ON THE MOTHER AND CHILD LABOR NEXUS UNDER CREDIT CONSTRAINTS: FINDINGS FROM RURAL INDIA

There is an emerging consensus that lack of credit is a major cause of child labor and inequality in the intrahousehold distribution of resources. At the same time, patterns in how children spend their time appear to be strongly influenced by maternal employment decisions. This paper includes an assessment of the effect of credit constraints on maternal employment and that of maternal employment on the intrahousehold allocation of labor, a nexus which has been left unexplored by existing studies. Three findings emerge: (1) a mother is more likely to work outside when a household lacks resources, and her domestic labor can be easily replaced by other members, (2) credit market accessibility is one of the major determinants of maternal labor, and (3) elder daughters assume a large part of the burden of maternal employment by providing domestic labor. Under binding credit constraints, results of this study support the collective as opposed to the unitary model of households.     

Monopolistically competitive equilibria with differentiated commodities

Summary. An existence theorem of monopolistically competitive equilibrium of the economy in which commodities are subject to differentiation will be proved. We start with the existence theorem of Negishi (1961) and extend it to the commodity space of measures on a compact metric space. In so doing, we have to handle the price normalization carefully. Received: December 2, 1996; revised version: May 6, 1999     

Social security and trust fund management

In this paper we investigate why and to what extent the government should have a social security trust fund, and how it should manage the fund in the face of demographic shocks, based on a simple overlapping-generations model. We show that, given an aging population, a trust fund in some form could achieve the (modified) golden rule or to offset the negative income effect of a PAYGO system. Besides, in a closed economy where factor-prices effects dominate, using the trust fund as a buffer for demographic shocks could lead to a widening of intergenerational inequality. We also the discuss policy implications of our analysis on the social security reform debate in Japan, including the fixed tax method and the use of the trust fund in the face of a rapidly aging population. J. Japanese Int. Economies 18 (4) (2004) 528–550.     

The long-term impacts of orphanhood on education attainment and land inheritance among adults in rural Kenya

Although the long-term economic impacts of the AIDS epidemic on orphans have been major concerns, few studies have investigated the impacts of orphan status into adulthood. Therefore, this article examines the education attainment and land inheritance of former orphans, who have lost at least one parent before reaching the age of 15 years, by using household surveys in Kenya. We find about a one-year lower educational attainment among former maternal orphans compared with former nonorphans among adults who started schooling before the Free Primary Education program introduced in 1974 but not among adults who started schooling after 1974. On inherited land, we find no significant difference between households headed by former orphans and nonorphans, after controlling for land owned by parents, numbers of brothers and sisters, and birth order among brothers.     

Ability transmission,endogenous fertility and educational subsidy

In this study, we attempt to investigate how educational subsidy, childcare allowance and family allowance affect economic growth and income distribution on the basis of simulation models which incorporate intergenerational ability transmission and endogenous fertility. The simulation results show that financial support for higher education can both increase economic growth and reduce income inequality, especially if the abilities of parent and child are closely correlated. In contrast with educational subsidy, raising childcare allowance or family allowance has limited impacts on growth and income inequality.     

Introduction to the special issue on the role of nonfarm income in poverty reduction: evidence from Asia and East Africa

In this special issue, we present seven studies that collectively attempt to investigate the role of non‐farm income in long‐term and short‐term poverty reduction in Asia and Africa. The first four studies out of the seven use long‐term panel data over two decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. These studies show drastic increases in non‐farm income shares and corresponding declines in poverty levels over time, especially in the Philippines and Thailand. Education levels of household members and returns to education also increased significantly in these countries. The remaining three studies use cross‐sectional and short‐term panel data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. These African studies show high proportions of poor households and low shares of non‐farm income that are somewhat comparable to the situation in the 1980s described in the Asian studies. Without the Green Revolution that provided stable farm income and potential financial resources to invest in children' education in Asia, it is not clear if African farm households can follow the Asian examples.     

Endogenous price leadership and technological differences

This study constructs a two-stage game of price leadership in a duopolistic market for a homogeneous product. In the first period, the two firms determine a price leader; they set a price for the product in the second period. It is demonstrated in the present study that the technologically superior firm tends to become a price leader. This result reveals that price leadership is determined by the interaction of "competitive force", which prevents the price leader from choosing too high a price (like the joint profit maximizing price or the cartel price), and "collusive force", which prevents a price from falling to a Bertrand price.     

Consumer Attitude towards Organic Labeling Schemes in Japan

ABSTRACT

Japan is the most lucrative organic market in the Asian region and is projected to account for about 80% of the Asian market revenues by 2009 (Kuhlmann and Jones, 2006). This study identifies Japanese consumer preference and interest in two major labeling information- source of organic certification/traceability and country of origin for organic food products. Stated preference method (SPM) based survey data was collected from two major cities in Japan in order to develop Japanese consumers' organic food choice model. Findings show that Japanese consumers are willing to pay 10% price premium for the organic food products compared to conventional products that have no specific labeling, suggesting a significant profit margin to be possibly captured by the organic producers and marketers. The Japanese consumers have perceived value of the JAS label in their stated preference and showed willingness to pay a price premium for this quality certification system, which validates the importance of government-regulated mandatory labeling. Regarding the country origin labeling issue, the Japanese consumers showed clear preference for the domestic organic products to the imported products, while showing no preference for any particular country origin for imported organic products. For private-voluntary organic labeling, the consumer organization-led organic label is considered to be more reliable source than the retailer-guaranteed organic label.