1,721,235 research outputs found
The Dynamics of Job Creation and job Destruction in an African Economy
No full textA growing share of manufacturing in GDP and in employment is a common feature observed in successful developing countries. Manufacturing, however, has not been a major source of employment in Ethiopia and in other Sub-Saharan African countries. This paper relies on a unique census-based panel data covering the period 1996-2007 to analyse the micro-dynamics of aggregate employment changes. The analysis shows that the weak employment performance of Ethiopian manufacturing is not due to limited job creation but a consequence of simultaneous offsetting processes of job creation and destruction. We find strong evidence of intra-industry job mobility and attribute a substantial proportion of job creation and destruction to firm entry and exit. However, jobs created by small firms tend to be transitory and there has been a re-allocation of jobs from small to larger firms during periods of faster aggregate net employment growth. Overall, the evidence suggests that employment growth and job re-allocation are not necessarily restrained by labour laws and regulations
Does community-based health insurance affect lifestyle and timing of treatment seeking behavior?:Evidence from Ethiopia
Full text linkAbstract Objectives This paper aims to investigate the effects of enrollment in the Ethiopian community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme on household preventive care activities and the timing of treatment-seeking behavior for illness symptoms. There is growing concern about the financial sustainability of CBHI schemes in developing countries. However, few empirical studies have identified potential contributors, including ex-ante and ex-post moral hazards. Methods We implement a household fixed-effect panel data regression model, drawing on three rounds of household survey data collected face to face in districts where CBHI scheme is operational and in districts where it is not operational in Ethiopia. Results The findings show that enrolment in CBHI does not significantly influence household behaviour regarding preventive care activities such as water treatment before drinking and handwashing before meals. However, CBHI significantly increases delay in treatment-seeking behaviour for diseases symptoms. Particularly, on average, we estimate about 4‒6 h delay for malaria symptoms, a little above 4 h for tetanus, and 10‒11 h for tuberculosis among the insured households. Conclusions While there is evidence that CBHI improve the utilization of outpatient or primary care services, our study suggests that insured members may wait longer before visiting health facilities. This delay could be partly due to moral hazard problems, as insured households, particularly those from rural areas, may consider the opportunity costs associated with visiting health facilities for minor symptoms. Overall, it is essential to identify the primary causes of delays in seeking medical services and implement appropriate interventions to encourage insured individuals to seek early medical attention
Public Subsidies to Dutch schools : The Effect of Additional Funding on Cognitive Achievement and Selection of Secondary School of Disadvantaged Students
Full text linkAnalyzing the determinants and the effects of income diversification in rural Ethiopia
Full text linkThis study analyses the determinants and effects of income diversification in
rural Ethiopia using data from various rounds of the Ethiopian Rural
Household Survey. The survey incorporated four big regions of the country
which represent the majority of the country’s population. A double censored
Tobit model is applied to analyze the initial determinants of income
diversification in rural areas. To examine changes over time a fixed effect
model is applied. Finally, an indirect approach was used to explore the effect of
income diversification on total income of the household. Based on the results
of the analysis human capital, education, access to credit and other private
assets helped increase the engagement of the household in income diversifying
activities. The existence of access to credit and savings are the other variables
that have an impact on household’s ability to diversify income. The impacts of
household characteristics and farm size are also analyzed. In a nutshell, polices
that aim to enhance income diversification need to consider these different
factors that affect the lives of rural household by affecting their income
diversification strategy
Returns to Education in Tanzania
No full textEducational expansion in Tanzania following the education sector reform policy of 1995 has increased the enrollment rate at all levels of education primary, secondary to university and the number of trained young people in the labor market. Motivated by the education policy and the increase in educational expenditure, this study provides estimates of the private returns to different levels of education for the year 1991/1992, 2000/2001 and 2006/2007. The study uses data from the Tanzanian household budget survey for the mentioned years. Regressions of individual earnings on a set of explanatory variables including education and workings hours show that there are strong positive effects on individual earnings as the number of years of schooling increases. The highest returns are at the tertiary level while returns to primary education display a concave trend during the period. Also the study reveals that men had higher returns almost at all levels of education.
