1,721,363 research outputs found
Replication data for: Fair Trade and Free Entry: Can a Disequilibrium Market Serve as a Development Tool?
No full textde Janvry, Alain, McIntosh, Craig, and Sadoulet, Elisabeth, (2015) "Fair Trade and Free Entry: Can a Disequilibrium Market Serve as a Development Tool?" Review of Economics and Statistics 97:3, 567-573
Replication data for: Fair Trade and Free Entry: Can a Disequilibrium Market Serve as a Development Tool?
No full textde Janvry, Alain, McIntosh, Craig, and Sadoulet, Elisabeth, (2015) "Fair Trade and Free Entry: Can a Disequilibrium Market Serve as a Development Tool?" Review of Economics and Statistics 97:3, 567-573
Toward a Territorial Approach to Rural Development
Full text linkThis paper explores a territorial approach to rural development in Latin America. It first reviews evidence that progress in rural social development has not been accompanied by reductions in income poverty and inequality. It then assesses qualitative changes that have occurred in rural incomes and the emergence of new opportunities for rural poverty reduction and draws implications for the potential of a territorial approach to rural development. Recent experiences with territorial approaches are briefly reviewed and lessons extracted for the implementation of such an approach. It concludes with a series of recommendations for implementation of a territorial approach to rural development.rural development, rural poverty, territorial approach, inequality, Latin America, Community/Rural/Urban Development, O10, O13, O15, O18,
MEASURING THE INCOME GENERATING POTENTIAL OF LAND IN RURAL MEXICO
Full text linkThis paper measures the potential of land to generate income and establishes the contexts under which access to land can reduce poverty. Using Mexican household data, we apply nonparametric regression methods to estimate and graphically explore the relationship between land and welfare. Results suggest that the marginal value of land depends on both the complementary and contextual assets of the poor.Land Economics/Use,
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Three Applied Economic Studies in Collaboration with Government Policymakers
Full text linkThis manuscript features three independent applications of contemporarytechniques in applied economics conducted in collaboration with three differentgovernments. In the first essay, I present findings from an experimentalintervention conducted in collaboration with the government of the DominicanRepublic in which the government varies whether front-line volunteercommunity workers are recruited through a public advertisement or throughlocal staff referrals. I find that governments likely face tradeoffs in selectingoptimal recruiting mechanisms as publicly recruited candidates demonstratesuperior observable characteristics to referred candidates across a wide variety ofindicators except for the key indicator of cognitive skills. I also find publiccandidates are more likely to accept job offers and attend trainings conditionalon being hired. To my knowledge, this is the first study to rigorously test theimpacts of an open public recruitment process versus a private targetedrecruitment process.In the second essay, my co-author and I evaluate impacts of a World Bankfunded road improvement and employment generation intervention inNicaragua. We employ a difference-in-difference research design, matchingproprietary road building data from the government of Nicaragua’s Ministry ofTransportation with three rounds of a publicly available household survey. Wefind strong evidence that the World Bank’s Fourth Roads Rehabilitation andMaintenance Project fulfilled its primary goal of improving road infrastructureand suggestive evidence of select economic and social impacts. Notably, we donot observe impacts on the likelihood of employment or incidence of poverty.In the third essay, I collaborate with the City of San Francisco’s Office ofthe Treasurer to investigate mechanisms that potentially mediate householddecisions to save for distant future expenditures with particular relevance foreducation-oriented savings. Employing a randomized experiment in the naturalsetting of the Kindergarten-to-College school district-wide college savingsprogram, I vary the messages of postcard savings reminders with informationabout either the availability of college financial aid or the increasing cost oftuition. My results suggest that savings reminders may overcome inattention tolumpy future expenditures, but only among those who intended to save. I findno evidence that manipulating the salience of college cost affects savingsbehavior
Cash transfer programs with income multipliers
Full text linkCash transfer programs induce multiplier effects when recipients put the money they receive to work to generate additional income. The ultimate income effects are multiples of the amounts transferred. This paper analyzes the PROCAMPO program in Mexico, which was introduced to compensate farmers for the anticipated negative effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the price of basic crops. The transfer rules and the timing of the panel data collected allow unique control of biases in this impact analysis. We find that the multiplier among ejido sector recipients is in the range of 1.5 to 2.6. Multipliers are higher for medium and large farm households, low numbers of adults in the household, nonindigenous backgrounds, and households located in the Center and Gulf regions. High multipliers reflect marginal income opportunities that were unrealized due to liquidity constraints that the transfers eased. Opportunities came from the asset endowments that these households have, particularly irrigated land, and these opportunities were enhanced by access to technical assistance.Subsidies Mexico ,income ,
