Social protection for people with disabilities in Tanzania: a mixed methods study

People with disabilities are more vulnerable than others to poverty and exclusion from key services, such as health and education. Consequently, they particularly need social protection, yet may have difficulties accessing these programmes. This study aims to assess the need for, and inclusion in, social protection programmes among people with disabilities compared to those without, in three districts in Tanzania. Using a mixed methods approach, our study finds that although the need for social protection programmes was higher among people with disabilities compared to the general population, this was not matched by higher enrolment. People with disabilities were aware of social protection programmes in their area but were not targeted specifically, and benefit packages offered by the programmes were not adapted to their needs. Modifying mainstream social protection schemes to be inclusive of people with disabilities may therefore be an important step towards addressing poverty alleviation goals, including those set out in the recently adopted sustainable development goals (Goal 1, target 3).     

Risk aversion in agricultural water management investments in Northern Ghana: experimental evidence

Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the regions in the world most affected by food price volatility and production variability. Poor small‐scale farmers in this region are particularly vulnerable to this variability. As a result, households may be reluctant to adopt new agricultural water management (AWM) technologies when they involve more risk than what they mitigate. Despite risk's role in AWM investments, there have been few attempts to estimate the magnitude and nature of risk aversion in relation to this type of farm decisions. To partially close this gap, this article uses an experimental approach applied to 137 households in Northern Ghana. We find that more than 70% of households are moderately or slightly risk averse. This contrasts with other studies in SSA, where most household decision‐makers exhibit severe to extreme risk aversion. We also find that households that stand to lose as well as gain something from participation in games are less risk averse than households playing gains‐only games. This result suggests that most farmers’ current wealth put them at risk of falling into a poverty trap. Thus, the losses from the riskiest investments on AWM technologies may fall more heavily on the poor, suggesting that additional efforts be given to the creation of viable insurance mechanisms.     

可持续生计视角下易地搬迁精准扶贫效果评价

易地搬迁是我国实施精准扶贫政策的重要手段之一。以湖北省十堰市龙韵村115户搬迁农户为研究对象,对其搬迁前后的生计资本、生计策略以及生计结果分别进行对比,分析政策实施对搬迁农户生计的改善情况,并通过移民农户对扶贫搬迁政策的满意度评价扶贫效果。结果表明:(1)易地扶贫搬迁促进了移民生计资本的增加,改变了农户生计策略,优化了贫困户整体生计结果,精准扶贫效果显著;(2)农户对易地搬迁扶贫政策效果的整体满意度较高,均值为3.71,提升了贫困户的获得感及幸福感;(3)易地搬迁可持续减贫仍存在一定的制约因素,需要防范返贫风险。     

精准扶贫政策对农户贫困脆弱性的影响研究——来自准自然实验的经验证据

目的 科学评估精准扶贫政策对农户贫困脆弱性的影响具有重要意义。方法 文章基于中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）的4期追踪数据,运用VEP法测算了我国农户的贫困脆弱性,然后运用双重差分法研究了精准扶贫政策对农户贫困脆弱性的影响效果及中介效应机制。结果 （1）近年来我国农户的贫困脆弱性显著降低,中西部地区农户的贫困脆弱性比东部地区高;（2）精准扶贫政策显著降低了农户贫困脆弱性,政策效应明显,而且随着时间的推移,政策效果愈发显著;（3）实证估计结果通过了连续型DID法与PSM-DID法的稳健性检验;（4）异质性分析表明,精准扶贫政策对农户脆弱性的作用在中西部地区比在东部地区更为显著,对贫困户脆弱性的影响大于对非贫困户脆弱性的影响;（5）中介效应机制分析表明,精准扶贫政策可以通过提高农户社会资本的方式降低其贫困脆弱性。结论 在贫困状况较为严重的地区,应保持帮扶政策持续稳定,降低农户的贫困脆弱性。在识别贫困户和制定扶贫政策时,需关注未来可能陷入贫困的农户,提升其应对外界风险冲击的能力,同时应注重发挥各种社会组织与非正式制度的作用,形成多方面减贫合力。     

风险冲击对农村居民家庭相对贫困的影响——基于CFPS数据的实证分析

目的 试图从微观农户层面研究风险冲击对相对贫困的影响及作用路径,以期为增强农村居民家庭风险抵御能力、缓解相对贫困提供实证支撑。方法 文章基于中国家庭动态追踪调查（CFPS）数据,运用面板probit模型和固定效应模型实证分析风险冲击对农村居民家庭相对贫困的影响,用异质性分析和面板门槛回归模型探讨不同收入水平的农村居民家庭风险应对方式差异。结果 （1）风险冲击会增加农村居民家庭相对贫困的可能。其中,灾害冲击是导致农村居民家庭相对贫困的首要原因,其次是教育冲击和婚丧嫁娶、孩子出生等重大事件冲击,失业冲击和健康冲击的影响相对较小。（2）不同收入水平农村居民家庭的风险应对机制差异是导致相对贫困家庭无法摆脱相对贫困的重要原因。与高收入的农村居民家庭相比,低收入的农村居民家庭遭受风险冲击时会减少更多的农业生产投资,增加更少的人力资本投资,导致家庭现有的资源配置无法提升家庭未来的收入能力,使其囿于相对贫困无法脱离。结论 政府应构建更具韧性的国家治理体系、更具弹性的社会帮扶体系,在此基础上提高农村居民家庭的可持续生计能力,从而减少农村居民家庭陷入相对贫困的可能。     