Hence higher return to tertiary education indicates opportunity for further investment. Therefore in order to benefit from the increased rate of return to tertiary education, government has to increase its investment on tertiary level as a means of allocating scarce resources in more productive investment which are highly paid in the labor market.
-- Relevance to Development Studies --
Human capital is among the factors of production which has an influence on economic growth because it is through human capital investment in education that an individual acquires new knowledge on how to use new technology and therefore, investing in education has a positive effect on individual produc-tivity and economic growth. Given the limited resources a country has, it is important to invest in education level which generates more return and this will be possible only through analyzing the return at different levels of education for decision making
Weather shocks and their effects on net agrarian revenue in small and medium-size farm in Peru
No full textThis study explores the effect of weather shocks (temperature and precipitations) on net agrarian revenue in small and medium-size farms in Peru. The paper used Geographic In-formation Systems data of weather variables combined with agrarian information of more than 68,000 households from the National Agrarian Survey of the period 2015-2017.
The results suggest that there is a negative effect of the temperature deviation of -6.7 percentage points over the annual net agrarian revenue per hectare. In addition, the study does not find a statistically significant effect of the precipitation deviation. Results are ro-bust to different specifications and inclusion of outliers. The estimated effects on this pa-per are similar than those estimated by Seo and Mendelsohn (2007) for small farms in Latin America.
The study finds regional differences. On the Coast, the effect of temperature on net agrarian revenue is 9.9 percentage points, in the Rainforest 4.3 and no effects in the High-land. The latter is consistent with the literature that states that in cold zones the tempera-ture have either small or no effect (Seo, Mendelsohn and Munasinghe, 2005; Mendelsohn and Reinsborough, 2007). Finally, using the 4 RCP scenarios of the IPCC (2014), the paper estimates that by the end of the 21st century the losses in the annual net revenue per hec-tare for the small and medium size farms in Peru could be between 11.8 and 43.5 percent-age points
Weather variability and food consumption : Evidence from Uganda
Full text linkIn the wake of the continuing debate on the effects of climate change on households’ wellbeing, this study considers the impact of short-term weather variations, as an indicator of climatic change, on food consumption of rural households in Uganda. After defining and placing climatic shocks in the litera-ture on shocks and vulnerability, the paper explores the channels through which weather variations may affect rural household welfare in the context of a subsistence agricultural system such as Uganda. For the purpose of the analy-sis, we combined households data from the World Bank LSMS panel dataset on Uganda covering the period 2005/06-2009/10 with weather data from 13 synoptic stations across the four regions of the country. Weather variations were described by rainfall, number of rainy days and temperature deviations from their respective long term means calculated over the period 1960-90 (1980-2010 for temperatures) thanks to data compiled by the Ministry of Water and Environment, Department of Meteorology of Uganda. The results of the empirical model suggest that weather variability has relatively minor effects on food consumption. In particular, household welfare is affected by deviations in the number of rainy days and minimum temperatures with the effects depend-ing on the season in which they occurred.
The relatively minor impact of weather variations on food consumption, combined with the analysis of other studies and agricultural sector recent de-velopments showing relatively small effects of climatic shocks, suggests that rural households are involved in ex-ante income smoothing strategies that in-sure them from the adverse effects of weather variability on food consumption in the country. Future research should examine the effects of weather variabil-ity on agricultural production or income generation process in order to obtain a better understanding of how households may have been adapting to weather changes.
