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World Development
Elsevier Science Ltd.
World Development

Elsevier Science Ltd.

0305-750X

World Development/Journal World DevelopmentSSCIAHCIISSHP
正式出版
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    Linking human capabilities with livelihood strategies to speed poverty reduction: Evidence from Rwanda

    Bird K.Chabe-Ferret B.Simons A.
    21页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021Acute land scarcity in Rwanda limits poor people's ability to accumulate and move out of poverty. Options for livelihood diversification are restricted by the absence of a vibrant and job-rich non-farm rural economy, and by high rural–urban inequality which makes the urban economy somewhat inaccessible, particularly given the regulated nature of the urban informal sector, limiting opportunities for migration. Competition for employment is made more challenging by low capabilities, which place high-return jobs beyond reach for many poor people. This paper relies on mixed methods research to explore a land-education-jobs nexus and identify the linked human capital and livelihood determinants of poverty escapes to understand the factors slowing poverty reduction in Rwanda. The quantitative analysis uses three waves of nationally representative panel data between 2010/11 and 2016/17 to investigate correlates of poverty trajectories. The qualitative analysis uses content analysis to explore life histories, focus group discussions and key informant interviews from 14 study sites to explore factors driving change in livelihoods and well-being. Our findings show that the triple challenges of acute land scarcity, low capabilities and a sluggish non-farm economy lock together to form a nexus which limits sustained poverty escapes. In the regression analysis, households headed by primary school graduates are half as likely to be poor as those headed by a primary school dropouts while secondary completion or higher virtually eliminates the risk of poverty. Despite demand, secondary school completion in the fieldwork is beyond the reach of most children from poor households, limiting their later options for livelihood diversification. Near landlessness constrains accumulation and Rwanda's thin rural non-farm economy provides few jobs or opportunities for self-employment. Rebooting poverty reduction in Rwanda particularly following the Covid-19 pandemic will require finding ways to sustain poverty escapes through fuelling job-rich ‘growth from below’ by generating additional demand in the rural economy, continuing to boost agricultural productivity and including even the poorest peasant farmers in that, creating a more conducive business environment for small enterprises and continuing to stimulate investment in job-rich enterprise. Underpinning these strategies should be strengthened efforts to enhance capabilities, education quality, and progression into secondary education.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    ‘To prevent this disease, we have to stay at home, but if we stay at home, we die of hunger’ – Livelihoods, vulnerability and coping with Covid-19 in rural Mozambique

    Krauss J.E.Brockington D.Artur L.Castro E....
    14页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 The Author(s)Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing and travel restrictions have been introduced to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (hereinafter Covid). In many countries of the Global South, NPIs are affecting rural livelihoods, but in-depth empirical data on these impacts are limited. We traced the differentiated impacts of Covid NPIs throughout the start of the pandemic May to July 2020. We conducted qualitative weekly phone interviews (n = 441) with 92 panelists from nine contrasting rural communities across Mozambique (3–7 study weeks), exploring how panelists’ livelihoods changed and how the NPIs intersected with existing vulnerabilities, and created new exposures. The NPIs significantly re-shaped many livelihoods and placed greatest burdens on those with precarious incomes, women, children and the elderly, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities. Transport and trading restrictions and rising prices for consumables including food meant some respondents were concerned about dying not of Covid, but of hunger because of the disruptions caused by NPIs. No direct health impacts of the pandemic were reported in these communities during our interview period. Most market-orientated income diversification strategies largely failed to provide resilience to the NPI shocks. The exception was one specific case linked to a socially-minded value chain for baobab, where a strong duty of care helped avoid the collapse of incomes seen elsewhere. In contrast, agricultural and charcoal value chains either collapsed or saw producer prices and volumes reduced. The hyper-covariate, unprecedented nature of the shock caused significant restrictions on livelihoods through trading and transport limits and thus a region-wide decline in cash generation opportunities, which was seen as being unlike any prior shock. The scale of human-made interventions and their repercussions thus raises questions about the roles of institutional actors, diversification and socially-minded trading partners in addressing coping and vulnerability both conceptually and in policy-making.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Technological advancement, import penetration and labour markets: Evidence from Thailand

