |
| By: | Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah; Francis Teal; Moses Awoonor-Williams |
| Abstract: | Poverty has halved in Ghana over the period from 1991 to 2005. Our objective in this paper is to assess how far this fall was linked to the creation of better paying jobs and the increase in education. We find that earnings rose rapidly in the period from 1998 to 2005, by 64% for men and by 55% for women. While education, particularly at the post secondary level, is associated with far higher earnings there is no evidence that the increase in earnings that occurred over the period from1998 to 2005 is due to increased returns to education or increased levels of education. In contrast there is very strong evidence, for all levels of education, that the probability of having a public sector job approximately halved over the period from 1991 while the probability of having a job in a small firm increased very substantially. In 1991/92 a male worker with secondary education had a 7 per cent probability of being employed in a small firm, by 2005/06 this had increased to 20 per cent which was higher than the probability of being employed by the public sector. Employment in small firms, which is the low paying occupation within the urban sector, increased from 2.7 to 6.7 percent of the population, an increase from 225,000 to 886,000 employees. Jobs in total have been increasing in line with the population but the proportion of relatively low paying ones increased markedly from 1998/99 to 2005/06. The rises in income that occurred over this period were due almost entirely to increases in earnings rates, for given levels of education, across all job types particularly among the unskilled. Why unskilled earnings rates rose so rapidly is unclear. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-01&r=dev |
| By: | Abigail Barr; Marleen Dekker; Marcel Fafchamps |
| Abstract: | Previous analyses of the formation and comparison of community based organizations (CBOs) have used cross section data. So, causal inference has been compromised. We obviate this problem by using data from a quai-experiment in which villages were formed by government officials selecting and clustering households. Our findings are as follow: CBO co-memberships are more likely between geographically proximate households and less likely between early and late settlers, members of female headed households are not excluded, in poorer villages CBO co-membership networks are denser and, while wealthier households may have been instrumental in setting up CBOs, poorer households engage shortly afterwards. |
| Keywords: | Community Based Organizations; quasi-experiment; social networks |
| JEL: | D71 D31 O12 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-21&r=dev |
| By: | Danila Serra; Pieter Serneels; Abigail Barr |
| Abstract: | Economists have traditionally assumed that individual behavior is motivated exclusively by extrinsic incentives. Social psychologists, in contrast, stress that intrinsic motivations are also important. In recent work, economic theorists have started to build psychological factors, like intrinsic motivations, into their models. Besley and Ghatak (2005) propose that individuals are differently motivated in that they have different “missions,” and their self-selection into sectors or organizations with matching missions enhances organizational efficiency. We test Besley and Ghatak’s model using data from a unique cohort study. We generate two proxies for intrinsic motivations: a survey-based measure of the health professionals philanthropic motivations and an experimental measure of their pro-social motivations. We find that both proxies predict health professionals’ decision to work in the non-profit sector. We also find that philanthropic health workers employed in the non-profit sector earn lower wages than their colleagues. |
| JEL: | C93 I11 J24 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-04&r=dev |
| By: | Paolo Falco; Andrew Kerr; Neil Rankin; Justin Sandefur; Francis Teal |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the question as to why we observe such large differentials in earnings in urban African labour markets after controlling for observable human capital. We first use a three year panel across Ghana and Tanzania and find common patterns for both countries assuming that movement between occupations is exogenous. Unobserved individual market ability is by far the most important factor explaining the variance of earnings. Sector differences do matter even with controls for ability and the sectoral gap between private wage employment and civil servants is about 50 per cent, once we control for unobserved time-invariant factors. Wage earners earn the same as the selfemployed in both Ghana and Tanzania. An additional important aspect of formality is enterprise size. At most half of the OLS effect of size on earnings can be explained by unobservable ability. Workers in largest firms are the high earners with wage rates which exceed those of civil servants. We then use an extension of the Ghana panel to five years to assess the extent of possible biases from the assumption of exogenous movement. We find evidence that this is important and that OLS may be understating the extent of both the size effect and the private sector wage (negative) premium. The implications of our results for understanding the nature of formal and informal employment in Africa are discussed. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-03&r=dev |
| By: | Abigail Barr; Andrew Zeitlin |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the external validity of a simple Dictator Game as a laboratory analogue for a naturally occurring policy-relevant decision-making context. In Uganda, where teacher absenteeism is a problem, primary school teachers’ allocations to parents in a Dictator Game are positively but weakly correlated with their time allocations to teaching and, so, negatively correlated with their absenteeism. Guided by a simple theoretical model, we find that the correlation can be improved by allowing for (a) variations in behavioural reference points across teachers and schools and (b) the positive effect if some School Management Committees on teacher attendance . |
| Keywords: | Public service, Education, Experiments, Africa, external validity, Methodology |
| JEL: | C91 D64 I29 O15 O17 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-11&r=dev |
| By: | Justin Sandefur |