Relevance to Development Studies
In light of the concerns about climate change effects on households’ welfare, this study attempts to analyze the impact of short term weather variations as indicators of a change in the pattern of climate. However, as the study has sug-gested, poor rural households have been able, to a certain extent, to adapt to continuous changes in weather indicators in such a way that their food con-sumption is only slightly affected by shocks to the agricultural production and income, although agriculture is still conducted on a subsistence basis. In light of this, catastrophic predictions on the potential effects of climate change, at least in the current context, seem to be exaggerated. Attention should be given to understand how to enhance households adaptation strategies to fully ensure their welfare from adverse climatic shocks. In particular, Uganda appears to be an example of ex-ante adaptation to the (not much explored) potential effects of climatic shocks in the country
The Relationship of Internet Adoption and Economic Performance in Indonesia
No full textThis paper seeks to examine the relationship between internet adoption and economic performance in 33 provinces in Indonesia. Panel covering 33 provinces in Indonesia during the period 2005-2011 has been constructed to measure economic growth as a function of internet adoption, income inequality, initial income, human capital and investment. The panel data estimation shows that there is no significant relationship between growth and internet adoption among 33 provinces in Indonesia. The analysis also finds that income distribution is not significant in determining economic growth in Indonesia regions. Furthermore, other variables show significant effect on growth as expected.
Relevance to Development Studies
Economic performance of a country can be influenced by many factors. As a general purpose technology, ICT and especially internet has long been consid-ered as an engine that can promote economic growth and development. Moreover, Indonesia as developing countries is struggling in order to improve its economic performance. Hence, it is relevance that Indonesia uses these technologies as a means of economic engine that can be used to catch up its economic performance with developed countries.
Nevertheless, there is still no conclusive evidence on whether the internet penetration will create significant effect on economic performance. Thus, this study is trying to add existing literature on order to seek the relationship of internet adoption on economic growth. Unlike other literature that usually use cross country data, in this study I use data from 33 provinces from Indonesia. The study on this relationship of internet adoption on economic performance becomes important in order to justify the investment of this technology in the future
Inequalities in Child Malnutrition in Honduras and Nicaragua : The role of antenatal care
Full text linkThis study seeks to analyze the role of antenatal care in determining children malnutrition inequalities among the population living in the rural and urban areas of Honduras and Nicaragua. Using Demographic and Health Surveys for
Honduras and Ministry of Health (MINSA) Database for Nicaragua, as well as interviews with professional physicians and patients in the Antenatal Care Department of Health Centers, this study presents updated empirical evidence for these two Latin American countries. Complete or incomplete antenatal care does not seem to have an effect on child’s health and postnatal growth. A potential explanation is that the relation between antenatal care and a newborn’s
health depends on the geographical location, health care facility and quality of antenatal care women received during the pregnancy period. In well-developed countries, the role of antenatal care may be considered significant to determine child’s health due to low socioeconomic discrepancies and equal accessibility and quality of antenatal care.
In the case of Honduras and Nicaragua, socioeconomic differences and genetic factors are the two main aspects influencing malnutrition. These findings indicate that in order to tackle child malnutrition among children, income inequalities need to be overcome and quality of care should improve in order to consider antenatal care as policy tool to reduce children malnutrition
Testing discrimination in the labor market: the case of second-generation Latin American immigrants in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia
No full textThe immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon in Spain that has being increasing significantly in the last decades, mainly for people coming from Latin America and Morocco. This tendency has led to the formation of second-generation immigrants, raised and educated in the host country and willing to participate in the labour market under similar conditions as their native peers. However, this might not occur, since Spanish society tend to have rough attitudes and strong stereotypes against foreigners, which is reflected in the lower employment rate of the minorities.
In this context, the present investigation analyze if there is a discrimination in the hiring process against Latino and Morocco second-generation immigrants in Spain, using a field experiment approach. The data were collected by sending resumés for job openings in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, and with the use of a probit model were estimated the probability of having a positive call-back for each minority with respect the Spaniards. In general terms, except for Moroccan males, no evidence of discrimination was found against Latinos and Moroccans second-generation immigrants, which suggest that the integration process in the labour market of these groups has been successful. In the case of Moroccans males, the discrimination prevails although they have local language skills and studied in the host country
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