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on Investment |
| By: | Rabbitt, Matthew P.; Reed-Jones, Madeline; Hales, Laura J.; Burke, Michael P. |
| Abstract: | This report provides statistics on food security in U.S. households throughout 2023 based on the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, in December 2023. An estimated 86.5 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2023, with access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (13.5 percent, statistically significantly higher than the 12.8 percent in 2022) were food insecure at least some time during the year. Very low food security is the more severe range of food insecurity where one or more household members experience reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at times during the year because of limited money or other resources for food. In 2023, 5.1 percent of households were very low food secure, an estimate that is statistically similar to the 5.1 percent in 2022. Children and adults were food insecure at times during 2023 in 8.9 percent of U.S. households with children, statistically similar to the 8.8 percent in 2022. In 2023, very low food security among children was 1.0 percent, statistically similar to the 1.0 percent in 2022 and 0.7 percent in 2021. In 2023, the typical food-secure household spent 16 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. About 58 percent of food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal nutrition assistance programs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and the National School Lunch Program during the month before the 2023 survey. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Security and Poverty, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersrr:344963 |
| By: | Nigussie, Likimyelesh; Joshi, Deepa; Tsegaye, B.; Admasu, W.; Abate, N. |
| Abstract: | This research study on gender and water resources management, led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and its partners in Ethiopia, was designed to collect primary and secondary data on how smallholder agricultural producer communities in selected catchments are impacted by and cope with climate change. Our focus was on exploring opportunities and barriers for designing and implementing gender-responsive and climate resilient water resources planning and management interventions that are contextually relevant. The research findings will be further translated into actionable recommendations for gender-responsive decision support tools for climate-smart water resources management. The study, informed by the Gender Empowerment Framework and a qualitative research methodology, analyzed soil and water conservation initiatives and small-scale irrigation (SSI) interventions in four districts of the Awash River Basin. These locations were the Kalu and Habru districts from the Upper Awash Catchment in Wollo, and the Ewa and Afambo districts from the Lower Awash Catchment in Afar. These four districts were chosen for their diversity of conservation initiatives and livelihoods. Data were collected from a total sample size of 309 individuals – 288 of whom were smallholder farmers (160 women and 128 men) and 21 were key informants from local government offices – by conducting 96 in-depth interviews, 24 focus group discussions and 21 key informant interviews. The data were analyzed to assess the gender dynamics of productivity, production and practices, and SSI practices, focusing on three key dimensions: resources, agency and institutions. The three key results and recommendations are as follows: First, climate impacts result in diverse outcomes for women (and men). It causes malnutrition in persons with special needs and increases the workload of women and girls, who are predominantly responsible for domestic work. This requires interventions that focus on the needs, priorities, barriers and challenges of these groups, and ensure targeted opportunities in decision-making, access to resources and services, and benefits. Second, deep-rooted sociocultural norms and barriers impact outreach efforts for women and marginalized groups; this includes the effective engagement of these groups in capacity building training programs, and their access to relevant information, entrepreneurial opportunities and linkages across the value chains. Without addressing these barriers, making a sustained impact in terms of gender equality and social inclusion will not be possible. We recommend adopting interventions that address the structural barriers to women’s participation in leadership positions, promoting gender-responsive practices across institutions and building synergy among relevant stakeholders. Third, insufficient institutional capacities among implementing actors present key obstacles to the design and implementation of gender-responsive climate-smart water technologies and practices. Overcoming these challenges necessitates commitment from leaders and the allocation of sufficient resources to establish and enhance institutional systems such as mechanisms for accountability, monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, it entails evidence-based and data-driven research on gender to collate gender and social inclusion challenges. This report presents a synthesis focused on the methodology and key findings of the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) study. For further information, the reader is advised to refer to the detailed report prepared as part of the study, which can be accessed by contacting the lead author. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Climate Change, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Farm Management |
| Date: | 2024–03–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iwmirp:344851 |
| By: | Kishore, P.; Roy, D.; Birthal, P.S.; Srivastava, S.K. |
| Abstract: | Policy supported technology-led intensification of agriculture has led to significant increases in agricultural productivity and food supplies in India. However, of late its negative externalities to natural resources, especially groundwater in semi-arid north-western region comprising the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have become visible. Recognizing this, Punjab and Haryana brought out almost an identical groundwater regulation in 2009 which aligned sowing of water-guzzling paddy crop towards onset of the monsoon to prevent falling groundwater level. This paper reveals reveal that overextraction of groundwater continued even the regulation being in force. This perverse outcome could be due policy offsets such as highly subsidized electric power for irrigation, excessive procurement of paddy at minimum support price, stagnation in investment in major and medium irrigation schemes, and lack of incentives for crop diversification and adoption of water-saving technologies. It suggests a holistic approach for groundwater management, encompassing policies, technologies, incentives, institutions, and regulations. I am sure that policymakers will take due cognizance of this while designing a framework for groundwater governance. |