Farm households’ risk perception,attitude and adaptation strategies in dealing with climate change: Promise and perils from rural Pakistan

Pakistan is highly vulnerable to extreme climatic events, such as floods and droughts. This study determines the farmers’ risk perception, risk attitude, adaptation measures and various aspects of vulnerability to climate change (e.g. floods, droughts, heavy rainfalls, pests and disease) at farm level in rural Pakistan. The risk perception and attitude of farm households are crucial factors that influence farm productivity, investment and management decisions at this level. A well-designed questionnaire was used to interview 720 farm households from six districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A binary logit model was used to determine the main factors that affect the choice of adaptation strategies of the farm household. The findings revealed that crop diversification, changing crop varieties, altering the crop calendar, varying the fertilizer used, mulching and farm insurance were the main adaptation strategies followed by farm households. The results of the binary logit model revealed that age, education, farm size, household size, credit accessibility, annual income and the perception on the increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall had significant influence on the selection of the adaption strategies. The findings of this study can provide guidance, policy recommendations and reference for future researchers.     

扶贫开发问题研究——以阳江市为例

2009年至今,广东省扶贫开发工作取得了很大的成绩,但也存在一些问题。本文以阳江市为例对扶贫开发进行研究,希望对全省扶贫开发工作有所启示。阳江市属于广东省欠发达地区,虽然扶贫开发方面做了不少工作,贫困村面貌有所改善,有不少贫困户也开始脱贫,但贫困问题依然比较严重。针对存在的一些问题,作者提出提高社会保障力度、调节扶贫政策细则、完善扶贫瞄准机制、提高贫困农民生产能力、完善社会救助体系、建立可持续生计机制等对策建议。     

成本收益视角下政策性森林保险供需分析——以福建省为例

周期长和风险高是林业生产的两个显著特点,而政策性森林保险的实施能够帮助林农有效分散经营风险、保障经济收益。自2009年我国进行政策性森林保险试点以来,尽管取得一定成效,但试点过程中仍面临一系列难题,其中关键为林农自愿投保积极性不高、保险公司收取保费成本较高等因素导致的市场失灵。通过构建"负担率"和"综合保障度"两个指标,从供需双方成本收益的角度分析导致政策性森林保险市场失灵的因素,并在此基础上提出相关的政策建议。     

精准扶贫政策与边缘贫困群体政治信任--基于断点回归的证据

维持农户基层政治信任稳态,是促进精准扶贫政策有效实施的必然要求,也是实现乡村振兴战略下治理有效目标的重要基础。本文利用2017年6个集中连片贫困地区1140户农户样本数据,通过断点回归模型重点考察了精准扶贫政策对边缘贫困群体基层政治信任的影响。研究结果表明:精准扶贫政策的悬崖效应对边缘贫困群体与基层组织间的政治信任稳态造成了一定冲击。具体来看,边缘贫困群体受到精准扶贫政策排斥,其基层政治信任相较于建档立卡农户降低了2.32;同时,基于边缘贫困群体在收入分配中的不利地位,其基层政治信任相较于高收入建档立卡农户降低了0.76。因此,为提升乡村治理能力,完善乡村治理新体系,需要严格执行现行贫困标准,调整精准扶贫政策的保障结构,并通过基础设施建设、公共服务供给及外部机会提供等方式,为大量发展能力薄弱的边缘贫困群体提供良好的发展机会和福利保障。     

Land for welfare in China

Drawing on firsthand observations, Party and government documents, and survey data, this study examines the causes and processes of the land for welfare policy in China. The implementation of the land for welfare program cannot be understood in isolation from the profound urban–rural gap in the land property rights regime and social welfare provision in China. The dual land tenure system allows local officials to generate revenue by expropriating rural land, which, to rural households, functions as a social insurance as well as an income-generating property. In the process of land requisition, land-losing villagers are provided with social welfare benefits to compensate for their loss of their land's insurance function. Such provision, however, is not developed out of the local governments’ benign intention, but their strategic reaction to the central government's development program that combines rural social welfare provision with a land rewarding system, which provides an opportunity for local officials to gain more land, a valuable asset for local governments. The provision of social welfare benefits is selective: affected rural households are provided with welfare benefits that are less costly to the local government, typically in the form of a pension insurance.     