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Economic Impacts of the Labor Intensive Works Program in Yemen
Full text linkThis dissertation examines the impacts and functioning of a community led public works intervention in Yemen, the Labor Intensive Public Works Program (LIWP). LIWP was designed using the "twin-track" approach of combining short-term relief with long-term investments. The program transfers funds to poor rural households by creating temporary employment opportunities in projects that benefit the local community. Income from program wages provides short term protection against negative consumption shocks, while the public works projects themselves provide medium to long term benefits for the community. The first chapter describes an unexpected effect of the intervention on decreasing local prices and explains how this effect can occur as a result of the existing informal institution of store credit in rural communities. The second chapter examines heterogeneity in program impacts related to the type of project chosen by the community and the correlates of this choice. The third chapter provides a detailed evaluation of the impact of the LIWP intervention on households in communities where projects took place.In Chapter 1, I show the surprising empirical finding that in villages with random assignment to participate in LIWP, the price of staple goods in local stores rose less over time, and connect this to the institution of store credit in isolated villages. I find that there is an increase in prices in communities with 5 or more stores, and a significant relative decline of about 10% in villages with 4 or fewer stores. I develop a simple model of credit as insurance based on qualitative interviews in the field which shows that villagers are willing to pay a premium to local store owners over a more distant and anonymous market because their local store owner can be relied on to let them buy on credit in the future. In this way, the cost of zero-interest credit is internalized in prices charged, however this informal contract is only sustainable if there are sufficient dynamic incentives, which will be more likely in less competitive markets, consistent with the empirical findings.In Chapter 2, which is based on joint work with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet, we examine the choice of project by communities in the LIWP intervention. While LIWP was designed with the short-term purpose of providing cash for work to underemployed villagers, the community as a whole decided on the type public infrastructure to be constructed using the labor paid for by LIWP. We characterize the various projects in terms of skill intensity based on administrative data about relative pay receipts to unskilled and skilled workers and show that the skill-intensity of project choice is correlated with demographic features of the village which imply greater political power for older men. This result indicates that the choice of projects by the community is influenced by the relative distribution of benefits. To identify the channel at play, we show that in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 economic and political crisis in Yemen, there was a higher preference for skill-intensive projects. This is consistent with a model in which older, skilled men who prior to the crisis would not have self-selected as participants in the LIWP program due to the relatively low wages paid compared to alternative employment options, became potential participants due to the crisis. As a consequence, they pushed for skilled labor-intensive projects in which they could capture a larger share of the benefits. In Chapter 3, which is based on joint work with Alain de Janvry, Elisabeth Sadoulet, and Daniel Egel, we use a randomized control trial to measure improvements in household welfare brought about by the program intervention. We find positive program impacts on household income and durable good ownership, reflecting the short term benefits of wages from work in the LIWP project. We also find surprisingly large program effects on decreasing the average outstanding debt. By analyzing the calorie content of staple grains consumed per person, we find a program impact equivalent to 11-13% higher calorie consumption in treated compared to untreated communities. We also summarize community perceptions of the project benefits and find that completed water related projects reduced water scarcity and fetching time
FAMILY AND COMMUNITY NETWORKS IN MEXICO-U.S. MIGRATION
Full text linkA household's decision to send migrants is based on information the household has on the expected returns and the costs of migration. Information on migration flows from both family migrant networks and community migrant networks. Direct assistance - in the form of money, housing, transportation, and food - is often provided to migrants by these networks, thus reducing the costs of migration. Using data from a national survey of rural Mexican households, we show the importance of networks in both the decision to migrate and the level of migration. We find that community and family networks are substitutes in the production of information and assistance suggesting that, once migration is well established in a community, family networks become less important. In addition, the development of strong community networks erases the role of household characteristics in migration, allowing those initially least favored to also participate in migration. Results suggest that policies designed to reduce Mexico-U.S. migration should focus on regions where migrant networks are yet weakly developed since, once strong community networks become established, reducing migration would require much higher levels of public investment.Migration, networks, Mexico, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital,
Local Electoral Incentives and Decentralized Program Performance
Full text linkThis paper analyzes how electoral incentives affected the performance of a major decentralized conditional cash transfer program intended on reducing school dropout rates among children of poor households in Brazil. We show that while this federal program successfully reduced school dropout by 8 percentage points, the program's impact was 36 percent larger in municipalities governed by mayors who faced reelection possibilities compared to those with lame-duck mayors. First term mayors with good program performance were much more likely to get re-elected. These mayors adopted program implementation practices that were not only more transparent but also associated with better program outcomes.decentralization, electoral incentives, conditional cash transfer, impact evaluation
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Essays on income shocks and health in Ecuador
Full text linkThis dissertation examines how exogenous changes in income affect the most vulnerable populations in Ecuador: poor children and their mothers. It explores the effects of a negative income shock that is due to the 1998-2000 economic crisis and a positive income shock that is due to the introduction of a cash transfer program, the Bono de Desarrollo Humano. The outcomes examined are those related to early childhood development and to spousal domestic violence. Both improvements in child development and reductions in domestic violence are crucial for breaking the inter-generational transmission of poverty and for achieving the Millennium Development goals.The first chapter of this dissertation investigates the effects of Ecuador's 1998-2000 economic crisis on child health and cognitive development. This crisis was characterized by a drastic increase in prices and the eventual adoption of the dollar as its currency. While many reports show that household consumption decreased and poverty increased, there are no studies on the impact of the crisis on child development. I use data from three and five years after the crisis to investigate whether the Ecuadorian crisis had a negative and persistent impact on children's height and language development. In order to estimate the effect of the crisis on child outcomes I take advantage of the variation in children's exposure to the crisis that is due to birth month and province. Results suggest that one year of exposure to the crisis significantly decreased height-for-age z-scores by .1 SD and vocabulary test scores by 2.4 points. The effect of the crisis, however, was not uniform across households. Particularly, in rural areas children from farming households and those with more access to early childhood nutrition programs were significantly more protected from the crisis. Potential pathways through which the crisis impacted child outcomes are also explored.The second chapter, which is co-authored with Lia Fernald, takes advantage of the randomized roll-out of Ecuador's Bono de Desarrollo Humano (BDH) to examine the effects of an exogenous increase in income on the health and development outcomes of very young children. Families enrolled in the BDH received a monthly cash stipend ($15 USD) representing an approximate 6-10% increase in household income. Participants analyzed in this study are children 12-35 months old from treatment and comparison communities in rural and urban Ecuador. Main outcomes measured are language skills (the Fundación MacArthur Inventorio del Desarollo de Habilidades Comunicativas - Breve), height-for-age z-score, and hemoglobin concentration. Results indicate that in rural areas, being randomized to receive the BDH in very early childhood led to significantly better performance on the number of words a child was saying, and on the probability that the child was combining two or more words. There were no significant effects on language development for children in urban areas and there were no effects on height-for-age z-score or hemoglobin concentration in rural or urban areas. A limited number of potential pathways with respect to cognitive/language stimulation, health behaviors, and parenting quality are also explored. Findings indicate that compared to children in comparison areas, rural children in treatment areas were more likely to have received vitamin A or iron supplementation and have been bought a toy in the past six months. The third chapter, which is co-authored with Lia Fernald, also takes advantage of the randomized roll-out of the Bono de Desarrollo Humano to investigate how an exogenous increase in a mother's income impacts spousal domestic violence. We use existing household bargaining models to predict when a cash transfer will lead to an increase in domestic violence and when it will lead to a decrease. Consistent with predictions, results reveal that for more educated women who had more credible outside-of-marriage options, the BDH decreased psychological violence. However, for less educated women who did not have credible outside options, the effect of the cash transfer was ambiguous and depended on whether the husband or partner had more education than his wife or partner. In particular, for less educated women the cash transfer decreased psychological violence in households where the husband or partner had more education than his wife or partner, and it increased psychological violence in households where the opposite was true. Although the BDH led to significant changes in psychological violence, it did not lead to corresponding changes in physical violence
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