    Jongwanich J.Kohpaiboon A.Obashi A.
    20页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdThis paper examines the impact of advanced technology and import penetration on changes in employment positions and income, as well as the possibility that workers become unemployed due to such technological progress. Two proxies of advanced technology are used, ICT and the intensity of robot usage. The analysis considers changes in employment status and income, together with workers’ industrial adjustments in investigating the impact of technological advancements and imports, which are delineated into raw materials, capital goods and final products. The results show that in Thailand, the impact of advanced technology in pushing workers out of the job market is limited. Instead, it tends to affect the reallocation of workers between skilled and unskilled positions. The results vary among workers’ industrial destinations and proxies of technology. Skill upgrading is likely to occur more when workers stay or move within manufacturing sectors, while ICT usage tends to generate more favourable outcomes than robot adoption. Workers in comparatively capital-intensive industries, including the automotive and plastics and rubber sectors, tend to receive greater benefits from technological growth. Our results highlight a diminished negative impact resulting from imports, particularly those of capital and final goods, in comparison to that of technological advancements. Technology adoption and imports are likely to lower workers’ income regardless of their industrial destinations and proxies of technology.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Accelerators for achieving the sustainable development goals in Sub-Saharan-African children and young adolescents – A longitudinal study

    Haag K.Mebrahtu H.Roberts K.J.Sherr L....
    9页
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    The impact of domestic and foreign R&D on TFP in developing countries

    Herzer D.
    16页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdThere are few studies on the impact of domestic R&D on TFP in developing countries and even less on the impact of both domestic and foreign R&D on TFP in developing countries. Only one of these studies—a single-country study—also tests semi-endogenous and Schumpeterian R&D growth models against each other. All these studies focus on a relatively small number of developing countries, and none examines the extent to which there are differences in the effects of domestic R&D and international R&D spillovers on TFP between middle- and low-income countries. Using a large panel of countries, this study (i) tests the predictions of Schumpeterian theory against the predictions of semi-endogenous theory regarding the R&D-TFP relationship for developing economies, (ii) examines and compares the effects of domestic R&D and international R&D spillovers on TFP in developing countries, and (iii) investigates differences in the effects of domestic R&D and international R&D spillovers on TFP between middle- and low-income countries. It is found that an increase in the level (growth rate) of domestic R&D expenditures has a positive effect on the level (growth rate) of TFP, as semi-endogenous growth theory predicts, but this effect is greater in middle-income than in low-income countries. It is also found that domestic R&D has a much greater effect on TFP in developing countries than international R&D spillovers.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Food policies and obesity in low- and middle-income countries

    Abay K.A.Breisinger C.Ibrahim H.
    16页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 The Author(s)Understanding the public health implications of food policies is crucial to combat recently increasing overweight and obesity rates in many low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). This study examines the implication of food policies, mainly tariff rates on “unhealthy” foods (sugar and confectionery products as well as fats and oils) and governments’ subsidies, on individuals’ body weight outcomes. We compile several macro- and micro-level datasets that provide macro-level information on food policies and micro-level anthropometric data for several LMICs. We exploit temporal dynamics in tariff rates on “unhealthy” foods and governments’ spending on subsidies to estimate fixed effects models characterizing the evolution of body weight outcomes. We find that temporal dynamics in tariff rates on unhealthy and energy-dense foods are significantly and negatively associated with body weight. Conditional on several observable and time-invariant unobservable factors, a decrease in tariff rates on sugar and confectionary foods or fats and oils is associated with an increase in overweight and obesity rates. On the other hand, an increase in subsidy rate, as a share of government expenditure, is significantly associated with higher overweight and obesity rates. Interestingly, we find that the implications of these food policies are more pronounced among poorer individuals. This may be explained by the fact that poorer households usually spend a larger share of their income on food consumption or unhealthy foods; and that poorer individuals are often beneficiaries of government subsidies in many LMICs. These findings have important implications for informing public health policies in LMICs, which are experiencing an unprecedented rise in overweight and obesity rates.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Employment effects of economic sanctions in Iran

    Moghaddasi Kelishomi A.Nistico R.
    13页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdThis paper investigates the effect of economic sanctions on employment. We exploit the imposition of a series of unexpected and unprecedented international economic sanctions on Iran in 2012 and estimate the short-run effects of the change in import exposure on manufacturing employment at the industry level. Our estimates indicate that the sanctions led to an overall decline in the manufacturing employment growth rate by 16.4 percentage points. However, we uncover significant asymmetric effects across industries with different ex-ante import shares. Interestingly, the effects are mostly driven by labor-intensive industries and industries that heavily depend on imported inputs. This suggests that the overall negative impact of the sanctions on employment might be largely due to the decline in productivity experienced by industries with a high propensity to import inputs from abroad.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    The times are changing: understanding past, current and future resource use in rural Papua New Guinea using participatory photography