我国深度贫困地区的减贫成就与挑战——以新疆X县为例

[目的]深度贫困地区是我国"脱贫攻坚"的硬骨头,但是鲜有研究对该地区的精准扶贫成效及未来挑战开展定量分析。[方法]文章以新疆典型县域(X县)为例,描述分析了该县贫困发生率,贫困家庭的收入、住房和饮水情况,脱贫方式,特殊群体的贫困特征以及致贫原因随时间的变化趋势。[结果]基于2013—2018年建档立卡贫困户信息,该县农村贫困发生率从2013年的37.2%下降到2018年的0.2%;贫困户人均收入从2 431元提高到11 281元;贫困农户的住房、饮水和医保等问题大多能在2年之内解决;大量青壮年和高学历人群依赖"政策脱贫";因病和因残致贫、老年贫困问题和因学致贫具有一定的普遍性。[结论]不返贫是可持续扶贫的最终目标。首先,逐步改善"财政兜底、一兜了之"的帮扶方式;其次,加强对特殊人群(例如,老年人口、高抚养比家庭等)的识别和帮扶力度;再次,消除因学致贫的可能性,同时为适龄劳动力提供有效的技能培训。     

Agricultural Policy Reform and Off‐farm Labour Decisions

Off‐farm labour decisions of a sample of Kansas farmers are evaluated. The central question of our analysis pertains to whether 1996 US farm policy reforms may have altered the decisions to work off the farm. The effects of policy decoupling on off‐farm labour are complex: different aspects of policy changes can have opposing effects on off‐farm work decisions. Essentially, this makes this issue an empirical question. Results show that the introduction of fixed, decoupled payments in 1996 might have reduced the likelihood of off‐farm labour participation. However, the new policy environment may have increased farm households’ revealed aversion to risk, motivating a higher participation in non‐farm labour markets. The effects of 1996 policy reforms on farm income variability could have been attenuated by changes in US crop insurance programmes and by an increase in emergency assistance payments towards the end of the 1990s. The reduction in price supports may have increased the motivation for working off the farm. The net effect of the overall reforms on off‐farm work participation is not likely to have been large.     

Vulnerability,shocks and persistence of poverty: estimates for semi‐arid rural South India

This paper focuses on the vulnerability of rural households to poverty when a negative crop shock occurs. The analysis is based on the ICRISAT panel survey of households in a semi‐arid region in south India during 1975–84. Using a dynamic panel data model that takes into account effects of crop shocks, an assessment of vulnerability of different groups of households is carried out. What is somewhat surprising is that even sections of relatively affluent households are highly vulnerable to long spells of poverty when severe crop shocks occur. As such crop shocks are frequent in a harsh production environment, there must be a shift of emphasis in anti‐poverty measures from meeting income shortfalls among the poor to enabling the vulnerable to protect themselves better against these shocks.     

土地流转对农户多维相对贫困的影响及机制研究 ——基于生产资源优化配置视角

研究目的：探讨土地流转对农户多维相对贫困的因果影响、作用机制及异质性,为进一步深化农村土地制度改革、构建缓解农村相对贫困的长效机制提供实证依据和有益启示。研究方法：利用2010—2018年中国家庭追踪调查数据,构建了多维相对贫困评价指标体系,通过BP神经网络赋权模型和双界限法测度农户多维相对贫困状况,然后使用工具变量法探讨土地流转对农户多维相对贫困的影响及作用机制。研究结果：（1）土地流转显著减轻了农户的多维相对贫困状况,且土地流出对5个子维度的相对贫困均存在稳健的减贫作用,而土地流入的减贫效应主要集中于家庭可行能力、发展机会、社会保险3个维度。（2）土地流转主要通过优化农户的土地和劳动力资源配置实现多维度的减贫效应。（3）土地流转对西部地区和农业产值较低县域的农户,以及家庭劳动力年龄较低和土地价值较低的农户的减贫效应更为明显。研究结论：土地流转有助于提升相对贫困群体的内生动力,培育自我发展的长效机制,其福利效应可以缩小地区间和人群间差异。基于此,为实现共同富裕的发展目标,需要进一步建立健全统一的土地经营权流转市场,促进土地规范有序流转。     

Public works programmes and agricultural risk: Evidence from India

The agricultural sectors in many low- and middle-income countries remain highly vulnerable to weather risk, a vulnerability that will only intensify under climate change. The globally trending public works programmes have the potential to impact weather-related agricultural risk. I explore the impact of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) on weather-related agricultural risk. My empirical strategy explores the staggered roll-out of NREGA and random weather fluctuations. Using a nationwide panel of data, I find that NREGA makes crop yields more sensitive to low rainfall shocks. I posit that these results are consistent with a labour market channel, by which NREGA increases nonfarm labour supply in low rainfall years, and an income channel, by which NREGA leads to riskier agricultural practices. These results highlight the importance of understanding how social protection programmes shape agricultural risk.     

