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on Development |
| By: | Justino Patricia; Arjona Ana; Cárdenas Juan; Ibáñez Ana; Vallejo Julian |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of inequality on individual civic engagement at the community level, whether this impact persists over time, and what mechanisms may shape the relationship between inequality and civic engagement.The results show that inequality in Colombia is associated with increases in individual participation in political organizations, including increased membership, meeting attendance, and assumption of leadership roles. Mechanisms explaining this effect include elite influence, strong connectivity between community members, and high individual aspirations. The effect is strongest in the medium term and weakens over time. |
| Keywords: | Economic inequality,Civic participation,Collective action,Colombia |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-76&r=all |
| By: | Aurélien Baillon (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Joseph Capuno (University of the Philippines Diliman); Owen O'Donnell (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Carlos Tan (University of the Philippines Diliman); Kim van Wilgenburg (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Temporary incentives are offered in anticipation of persistent effects, but these are seldom estimated. We use a nationwide randomized experiment in the Philippines to estimate effects three years after the withdrawal of two incentives for health insurance. A premium subsidy had a persistent effect on enrollment that is more than four fifths of the immediate effect. Application assistance had a much larger immediate impact, but less than a fifth of this effect persisted. The subsidy persuaded those with higher initial willingness to pay to enroll and keep enrolling, while application assistance achieved a larger immediate effect by drawing in those who valued insurance less and were less likely to re-enroll. |
| Keywords: | incentives, persistence, health insurance, subsidy, randomized experiment |
| JEL: | I13 C93 |
| Date: | 2019–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190078&r=all |
| By: | Kai Gehring (University of Zurich, CESifo); Lennart Kaplan (German Development Institute); Melvin H.L. Wong (Leibniz University Hannover) |
| Abstract: | China’s development model challenges the approaches of traditional Western donors like the World Bank. We argue that both aim at stability, but differ in the norms propagated to achieve that. Using fixed effects and IV estimations, we analyze a broad range of subnational stability measures in Africa. Aid by both the WB and China does not increase outright conflict nor any type of citizen protest, on average. Both even reduce outright conflict by governments against civilians. Still, Chinese aid is associated with more government repression and an increased acceptance of authoritarian norms, while the World Bank projects strengthen democratic values. |
| Keywords: | Development Models, Development Aid, Stability, Conflict, Repression, World Bank, China, Africa, Geolocation |
| JEL: | D74 F52 H81 O19 P51 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:esocpu:15&r=all |
| By: | Adolfo Meisel-Roca; María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo; Daniela Santos-Cárdenas |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the long run relationship between the physical stature of Colombians born during the twentieth century and several socio-economic development indicators using time series techniques. The econometric analysis is carried out considering four height measures: total height, female’s height, male’s height, and the gender height dimorphism. The database comprises height information from the national identification cards for nearly 13 million persons born between 1910 and 1989: 6.283.452 correspond to men and 6.383.023 to women. Results suggest the existence of a long-run relationship between all height measures and the economic variables included in the analysis. In general, the results indicate that improvements in the availability of better-quality food, and the reduction in food prices, measured by the degree of openness and by infrastructure developments, as well as improvements in the economic conditions lead to increases in height. Regarding the gender inequality of height, the results show that height dimorphism in absolute terms decreased during the twentieth century. However, the downward trend observed until the end of 1950s reversed at the beginning of the 1960s, despite the advances in the living conditions of women during this period. This result suggests that earlier improvements in the economic conditions benefited women more, given the considerable gender gap regarding education, health, income, among other dimensions, at the beginning of the twentieth century. On the contrary, the increments in GDP observed during the second half of the twentieth century seem to benefit men’s height more than women. |
| Keywords: | Anthropometrics, dimorphism, income, economic development, cointegration |
| JEL: | I10 I15 N36 C22 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:1096&r=all |
| By: | J. Paul Dunne (School of Economics, University of Cape Town); Christine S. Makanza (School of Economics, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | While the military spending-growth nexus has been widely researched, most of this work tends to assume a linear relationship between military expenditure and growth. This ignores the possibility that the relationship may be non linear, and the impact of military burden on growth may vary by its size. A few studies have considered such non-linearities, but they have been mainly been country specific case studies. This paper applies models that allow for changing regimes to a balanced panel of Sub Saharan African countries. It finds there to be a differential of military spending on growth for countries with high and low burdens, with military spending positively contributing to growth in the low burden regime, while it deters growth in the high burden regime in the long run. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctn:dpaper:2019-04&r=all |
| By: | Olivier Thévenon; Eric Edmonds |
| Abstract: | Sustainable Development Goal target 8.7 aims to eradicate child labour in all its forms by 2025. Ten years before this deadline, the objective is far from being achieved since in 2016, about one-in-ten children (152 million in total) aged 5 to 17 were engaged in child labour worldwide, many of them as unpaid family workers in agriculture. Nearly half of the children in child labour were in hazardous work and exposed to serious health and safety risks. Moreover, about one-third of children in child labour do not attend school at all; the others go to school, but not all the time. Children in child labour are more likely to leave school early, before grade completion, and underperform in school tests.This paper reviews child labour trends, and the literature on its causes and consequences. It also discusses policies to combat child labour based on the lessons of the available evidence. Countries must combat child labour by addressing it from all its “demand” and “supply” side dimensions: by strengthening social protection to combat extreme poverty, by investing in the education to make it an affordable alternative to child labour, and by encouraging the diffusion of technologies that make it possible to do without child labour. While most countries have adopted laws that prohibit child labour, the paper argues that countries can do more to enforce these laws and regulations, where necessary strengthen labour inspections and monitoring systems, and promote responsible business practices. |
| Date: | 2019–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:235-en&r=all |