| Keywords: | Dairy Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2024–04–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iamopb:344994 |
| By: | Eric Kim (Seoul International School, Seoul, Republic of Korea) |
| Abstract: | With the recent surge of interest in the use of AI in generating writing that imitates human creativity, many have begun turning to AI as the ultimate solution to various social problems. Amidst rising concerns about discrimination in judicial decisions stemming from judges’ personal leanings within the US criminal justice system, employing AI as judicial judges to eliminate these biases has been considered. Although the current stage of AI and its abilities render it impossible to replace human judges, AI technology’s fast-paced development opens up future possibilities. This paper evaluates the possibility of AI, specifically GPTs, being able to act as judges in US criminal courts in the near future by assessing how effective AI can be in deciding court cases. The paper examines how AI answers currently lack validity and reliability, two key characteristics of judicial decisions, and analyzes the extent to which AI developments in the near future will be able to address these flaws so that AI may be able to produce viable judicial decisions by themselves. This research concludes that barring unforeseeably significant technological advancements, AI cannot independently act as impartial judges within a US criminal court; however, feasible developments in AI’s reliability and validity in the near future would allow AI to work in a complementary capacity alongside human judges to help improve the current judicial system. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, bias, ChatGPT, criminal justice, impartiality, judiciary, judgment |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0394 |
| By: | Adam Šumichrast |
| Abstract: | This report identifies and analyses the wage setting practices in Czechia, focusing on four specific sectors – construction, hospitality, urban transport, and waste management. As part of the BARWAGE project2 this report seeks to understand how exactly wage is setting in these sectors, with a focus on low-wage workers (if relevant) is occurring, which actors are involved, what is the starting point of this process and where does it lead to in terms of institutional stability or change of the wage setting institutions. The findings reveal that sectoral wage setting has historically played a minor role, with only certain wage components, like bonuses and special cases, being adjusted. These adjustments set a base but can be overridden by company collective agreements. Except for the construction sector, sectoral collective bargaining is declining, as seen in urban transport, or is nonexistent, as in waste management. Wage setting is primarily driven by company-level bargaining, with the statutory minimum wage having a limited impact, except in hospitality. Individual bargaining is not significant. In unionised workplaces, wage negotiations are typically conducted by the union, with little individual negotiation. |
| Date: | 2024–08–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:report:70 |
| By: | Yea, Sangjun (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Eom, Jun Hyun (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Lee, Seungrae (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies); Jung, Yeonha (Sung Kyun Kwan University) |
| Abstract: | 본 보고서에서 수출규제란 국가가 특정 목표를 달성하기 위한 수단으로 자국의 수출 흐름에 제약을 가하는 정책을 의미한다. 본 보고서에서는 수출규제 정책의 역사적 사례를 살펴보고, 현대 수출규제 정책의 유형과 각 유형에 관한 법적 근거를 제시하며, 수출규제 정책 시행이 가치사슬과 공급망에 미치는 영향을 실증적ㆍ이론적 분석 방법을 통해 살펴본다. 본 보고서는 수출규제 정책에 관한 이해를 제고하고, 우리 기업과 정부가 외국의 수출규제 정책에 대응하는 전략을 수립할 때 참고할 만한 기초자료를 제공하는 것을 목적으로 한다. For the purposes of this study, export measures refer to the general policies by which a country imposes restrictions on the flow of its exports as a means of achieving certain objectives. Modern export measures can be broadly categorized into export restrictions, export controls, and economic sanctions based on their objectives, targets, and underlying laws. The number of export measures imposed by governments has increased in all three categories in recent years. Understanding the impact of export measures along global supply chains, where companies are intertwined in complex trading relationships, is an essential step in developing policy responses to achieve the goal of supply chain stabilization. This study aims to improve the overall understanding of export measures by examining the background and economic effects of export measures, an area which has received relatively little attention in the literature on international trade, and the changes in supply chains as a result of export measures. In Chapter 2, we examine some of the most prominent examples of export measures dating back to the Industrial Revolution, examining the policy objectives they sought to achieve, the extent to which they actually helped to achieve those objectives, and the circumstances under which they were successful as policy instruments. We also examine several studies analyzing the economic effects of export measures in the post-Cold War era, and suggest recommendations for implementing and responding to export measures. (the rest omitted) |
| Keywords: | export measures; global supply chain; export restrictions; export controls; economic sanctions; global value chain |
| Date: | 2023–12–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kieppa:2023_021 |
| By: | Eric Barrette (Medtronic) |
| Abstract: | Matching-adjusted indirect comparison is a comparative effectiveness research methodology that leverages individual level data and aggregate results when head-to-head randomized trials are not available or feasible. MAIC is growing in popularity partly because of the high costs of randomized trials and because of interest on the part of regulators for more safety and effectiveness evidence. Since the seminal papers describing the theory and application of MAIC were published just over a decade ago, the literature on how to apply this method as well as demonstrations of its applications has grown quickly. The National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK released a technical document in 2016 that described MAIC best practices and provided sample R code for an example analysis. As the method has become more popular, references to the use of Stata for statistical analysis are appearing in publications yet very little documentation or code is available. We present the NICE technical documentation worked example using Stata in parallel to the original example in R and highlight the efficiencies and potential challenges of both programs. |
| Date: | 2024–08–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:usug24:01 |