| Abstract: | The size of the informal sector is commonly associated with low per capita GDP and a poor business environment. Recent episodes of reform and growth in several African countries appear to contradict this pattern. From the mid 1980’s onward, Ghana underwent dramatic liberalization and achieved steady growth, yet average firm size in the manufacturing sector fell from 19 to just 9 employees between 1987 and 2003. I use a new panel of Ghanaian firms, spanning 17 years immediately post-reform, to model firm dynamics that differ markedly from well-established ‘stylized facts’ in the empirical literature from other regions. In contrast with American and European firms, entry of new firms and selection on observable characteristics, rather than within-firm growth, dominates industrial evolution in Ghana. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-05&r=dev |
| By: | Alexander Moradi |
| Abstract: | Sub-Sahara African populations are tall relative to the extremely adverse disease environment and their low incomes. Selective mortality, which removes shorter individuals leaving taller individuals in the population, was proposed as an explanation. From heights of surviving and non-surviving children in Gambia, we estimate the size of the survivorship bias and find it to be too small to account for the tall adult heights observed in sub-Saharan Africa. We propose instead a different yet widely ignored explanation: African populations attain a tall adult stature, because they can make up a significant amount of the growth shortfall after age 5. This pattern is in striking contrast to other developing countries. Moreover, mortality rates are relatively low after age 5 adding further doubts about selective mortality. |
| Keywords: | adult height, mortality, sub-Saharan Africa, catch-up growth |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-17&r=dev |
| By: | Christian Helmers; Manasa Patnam |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies the effect of neighborhood peer groups on childhood skill acquisition using observational data. We incorporate spatial peer interaction, defined as a child’s nearest geographical neighbors, into a production function of child cognitive development in Andhra Pradesh, India. Our peer group construction takes the form of directed networks, whose structure allows us to identify peer effects and enables us to disentangle endogenous effects from contextual effects. We exploit variation over time to avoid confounding correlated with social effects. Our results suggest that spatial peer and neighborhood effects are strongly positively associated with a child’s cognitive skill formation. These peer effects hold even when we consider an alternative IV-based identification strategy and different variations to network size. Further, we find that the presence of peer groups helps provide insurance against the negative impact of idiosyncratic shocks to child learning. |
| Keywords: | Children, peer effects, cognitive skills, India |
| JEL: | C21 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-13&r=dev |
| By: | Monazza Aslam; Geeta Kingdon |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between parental schooling on the one hand, and child health outcomes (height and weight) and parental health-seeking behaviour (immunisation status of children), on the other. While establishing a correlational link between parental schooling and child health is relatively straightforward, confirming a causal relationship is more complex. Using unique data from Pakistan, we aim to understand the mechanisms through which parental schooling promotes better child health and health-seeking behaviour. The following ‘pathways’ are investigated: educated parents’ greater household income, exposure to media, literacy, labour market participation, health knowledge and the extent of maternal empowerment within the home. We find that while father's education is positively associated with the 'one-off' immunisation decision, mother's education is more critically associated with longer term health outcomes in OLS equations. Instrumental variable (IV) estimates suggest that father's health knowledge is most positively associated with immunisation decisions while mother's health knowledge and her empowerment within the home are the channels through which her education impacts her child's height and weight respectively. |
| Keywords: | parental schooling, mother's health knowledge, father's health knowledge, media exposure, maternal empowerment, child health, immunisation, Pakistan. |
| JEL: | I1 I2 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-16&r=dev |
| By: | Roxana Gutierrez-Romero |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the factors that give rise to the existence of the informal economy and how it evolves over time. Using an occupational-choice model the paper shows that at early stages of development, informal and formal markets coexists, but in the long-run the size of the informal economy can decline depending on the initial distribution of wealth. The model shows that the higher the initial wealth inequality the larger the size of the informal economy and the higher the wealth inequality will be in the long run. The paper calibrates the model using numerical simulations. |
| Keywords: | informal economy, occupational choice and inequality |
| JEL: | D31 K4 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-07&r=dev |
| By: | Neil Rankin; Justin Sandefur; Francis Teal |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of learning - through formal schooling and time spent in the labor market - in explaining labor market outcomes of urban workers in Ghana and Tanzania. We investigate these issues using a new data set measuring incomes of both formal sector wage workers and the self-employed in the informal sector. In both countries we find significant, convex returns to education and large earnings differentials between sectors when we pool the data and do not control for selection. In Ghana there is a particularly steep age-earnings profile. We investigate how far a Harris-Todaro model of market segmentation or a Roy model of selection can explain the patterns observed in the data. We find highly significant differences across occupations and important effects from selection in both countries. The data is consistent with a pattern by which higher ability individuals queue for the high wage formal sector jobs such that the age earnings profile is convex for the self-employed in Ghana once we control for selection. The returns to education are far higher in the large firm sector than in others and in this sector they are linear not convex. In both countries there is clear evidence of convexity in the returns to education for the self-employed and here the average returns are low. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-02&r=dev |