Home‐grown food and the benefits of sharing: The “intergenerational pact” in postsocialist Moldova

The policy literature on postsocialist Europe tends to frame smallholders' practices of food self‐provisioning and sharing as driven by necessity and proposes land consolidation to increase productivity and efficiency. However, these practices generate nonfinancial benefits, which need to be accounted for. In this paper, I test the socio‐economic relevance of these practices in the Republic of Moldova, the country with the highest density of farming households in Europe and whose government has embraced the rural modernization agenda to integrate into the EU economic space. I carry out quantitative estimates using the household budget survey and complement the results with qualitative insights from an original smallholder survey. I find that food self‐provisioning and sharing are positively related to subjective well‐being and that there is an “intergenerational pact,” with home‐grown food flowing from late‐adulthood smallholders to urban‐based young families and the vulnerable elderly. A counterfactual analysis shows that poverty and inequality would be higher in the absence of donated food, especially in urban areas. The preservation of smallholder farming through widespread access to land could thus help fight poverty and provide social benefits vis‐à‐vis land consolidation.     

Microfinance and Household Poverty Reduction: Empirical Evidence from Rural Pakistan

This study examines whether household access to microfinance reduces poverty in Pakistan and, if so, how and to what extent. It draws on primary empirical data gathered by interviewing 1132 households, including both borrower and non-borrower households, in 2008–2009. Sample selection biases have been partially controlled for by using propensity score matching. The study reveals that microfinance programmes had a positive impact on the participating households. Poverty-reducing effects were observed on a number of indicators, including expenditure on healthcare, clothing and household income, and on certain dwelling characteristics, such as water supply and the quality of roofing and walls.     

Poverty, Risk Aversion, and Path Dependence in Low-Income Countries: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

In most low-income countries, rural households depend on mixed rain-fed agriculture/livestock production, which is very risky. Due to numerous market failures, there are few ways to shift risks to third parties. The literature has focused on what determines the responses of households in such environments. Of special concern are path dependencies in which households experiencing failure are prone to further failure and potential poverty traps. This paper estimates levels and determinants of risk aversion in the highlands of Ethiopia. We find high risk aversion and evidence that constraints have important impacts on risk-averting behavior with perhaps significant implications for long-term poverty. The results also suggest the possibility of path dependence and offer insights into links between risk aversion and poverty traps.     

Strengthening capacity for sustainable livelihoods and food security through urban agriculture among HIV and AIDS affected households in Nakuru,Kenya

The promotion and support of urban agriculture (UA) has the potential to contribute to efforts to address pressing challenges of poverty, under nutrition and sustainability among vulnerable populations in the growing cities of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This may be especially relevant for HIV/AIDS-affected individuals in SSA whose agricultural livelihoods are severely disrupted by the devastating effects of the disease on physical productivity and nutritional well-being. This paper outlines the process involved in the conception, design and implementation of a project to strengthen technical, environmental, financial and social capacity for UA among HIV-affected households in Nakuru, Kenya. Key lessons learned are also discussed. The first has been the value of multi-stakeholder partnerships, representing a broad range of relevant experience, knowledge and perspectives in order to address the complex set of issues facing agriculture for social purposes in urban settings. A second is the key role of self-help group organizations, and the securing of institutional commitments to support farming by vulnerable persons affected by HIV-AIDS is also apparent. Finally, the usefulness of evaluative tools using mixed methods to monitor progress towards goals and identify supports and barriers to success are highlighted.     

公共政策及其响应:基于农民信任机制的解释——以农地确权政策为例

本文基于“交易类型—公平感知—政治信任”的研究框架,分析中国农村公共政策的响应逻辑。公共政策响应依赖于政治信任,较高水平的政治信任能够降低政策实施的交易成本。其内在机制在于,各层级政府与个体在政策响应过程中构成了康芒斯式的交易类型组合,进而催生个体产生不同的公平诉求,最终影响个体对各层级政府的政治信任。本文以农地确权政策为例,将政治信任作为农户响应农业政策的代理变量并使用广东省农户调研数据进行实证检验。结果表明,结果公平、程序公平、信息公平和人际公平均显著提升了农户对地方政府的政治信任;人际公平显著提升了农户对中央政府的政治信任;整体公平感知对农户的地方政府信任有显著正向影响。实证结果在控制住人际信任、家庭政治资本与社会网络、村庄禀赋与历史因素后仍然稳健。本文的政策启示是,在农村公共政策实施中,鼓励多维公平的实现,谨慎对待政策推进的效率攀比,这对提升农民的政治信任并激发社会活力具有重要现实意义。