    Hazenbosch M.Milner-Gulland E.J.Sui S.Isua B....
    12页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdThere is a need to include local people's voices in research and planning processes to better understand what they see as opportunities and challenges for their future. This is necessary because of the intrinsic importance of public participation, and because it can help produce more useful and implementable adaptation plans. We apply participatory photography in a Papua New Guinean smallholder farming community to explore local perspectives on resource management, drivers of change and adaptive strategies. Twenty-four farmers of different clans, genders and ages took photos of items important to their livelihoods, focusing separately on the past, present and future. We discussed the photos and their meanings in individual and group interviews, encouraging farmers to lead the conversations. Results show that farmers are shifting from relying mainly on natural capitals to using financial, social and physical capitals, and that this causes changes in people's well-being. Villagers see cash crop diseases, land shortages and lack of training as their main challenges. So far, people have adapted to changes by shifting to crop species that still yield well, and setting up small businesses and projects to have additional sources of income. Farmers see education as key to their future as it would allow for better land management and diversification of livelihoods. The participatory photography process provided triangulation of scientific studies, gave insights into farmers’ perceptions, and highlighted adaptive strategies and the complexities of realising them. Overall, the results can be used in future research and planning processes in Papua New Guinea.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Perceptions of inequality and social mobility in Mexico

    Campos-Vazquez R.M.Ramirez-Alvarez A.A.Krozer A.de la Torre R....
    13页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdUsing new survey and experimental data, we investigate how perceptions about inequality and social mobility affect preferences for redistribution in Mexico. In addition to the perceived level of inequality typically measured in previous studies, we explore perceptions about who is rich and poor and their share of the population. The shape of perceived inequality that we find provides new insights as to why people tolerate large differences between the rich and the poor. We find that Mexicans generally perceive poverty and inequality not too far from measured levels, but they overestimate the income of the rich and their proportion of the population. Their perceptions of social mobility correctly estimate persistence rates at the top and bottom of the distribution, but they overestimate upward and downward mobility. Providing people with more information about observed income inequality and social mobility could be one way to encourage a demand for redistribution. However, randomly providing selected participants with this information has almost zero effect on their desired levels of equality, social mobility, and tax rates. Finally, we find that Mexicans want a progressive tax system in which the poor pay an average tax rate of 14% and the wealthy pay 41%, and that preference for a more progressive tax structure is negatively related to socioeconomic status.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Debunking the Chinese unitary state via legal pluralism: Historical, indigenous and customary rights in China (1949–present)

    Ho P.
    13页
    查看更多>>摘要：? 2021 Elsevier LtdIn the literature on legal pluralism, there is minimal attention paid to the state – apart from being generally conceptualized as a unitary entity vis-à-vis an otherwise legally pluralist society. However, this perspective has been critiqued by a modest, yet growing, group of scholars. In furthering the debate, this article postulates that states are constituted by competing semi-autonomous fields and are thus, to varying degrees, inherently inconsistent, contradictory, and pluralist in nature despite the superficial conveyed imagery of unity. To substantiate this thesis, the article: 1) equally applies the concepts of legal pluralism as hitherto applied to issues such as historical rights, indigenous peoples, and customary law; 2) employs this exercise to deconstruct what is perhaps one of the world's most archetypal unitary states: the Peoples’ Republic of China. As a strongly, centralist state governing a substantially socio-culturally and ethnically diversified society, China provides a noteworthy case of the workings of what is termed “state legal pluralism”. To demonstrate this, the article examines a critical right (ownership) around an equally critical resource (land). This is achieved with reference to different, coexisting legal orders that are considered highly sensitive and potentially explosive in China: historical, indigenous, and customary rights. The analysis is based on a comprehensive review of laws and policies, National People's Congress reports, verdicts of the Supreme People's Court, (local) regulations, and court cases. It covers a period exceeding 70 years from 1949 to 2020. The data analysis ascertains that the different organs of the Chinese state constitute competing semi-autonomous fields that, at times, put forward rules in flagrant contradiction with state law up to the point of upholding pre-revolutionary, private land ownership.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier