The economic relevance of sustainable agroforestry practices — An empirical analysis from Tanzania

This paper investigates the economic relevance of sustainable behavior of agroforestry practices for smallholders using the example of firewood exploitation in rural Tanzania. Three questions are addressed: (1) To what extent do households behave sustainably regarding firewood extraction from agroforestry? (2) Which factors determine the likelihood of households practicing sustainable agroforestry? (3) Are sustainably behaving households better off in terms of income compared to households practicing unsustainable agroforestry? The analysis is based on cross-sectional data of 314 households. A sustainability indicator shows that the share of sustainable households varies between 14 and 41% depending on the underlying wood growth rate. The results of the logistic regression indicate that property rights regarding the ownership of agricultural land and environmental awareness increase the likelihood of sustainable firewood extraction. Empirical evidence from the quantile regression reveals that poorest households generate higher income if they extract firewood unsustainably. The opposite is true for households of upper income percentiles. Thus, the poor are likely to increase environmental degradation to generate more income causing a ‘downward spiral’ of the poverty–environment trap resulting in income losses in the long run. Households with a per capita income of 524 TZS or more manage their tree stocks sustainably.     

Adding value through the mechanization of post-harvest cassava processing,and its impact on household poverty in north-eastern Zambia

This article investigates the impact of adopting a mechanized cassava processing system on household poverty levels in Zambia. An Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure was used to compare poverty levels among households using a mechanized cassava processing system against those households using a nonmechanized process. Based on the FGT poverty measure’s specifications, a significantly lower poverty status of 49% was found among households using the mechanized process when compared to the 58% found among households using the nonmechanized process. The significant factors contributing to these differences in poverty levels include whether households are using a mechanized process or not, the number of years’ schooling among household members, the number of years’ farming experience, household income and membership of associations. The study concludes that the mechanization of cassava processing, particularly if done on the right scale, can transform primary production activities, in turn leading to higher incomes and reduced poverty levels in rural villages. Thus, policies should be introduced aimed at encouraging the promotion of mechanized post-harvest cassava processing technologies among rural households, so as to enhance crop productivity and household income levels, as well as reduce poverty among rural households.     

The impact of the Indonesian income tax reform: A CGE analysis

This study evaluates the impacts of Indonesia's recent income tax reforms on key macroeconomic variables, as well as the impacts on poverty and income distribution. It was found that the reductions in personal income tax and corporate income tax increase economic growth under a balanced budget assumption. The policy reforms also lead to a small reduction in the incidence of poverty. However, the policies also lead to an increase in income inequality because the tax cut is more beneficial to households in the highest income categories. It is recommended that future tax cuts should target the urban and rural poor.     

新卡莱茨基学派对当代资本主义金融危机的研究

2008年的金融危机在对世界经济造成极大破坏的同时,也引发了经济学界的广泛思考。新卡莱茨基学派以收入分配为起点,对金融主导的资本主义体制的矛盾性和脆弱性进行了系统性分析,提出了一套涵盖危机成因、传导机制和对策等方面的完整的理论体系。新卡莱茨基学派认为,20世纪80年代以来金融主导的资本主义体制进一步激化了资本主义生产社会化和生产资料私人占有之间的矛盾,造成了收入分配差距扩大并使企业对短期金融投资的偏好大于对长期固定资本的投资,导致了社会总需求不足和经济停滞的趋势。为了保持经济增长,以美国为代表的一些西方发达资本主义国家采取了放松金融管制、鼓励低收入家庭扩大债务来支撑消费的措施,最终引发了金融危机,并且通过外贸渠道和金融渠道将危机扩散至全球。对新卡莱茨基学派关于当代资本主义金融危机研究进行梳理,或许能够为促进新时期我国经济体制改革提供有益借鉴。     

Socioeconomic Impacts of Public Forest Policies on Heterogeneous Agricultural Households

Nepal has a long history of returning public forests to local people as part of its community forestry programme. In principle the community forestry programme is designed to address both environmental quality and poverty alleviation. However, concern has been expressed that forest policies emphasise environmental conservation, and that this has a detrimental impact on the use of community forests in rural Nepal where households require access to public forest products to sustain livelihoods. To study the effect of government policies on forest use, an economic model of a typical small community of economically heterogeneous households in Nepal was developed. The model incorporates a link between private agriculture and public forest resources, and uses this link to assess the socioeconomic impacts of forest policies on the use of public forests. Socioeconomic impacts were measured in terms of household income, employment and income inequality. The results show that some forest policies have a negative economic impact, and the impacts are more serious than those reported by other studies. This study shows that existing forest policies reduce household income and employment, and widen income inequalities within communities, compared to alternative policies. Certain forest policies even constrain the poorest households?? ability to meet survival needs. The findings indicate that the socioeconomic impacts of public forest policies may be underestimated in developing countries unless household economic heterogeneity and forestry??s contribution to production are accounted for. The study also demonstrates that alternative policies for managing common property resources would reduce income inequalities in rural Nepalese communities and lift incomes and employment to a level where even the poorest households could meet their basic needs.     

经济增长对贫困变动的影响及影响途径分析——以新疆农村为例

以农村居民人均纯收入的增长作为经济增长,运用1988～2010年新疆农村人均纯收入分组数据,研究新疆经济增长与农村贫困变动之间的关系,并且对经济增长影响贫困变动的途径进行分析。研究结果表明,经济增长对新疆农村贫困的减少起到了显著的作用,而农业的发展和非农就业的增长是提高农民收入从而减缓农村贫困的主要途径。因此,推动农村经济增长仍然是新疆今后扶贫工作的重点。     

中日土地制度、非农兼业和城乡收入均衡的比较与启示

自耕农所有制是日本农地制度的基础,它所赋予的农民对土地的充分权利调动了他们的积极性,有效地提高了农业生产率,保证了日本粮食和各种农产品的充裕的供给;同时增加了农民的农业收入。日本工业,尤其是农村工业的迅速发展,促进了农民非农兼业收入的较快增长。农业收入和兼业收入的相互补充使日本农家收入在20世纪70年代以后达到或略超过城市家庭,实现了城乡收入均衡。在我国致力于缩小城乡收入差距、建设和谐社会的今天,日本经验值得我们借鉴。     

Factors affecting agricultural land transfer-in in China: a semiparametric analysis

We use interview survey data collected randomly from 2677 farm households in nine provinces of China to understand the role of demographic, economic, land, and village characteristics on agricultural land transfer-in by farmers. Results show that variables such as borrowing from informal sources, household labour availability, percentage of total income from agricultural sources, and the household with village cadre have significant positive effects on land transfer-in. Low economic development and low transportation network availability in a county reduces land transfer-in. We also find that two variables (land holding and land idling) should be entered into the model nonparametrically. Land holding and land idling have U- and L-shaped impacts on land transfer-in, respectively. Land transfer-in has endowment equilibrium and provides Chinese households more opportunities to earn agricultural income, thereby reducing rural poverty.     

Does urbanization reduce rural poverty? Evidence from Vietnam

This paper uses data from household surveys to contribute to the urbanization-poverty nexus literature by assessing the effect of urbanization on income, expenditure, and poverty in rural households in Vietnam. We find that the urbanization process stimulates the transition from farm to non-farm activities in rural areas. More specifically, urbanization tends to reduce farm income and increase wages and non-farm income in rural households. This suggests that total income and consumption expenditure of rural households are more likely to increase with urbanization. Finally, we find also that urbanization helps decrease the expenditure poverty rate of rural households, albeit by a small magnitude.     

IMPACT OF COOPERATIVES MEMBERSHIP ON ECONOMY IN EASTERN OROMIA: THE CASE OF HARAMAYA AGRICULTURAL FARMERS’ COOPERATIVE UNION (HAFCU)

This study attempts to analyse the impact of cooperatives on the smallholders’ income, productivity, marketed surplus and saving in East Hararghe Zone of Haramaya District. The study is based on primary cross‐sectional data collected from cooperative member and non‐cooperative member household heads. The propensity score matching (PSM) estimates complemented by a bias correction matching (BCM) and Lewbel instrumental variable (IV) regression estimation shows that cooperatives have a positive impact on smallholders’ income and productivity. The findings have strong policy implications. The rural development of the country should work toward strengthening and expanding the existing rural organizations through training and capacity building programmes. It is important particularly establishing new rural‐based organizations that enable rural households to engage in business activities. Doing that may help reduce poverty and increase smallholders’ income, productivity, and capital accumulation.     

How well do tree plantations comply with the twin targets of the Clean Development Mechanism? — The case of tree plantations in Tanzania

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol is supposed to provide both carbon mitigation and poverty reduction. This article reports from a model based study of market related carbon leakage and poverty reduction in the wake of a CDM tree-planting project in Tanzania. A tree plantation was incorporated in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with income differentiated household segments. The study focused on sensitivity of carbon leakage and income distribution to different project ownerships and carbon premium allocations. It turned out that the project value in terms of carbon premium has clear shortcomings as indicator of induced GDP growth and poverty alleviation. The non-poor rural and urban households benefit considerably more than the poor households. However, rising household income in all domestic project ownership arrangements increases demand for food, raises use of fertilizer and crop yields. A carbon cycle module for agricultural land use was incorporated in the CGE model, showing an increased carbon sequestration in agricultural soil, representing a negative leakage through markets in the range of 60-120% of the certified emissions reductions as registered in the CDM tree plantation project.     

Risk coping and starvation in rural China

We use a 3-year panel from two poor provinces in Southern China to examine the nature of risks to which rural households are exposed and their ability to insure calorie consumption and spending of total consumption against idiosyncratic shocks to their income. We find that idiosyncratic risks are indeed the main source of income variation in the sample, consumption is better insured than total spending. Unlike total spending where full insurance is rejected in most cases, calorie intake is completely insured for both land-rich and land-poor households in both provinces. Access to even modest amounts of land significantly enhances households’ ability to guard against total spending. Land-rich households are much better insured against total spending than land-poor households. The results are robust across model specifications although Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimations increase the magnitude of difference in total spending between the land-rich and the land-poor. Policies targeting poverty reduction and improving land use rights and land access to the poor could potentially improve the overall risk sharing ability of the rural poor.     

Disability in Italian households: income,poverty and labour market participation

This article studies the economic effects of disabled members on Italian households, with the aim of identifying a suitable target group for welfare policies. Survey of Households Income and Wealth data for the year 2000 is used. Preliminary results show significant differences in levels of income and poverty diffusion to the detriment of households with disabled members. We propose an exogenous explanation: the replacement ratio between disability benefits and expected labour income shows that disability benefits do not compensate the potential incomes of the disabled person and of the possible carer, except in households with severe socioeconomic disadvantages. We also propose an endogenous explanation: applying a logit model we show that the labour market participation of the possible carer is reduced in households with disabled persons. In order to increase the income of the households with disabled members, policy recommendations include the provision of care services and structural policies to improve employment, income and educational opportunities for households at greatest disadvantage.     

Rural livelihoods in Armenia

This article explores the structure of the rural economy in Armenia from a farm household perspective. Ownership of capital and access to activities are examined on the basis of data from a recent large‐scale survey of farm households in Armenia. Different measures for the outcome of livelihood strategies in terms of well‐being are observed. Income‐poor households are found to be less well endowed especially with financial and social capital. They derive smaller income shares from economic activities and more from dissaving and social payments. The findings are relevant to policies aimed at alleviating rural poverty.     

Agricultural Productivity and Poverty Reduction in Nepal

This paper provides for the first time a clear quantitative link between agricultural productivity and poverty among rural households in Nepal. Using data from a nationwide Nepal Living Standard Survey 2004, we first estimate household‐specific productivity per worker under both Cobb–Douglas and translog production functions. Second, the paper identifies the determinants of productivity. Third, we explore a theoretical link between productivity and poverty using Sen's poverty index and find empirically that productivity growth substantially helps poverty reduction. Finally, the integrated effects of changes in productivity determinants are found to be stronger than the outcomes of sectoral policies taken in isolation.     

