A sample selection model for prepared food expenditures

The factors affecting household expenditures on four types of prepared food products from a sample selection model estimated using a two-step method are explored. Results suggest that several variables affect household expenditures on various prepared food products. Factors examined are presence of children, number of earners, region, household size, seasonality, age, race, education, and income.     

性别、生命周期与家庭内部健康投资--中国农户就诊的经验证据

本文使用来自中国 8省农户的数据 ,从家庭内部资源分配框架出发对处于不同性别、生命周期的家庭成员的健康投资进行经验研究。在控制了测量偏误和选择偏误的前提下 ,通过经济计量模型发现 ,在两周就诊概率和费用方面 ,处于生育期和抚育的女性往往在健康投资上获得优先地位。这个结论拓展了已有的家庭内部成员人力资本投资的研究成果 ,揭示出家庭人力资源投资导向必须同时考虑市场和非市场的经济机会 ,尤其是女性在抚育后代方面的比较优势 ,对于女性的健康投资至关重要     

我国三峡库区移民家庭收入的微观影响因素

利用重庆市云阳县移民的调查数据,按移民类型和受教育程度对移民家庭收入进行统计分析。然后,按移民类型、受教育程度、年龄段进行分组,对影响移民家庭收入的微观因素进行回归估计。结果显示:移民家庭的经营土地对其家庭收入的贡献不大;劳动力对家庭收入的贡献最大;从年龄结构的角度看,31～45岁、46～60岁年龄段的劳动力对家庭收入的贡献最大;当劳动力的人均受教育年限达到大专水平时,家庭收入会随着劳动力文化水平的提高而增加;16～30岁年龄组中大专文化劳动力比例对家庭收入的贡献显著为正;31～45岁、46～60岁年龄组中初中文化劳动力比例对家庭收入的贡献显著为负;劳动力的非农业收入明显高于农业收入。最后提出:应鼓励移民从事非农业;鼓励青年和中年劳动力向工业和服务业发达的城市自愿流动;鼓励移民子女接受大专及以上教育;尽快健全城镇和农村移民的养老保险制度和最低生活保障制度。     

Remittances,transaction costs,and informality

Recorded workers' remittances to developing countries reached $167 billion in 2005, bringing increasing attention to these flows as a potential tool for development. In this paper, we explore the determinants of remittances and their associated transaction costs. We find that recorded remittances depend positively on the stock of migrants and negatively on transfer costs and exchange rate restrictions. In turn, transfer costs are lower when financial systems are more developed and exchange rates less volatile. The negative impact of transactions costs on remittances suggests that migrants either refrain from sending money home or else remit through informal channels when costs are high. We provide evidence from household surveys supportive of a sizeable informal sector.     

The effects of external migration on enrolments,accumulated schooling and dropouts in Punjab

External migration in developing countries can relax household income constraints because of external remittances. This paper looks at whether the external migration of individuals in a household has a positive effect on schooling outcomes of children as measured by school enrolments, accumulated level of schooling, number of days spent in school and dropouts in Punjab. Historic migration rates were used to instrument for migration in an analysis of school outcomes for children of different ages to see which group has been most affected by external migration. The results show a significantly positive impact of external migration on the enrolments of younger children, whereas, the accumulated level of schooling for older children increases significantly if there is an external migrant in the household.     

Prices,infrastructure, household characteristics and child height

A Brazilian household survey, ENDEF, in 1974-75 and the 1974 Informacoes Basicas Municipais (IBM) provided data for the analysis of the impact of community services and infrastructure and household characteristics on the logarithm of child height, standardized for age and gender. The sample was comprised of 36,974 children stratified by residential location, the child's age, and the educational level of the mother. Variance and covariance matrices were estimated with the jackknife developed by Efron (1982). Household characteristics included the logarithm of per capita expenditure as a measure of household resource availability, income, and parental education. Community characteristics were local market price indices for 6 food groups (dairy products, beans, cereals, meat, fish, and sugar), level of urbanization, buildings with sewage, water, and electricity connections per capita, per capita number of buildings, and population density. Health services were measured as per capita number of hospitals and clinics and doctors and nurses, and the number of beds are hospital. Educational services include a measure of student teacher ratios, elementary school class size, and per capita number of teachers living in the community. the results show that expenditure had a positive, significant effect on the height of children 2 years and older. Expenditure was a significant determinant for literate and illiterate mothers, and not well educated mothers. The impact of maternal education was largest on the length of babies and declined with the age of the child. Father's education had not impact of length of babies. The effect of parents' education was complementary. The effect of father's education was largest when mothers had some education. Better educated parents had healthier children. Maternal rather than paternal height had an impact of the length of a baby. In the community models, prices had a significant effect on child height, in both urban and rural areas, in all age groups, and for all levels of maternal education. Higher prices were associated with shorter children. Joint price and expenditure interactions were significant. Children at the top of the expenditure distribution were more affected by some prices than by others. Capital building improvements alone and with expenditures were all positively associated with child height. Only nurses per capita impacted on child height.     

Economic behavior,marriage and fertility: two lessons from polygyny

"This paper derives and estimates an index of the relative importance of children in marriage by comparing the effect of husband's income on the actual number of wives in the household with the demand for wives derived from the number of children in the household. Moreover, the paper presents the monogamy bias as a possible explanation for often observed low or negative income effects on fertility." The data are from two surveys carried out around 1971 in Maiduguri, capital of the Northeastern state of Nigeria.     