| By: | Elena Emilia Stefan (Nicolae Titulescu University, Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | This study proposes an analysis of water in general and drinking water in particular, considering that it is indispensable for living on our beautiful blue planet. Water wastage, floods, global warming, wars, waste of all kinds, and pollution, are just some of the causes that can endanger natural water resources, with a direct effect on the present but also on future generations. From this perspective, in relation to climate change, the subject is topical and of interest to both specialists and private individuals, because water is consumed by everyone and it is in the public interest to protect it. The scope of the study is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of water from an interdisciplinary perspective, taking administrative law as a starting point. In terms of methodology, the paperwork is divided into three parts: part I will analyze the national legal framework on water, part II will present relevant international documents describing drinking water standards, and part III will identify several current issues related to public water supply service arising from day-to-day work of public administration. The paperwork will conclude that citizens and public authorities on all continents must behave responsibly on a daily basis in order not to waste water, which is both a legal and a moral obligation. |
| Keywords: | drinking water, public service, public authority, public administration, Directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0409 |
| By: | Kazuya Kamiya; So Kubota |
| Abstract: | We propose a standard search and bargaining model with divisible money, in which only the random matching market opens and the generalized Nash bargaining settles each trade. Assuming fixed production costs, we analytically characterize a tractable equilibrium, called a pay-all equilibrium, and prove its existence. Each buyer pays all the money holding as a corner solution to the bargaining problem and each seller produces a positive amount of goods as an interior solution. The bargaining power parameter affects the distribution of the money holdings and possibly induces economic inefficiency. We propose a redistributional monetary transfer that adjusts the bargaining outcome and improves the allocation efficiency. Moreover, we analyze a temporary expansion of the money supply that increases social welfare through a redistribution. |
| Date: | 2024–09–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:tupdaa:53 |
| By: | Yuya Sasaki; Yulong Wang |
| Abstract: | We introduce a novel method for estimating and conducting inference about extreme quantile treatment effects (QTEs) in the presence of endogeneity. Our approach is applicable to a broad range of empirical research designs, including instrumental variables design and regression discontinuity design, among others. By leveraging regular variation and subsampling, the method ensures robust performance even in extreme tails, where data may be sparse or entirely absent. Simulation studies confirm the theoretical robustness of our approach. Applying our method to assess the impact of job training provided by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), we find significantly negative QTEs for the lowest quantiles (i.e., the most disadvantaged individuals), contrasting with previous literature that emphasizes positive QTEs for intermediate quantiles. |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2409.03979 |
| By: | Carlotta Nani (Geneva Graduate Institute) |
| Abstract: | Is it possible to improve women's agency by providing information about their abilities? Using a lab experiment in the field, I study how perceived abilities and gender stereotypes shape intra-household dynamics. I use an incentivized decision-making game with 525 married couples from 42 rural villages in Bangladesh to investigate whether women are discriminated against because they are perceived to be less skilled than their husband, and whether it is possible to reduce this gender bias within households. During the game, I provide information on women's abilities and I observe how beliefs and decisions change. The empirical analysis shows that the less capable women are perceived compared to men, the less they are involved in decisionmaking. After the information treatment, husbands with the lowest regard for their wife's skills are 20 percent more likely to make allocations in her favour. The treatment has a larger impact on younger couples, on men with stronger control preferences and on risk-averse women. This brings further evidence of the inability of spouses to observe each other's skills. Two weeks after the experiment, women in treated couples report being more involved in household decisions. These results suggest that gender discrimination within households has a statistical component that can be corrected by increasing skills' observability. |
| Keywords: | Bangladesh, field experiment, gender discrimination, intra-household dynamics |
| JEL: | D82 D83 D91 J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–09–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp19-2024 |
| By: | Han Ding; Yinheng Li; Junhao Wang; Hang Chen |
| Abstract: | Trading is a highly competitive task that requires a combination of strategy, knowledge, and psychological fortitude. With the recent success of large language models(LLMs), it is appealing to apply the emerging intelligence of LLM agents in this competitive arena and understanding if they can outperform professional traders. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of the current research on using LLMs as agents in financial trading. We summarize the common architecture used in the agent, the data inputs, and the performance of LLM trading agents in backtesting as well as the challenges presented in these research. This survey aims to provide insights into the current state of LLM-based financial trading agents and outline future research directions in this field. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2408.06361 |
| By: | Alexandre Chirat; Cyril Hédoin |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the Democracy versus Epistocracy debate (Brennan and Landemore 2022) by providing a theoretical framework and a criterion to choose between democratic, hybrid and epistocratic modes of political governance. From a normative perspective, we claim that the specificity of information should (at least partially) guide the choice between these modes of political governance because of its impact on costs of political governance. The main logic of the model is the following: an issue has a degree of information specificity that determines costs of political governance combined in a Social Costs Function. Therefore, the model helps to assess the relative efficiency between democratic, hybrid and epistocratic decision-making procedures to reach collective choices. |
| Keywords: | Democracy – Epistocracy – Social Choice – Information – Social Costs Function |
| JEL: | D71 D83 P35 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2024-25 |