医疗保险与城乡反贫困:1989-2006

文章利用中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)数据,估计了1989-2006年医疗保险对中国城乡家庭的反贫困效应。结果发现:发生灾难性卫生支出的城乡家庭比例较高,最穷的群体其医疗费用超过收入的比例增加,医疗保险对减少收入不平等只起到微弱作用。TIP贫困曲线表明,近几年,医疗保险补偿后,城乡患病家庭的贫困并没有减轻,医疗保险在减少贫困上的作用很小。分析贫困特征的多元回归模型显示,家庭成员数量、教育程度、抚养比率、参保人数等都影响了贫困,而条件多元回归模型则显示,医疗保险对贫困的变动没有影响。     

Escaping the poverty trap in a developing rural economy

Abstract. In this paper, we examine the economic policies that might allow a developing rural economy to escape from the poverty trap characterized by a subsistence level of per capita consumption in the long run. In our model where labour is combined to land available in fixed quantity to produce a homogeneous good, saving could be made through only having children, the number of which is an endogenous decision. We provide conditions under which the economy runs into a poverty trap, and proceed to analyse the relevant policies in this case. We demonstrate that an escape from this poverty trap is possible through a suitable technology transfer, or an appropriate child‐rearing tax, but not with a foreign manufacturing sector, which increases only temporarily the labour income in this rural economy. JEL classification: J11, O11, O40     

Poverty Dynamics,Violent Conflict,and Convergence in Rwanda

This paper analyzes the poverty impact of the violent events that affected Rwanda in the 1990s. The main objective of the paper is to identify systematically potential mechanisms linking violent conflict with changes in poverty across provinces and households in Rwanda before and after a decade of violence. In accordance with emerging literature on the long‐term economic effects of violent conflict, we find empirical evidence for economic convergence between richer and poorer Rwandan provinces and households following the conflict shocks. Using a small but unique panel of households surveyed before and after the conflict period, we find that households whose house was destroyed or who lost land ran a higher risk of falling into poverty. We do not find much evidence for an economic effect of violent deaths at the household level due to substitution effects of labor within the household. Non‐violent deaths however seem to increase income per adult equivalent for the survivors. Results are shown to be robust to sample selection and IV models.     

Poverty among ethnic minorities: the transition process,inequality and economic growth

This article investigates the process of reducing poverty in ethnic minority households. Using two recent Vietnam household surveys, we find that ethnic minority households are more likely to be persistently poor and less likely to be persistently non-poor than ethnic majority households. The within-group component generated by the variation in income within each ethnicity group explains more than 90% of the change in total inequality. Income redistribution plays an important role in decreasing the poverty gap and decreasing poverty severity. Different ethnic groups have different poverty patterns, which should be noted when designing policies to alleviate poverty and inequality.     

经济刺激计划与农村消费启动——基于我国农村居民收入分解的实证分析

文章在对我国农村居民收入构成进行分解的基础上,利用协整等计量工具时影响我国农村居民消费的各种因素进行了量化分析,并由此对照我国政府为应对世界经济危机而出台的一揽子经济刺激计划,分析经济刺激计划中各项具体政策措施在促进农村消费方面的作用.实证分析和政策分析的结果表明:(1)当前对农村居民消费具有显著影响的因素主要是农村居民经营性收入、工资性收入及国家财政农村救济费支出;(2)已出台的经济刺激计划,既有消费价格补贴等短期措施,也有旨在提高农村居民收入、完善农村社会保障、优化农村消费环境的长期性政策,时于促进农村消费具有很强的针对性;(3)未来促进农村居民消费仍需继续着眼于各种长期性政策.国家在加大财政支农力度时,应注重提高农林水事业费以外的支农支出比重;(4)县域经济是启动农村消费的关键.未来的政策着力点可以考虑将启动农村消费与发展县域经济、推动城乡一体化发展相结合.