| By: | Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the factors that shaped Kenyan’s voting intentions in the 2007 presidential election. Using data from a public opinion survey conducted two weeks before the election we are able to evaluate the relative importance of what shaped voting behavior comprehensively, taking into account factors such as ethnicity, access to public services, incidence of poverty and wealth differences across ethnic groups and across generations. We find strong evidence that ethnic identity was the main factor determining voting intentions and to a lesser extent grievances, economic well-being, and access to public and private goods. However, the relative importance of these factors depends on whether Kenyan voters identify themselves first and foremost in terms of their ethnicity, occupation or nationality. Those who identify themselves in terms of their ethnicity were influenced the most by access to public services. This evidence supports theories that suggest ethnic identity is a proxy used by voters to assess which candidate will give them greater access to public goods. |
| Keywords: | Voting behavior, ethnic identity, Kenya |
| JEL: | D72 D01 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-06&r=dev |
| By: | Pieter Serneels; Jose G. Montalvo; Gunilla Pettersson; Tomas Lievens; Jean Damascene Butera; Aklilu Kidanu |
| Abstract: | Background: Most developing countries face shortages of health workers in rural areas. This has profound consequences for health service delivery, and ultimately for health outcomes. To design policies that rectify these geographic imbalances it is vital to understand what factors determine health workers’ choice to work in rural areas. But empirical analysis of health worker preferences has remained limited due to the lack of data. Methods: Using unique contingent valuation data from a cohort survey of 412 nursing and medical students in Rwanda, this paper examines the determinants of future health workers’ willingness to work in rural areas, as measured by rural reservation wages, using regression analysis. These data are also combined with those from an identical survey in Ethiopia to enable a two-country analysis. Results: Health workers with higher intrinsic motivation - measured as the importance attached to helping the poor - as well as those who have grown up in a rural area, and Adventists who participate in a local bonding scheme are all significantly more willing to work in a rural area. The main Rwanda result for intrinsic motivation is strikingly similar to that obtained for Ethiopia and Rwanda together. Discussion: The results suggest that in addition to economic incentives, intrinsic motivation and rural origin play an important role in health workers’ decisions to work in a rural area, and that faith-based institutions matter. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-10&r=dev |
| By: | Margherita Comola; Marcel Fafchamps |
| Abstract: | Using village date from Tanzania, we test whether gifts and loans between households are voluntary while correcting for mis-reporting by the giving and receiving households. Tow maintained assumptions underlie our analysis: answers to a question on who people would turn to for help are good proxies for willingness to link: and, conditional on regressors, the probability of reporting a gift or loan is independent between giving and receiving households. Building on these assumptions, we develop a new estimation methodology and gift giving are voluntary, then both households should, want to rely on each other for help. We find only weak evidence to support bilateral formation. We do, however, find reasonably strong evidence to support unilateral link formation. Results suggest that if a household wishes to enter in a reciprocal relationship with someone who is sufficiently close socially and geographically, it can do so unilaterally. |
| Keywords: | Risk sharing, reporting bias, social networks |
| JEL: | C13 C51 D85 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-20&r=dev |
| By: | Geeta Kingdon |
| Abstract: | Using new and unique panel data, we investigate the role of long-term health and childhood malnutrition in schooling outcomes for children in rural India, many of whom lack basic numeracy and literacy skills. Using data on students’ performance on mathematics and Hindi tests, we examine the role of the endogeneity of health caused by omitted variables bias and measurement error and correct for these problems using a household fixed effects estimator on a sub-sample of siblings observed in the data. We also present several extensions and robustness checks using instrumental variables and alternative estimators. We find evidence of a positive causal effect of long-term health measured as height-for-age z-score (HAZ) on test scores, and the results are consistent across several different specifications. The results imply that improving childhood nutrition will have benefits that extend beyond health into education. |
| Keywords: | Health, Nutrition, Schooling, India |
| JEL: | I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-14&r=dev |
| By: | Peter Nunnenkamp (Kiel Institute for the World Economy); Hannes Öhler (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | We assess the determinants of the wide variation in the efficiency of foreign aid activities across US-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In particular, we analyze whether non-charitable expenditures for administration, management and fundraising depend on the intensity of competition among NGOs and on the degree to which they are refinanced by governments. We control for NGO heterogeneity in various dimensions as well as major characteristics of recipient countries. We find that fiercer competition is associated with more efficient foreign aid activities of NGOs, rather than leading to “excessive” fundraising. Official funding tends to increase administrative costs. Nevertheless, officially financed NGOs spend relatively more on charitable activities since they are less concerned with collecting private donations through fundraising efforts. |
| Keywords: | non-governmental organizations; foreign aid; administrative costs; fundraising; United States |
| JEL: | F35 L31 |
| Date: | 2010–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:038&r=dev |