| By: | Funjika Patricia; Nsabimana Aimable |
| Abstract: | Access to mobile phone has increased substantially over the last decade in sub-Saharan Africa. The evidence suggests that increased use of mobile phones in the region has upgraded the market prices received by producers for their cash crops, but so far there is limited knowledge on labour market transitions effects of mobile phone access.In this study, we use farm household and individual labour force information, from LSMS-ISA Tanzania National Panel Survey, to examine the impact of mobile phone ownership on labour markets and farm productivity in the country. The study shows that successive increases in mobile phone use lead to movement of labour share from agriculture into non-farming sectors. The results also show that mobile phone access significantly reduces the intensity of work by household members on the farm and is instead associated with an increase in hired farm workers. Our results also show that mobile phone access has heterogeneous labour market effects, depending on the age of individuals.Given the important surge of information communication technology in sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, the results suggest that using mobile phones to stimulate agricultural developments would improve marginal productivity of labour in the farming sector and induce a surge in off-farm employment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Market prices,Mobile phones,Agricultural productivity,Tanzania |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-71&r=all |
| By: | Massimo Filippini (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Universita della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Switzerland); Suchita Srinivasan (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | The health and safety of workers are important determinants of their productivity. In manufacturing industries, occupational health and safety (OHS) measures are critical workplace practices for employers to ensure better working conditions for employees, particularly in industries with rampant indoor pollution. This paper studies the impact of investments undertaken by small and medium enterprises in Vietnam in worker health and safety (including in air quality improvements, heat and noise protection as well as in lighting measures) on labor productivity using a production function approach and panel data from 2011-2015. We find that the amount invested by the firm per worker has a significant positive effect on labor productivity. Moreover, our results hold true for both small and large firms, and for firms belonging to different subgroups of industries. Given historically poor working conditions in Vietnam, policy implications relate to the importance of OHS measures and pollution abatement in influencing economic outcomes such as productivity. |
| Keywords: | Investments in health, Indoor pollution, Labor productivity, Small and medium enterprises, Vietnam |
| JEL: | D83 Q18 Q54 C23 C26 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:19-326&r=all |
| By: | Shampa Bhattacharjee (Shiv Nadar University); Aparajita Dasgupta (Ashoka University) |
| Abstract: | Disease environment and demographic change plays a critical role in determining the size and quality of human capital that drives the growth path of an economy. While broad patterns of demographic transition are understood there is a mixed evidence on the role of disease eradication in expediting demographic change. Using the massive malaria eradication program in India during the 1950’s as a natural experiment, we examine the effect of disease environment on infant mortality and fertility response at household level. We harmonize a rich database on malaria endemicity with fertility histories of women to exploit the cohort level variation in exposure to the program. We find that the program leads to a significant decline in infant and neonatal mortality and leads to a significant increase in probability of birth in high malaria-endemic regions. We confirm the mechanism of fall in mother’s age at first birth in post eradication period drives the fertility response. |
| Keywords: | Malaria, Selection Bias, Disease eradication, Infant Mortality, Fertility |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:22&r=all |
| By: | Khoa Vu; Maria C. Lo Bue |
| Abstract: | Vietnam’s education system has recently attracted international attention for exceptional learning outcomes and success in improving schooling outcomes over a short period, despite being a lower-middle-income country. One potential explanation is the substantial increase in parental schooling after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, which might have led to better educational outcomes for the next generation. This study examines the causal effect of parental schooling on children’s educational attainment in Vietnam. We exploit variation in parental exposure to aerial bombing at an early age to identify the effect of parental schooling. Our instrumental variable estimates indicate that the father’s schooling does not affect a child’s educational outcomes. Furthermore, we find that although parental bombing exposure reduced their schooling, it did not affect children’s educational outcomes or parental investment in their children. Taken together, these findings suggest that Vietnam’s recent success in education is not caused by the rise in the schooling of the parents of today’s children after the war ended in 1975. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility of education, Vietnam, Vietnam War |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-67&r=all |
| By: | José María Rentería (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne; https://centredeconomiesorbonne.univ-paris1.fr) |
| Abstract: | This document provides for the first time in the literature both lower and upper bounds estimates of inequality of opportunity on learning achievement in Peru. It exploits an unusual and rich longitudinal data set on a cohort of children who have been followed for fifteen years almost since they were born. This feature allows for studying empirically the role of time-varying circumstances, a problem that has been neglected until present in the inequality of opportunity literature. In this context, the sensitivity of the upper bound methodology proposed by Niehues and Piechl (2014) is evaluated |
| Keywords: | Inequality of opportunity; learning achievement |
| JEL: | D63 I24 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:19025&r=all |
| By: | van Seventer Dirk; Mondlane Silvana |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the impact of agriculture and international trade development on income distribution and economic activity in Mozambique. A social accounting matrix multiplier decomposition model is used—in particular, an extension of the standard model that details the process of income distribution through the economy’s institutions. When we focus on the impact on rural low-income households, the emphasis is on the food crop and food-processing sectors. The results suggest surprisingly that such households do not benefit much from exogenous increases in agricultural crops; high-income rural and urban households benefit more. A full decomposition of the multipliers suggests that rural low-income households link strongly to foodprocessing, but that the latter is not very prominent in the Mozambican economy due to high import penetration. The second focus is therefore on international trade, which reveals that the high rates of imports regarding food-processing are mainly sourced from South Africa. |
| Keywords: | Agriculture,multiplier effects,Decomposition methods,Social Accounting Matrix,Trade,Income distribution |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-77&r=all |