Labor supply, child care, and welfare in Spanish households

This paper presents a household model in which both spouses work and care for their children, thereby obtaining a measure of household welfare. Applying this model to the Spanish case allows for drawing some basic conclusions. That is, the highest efficiency in caring for children is obtained when time is offered by the mother. Moreover, the time dedicated to child care by the father is considered as leisure time in a higher proportion than time dedicated by the mother. Also, a direct and strong relationship is detected between monetary income and welfare. Household welfare is greater when the children are older, and welfare increases when the father dedicates less time to work outside the home.The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this paper. The authors are also indebted to the Ministerio Español de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales for its financial support.     

Prices versus Rationing: Marshallian Surplus and Mandatory Water Restrictions*

An aggregate daily water demand for Sydney is estimated and used to calculate the difference in Marshallian surplus between using the metered price of household water to regulate total consumption versus mandatory water restrictions for the period 2004/2005. The loss in Marshallian surplus from using mandatory water restrictions is calculated to be $235 million. On a per capita basis this equates to approximately $55 per person or about $150 per household – a little less than half the average Sydney household water bill in 2005.     

DETERMINANTS OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AMONG MIGRANT CHILDREN: SURVEY EVIDENCE FROM CHINA'S JIANGSU PROVINCE*

Abstract.  Across the developing world education is seen as a means of raising levels of everyday wellbeing and is being linked to improved measures of productivity and economic growth. This paper employs a household production function framework to examine the determinants of school attendance among migrant children using a unique dataset collected in China's Jiangsu province. The study finds that the main predictors of school attendance among migrant children in the sample were household income, mother's education, the length of residence of the child's mother in the city and whether both parents were working in the same city.     

Collective consumption and welfare

Abstract.  In this paper, we present a collective model of household demand based on Pareto‐efficiency. In addition, we suppose that (a) each household member is egoistic and consumption is purely private, (b) there is a set of distribution factors and (c) there is one exclusive good. Then we derive the testable restrictions that are implied by this theoretical setting and show how welfare comparisons at the individual level can be performed. JEL classification: D11     

Human resources in China: the birth quota, returns to schooling, and migration

Abstract. The rural elderly in China have 40% of the income of the urban elderly, spend a larger share of their income on food, are in worse health, work later into their lives and depend more on their children, lacking pensions and public services. The birth quota since 1980 has particularly restricted the childbearing of rural, less educated, women, who therefore have fewer children to rely on for support. This inequality is reinforced by increasing returns to schooling, especially beyond secondary school. Government restrictions on rural–urban migration reduces national efficiency, adds to the urban–rural wage gap and increases inequality.     

Reproductive behaviour in peasant societies: a theoretical and empirical analysis

In spite of the concern and repeated attempts to promote population control programs, a coherent and unified theory of peasant reproductive behavior has not emerged. The author attempts to extend the microeconomic foundations of reproductive behavior by considering a dynamic intertemporal model of household production emphasizing survival uncertainty and age specific differences in productive ability. An optimal policy is derived in a single sex model in which decisions are made sequentially based on new information. It is shown that households will follow a stopping rule; the household will continue to reproduce until an optimal number of living children is reached. As a consequence of the stopping rule households will appear to be replacing infant and child deaths if these occurred early in the program. After presenting the model, empirical applications of the theory are explored and the model is estimated using sample survey data collected in Bangladesh in 1977. Issues raised in the analysis are discussed.     

Altruism,household size and migration

"This paper considers the effect of altruism on the relationship between the size of households and the migration decision. It is shown that when the parent has higher altruism toward her children, (i) the household is more likely to migrate, and (ii) the marginal gain from migration increases as the size of the household increases."     

Son Preference,Number of Children,Education and Occupational Choice in Rural Nepal

A unique family survey was conducted in Nepal to investigate the economic consequences of having a first‐born girl. Women have more children, but we find no causal effect of number of children on economic outcomes, but independently of the number of children there is a positive effect on boys’ education of having a first‐born sister, who presumably takes care of household work so the boys can focus on school. This indicates a stronger son preference in Nepal than that found in studies from neighboring countries.     

Remittances channels and the physical growth of Honduran children

Ensuring the availability of food and other resources for young children is important for sustaining physical growth. We examine the role of remittances and its associated implications in determining heights and weights of 4459 children aged 0–5 years in Honduras in 2004. To address the endogeneity problem with household remittance receipt, we take advantage of the timing of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 to construct instrumental variables that are exogenously related to migration decisions made before children included in the later survey were conceived. We find that children are significantly taller and heavier for their age and gender in households receiving remittances. Further investigation of household spending indicates significant changes in food purchases and dietary diversity. Households receiving remittances are more likely to include fish, fruits, and meats in their diets. Additional findings also indicate that households receiving remittances spend absolutely more on food, health care, education, and durable goods. Overall, the findings provide strong evidence that remittances change household consumption and increase children’s body sizes.     

Old age,risk, security and children: an empirical evidence from rural India

An investment model of the demand for children is developed to demonstrate that old-age security provided by children is an important consideration in the fertility decisions of parents. "The paper is organized as follows: Section II presents the importance of children as a source of old age support and risk mitigating mechanism. The investment approach for the demand for children is presented in Section III. Section IV...explores the implications in the context of a recent household survey conducted in rural India. Finally, the findings are summarised in Section V."     

A Micro‐Econometric Analysis of the Antipoverty Effect of Social Cash Transfers in Italy

We analyze the anti‐poverty effect of social cash transfers using a micro‐econometric approach. Aggregate analyses, based on comparing average poverty indicators before and after public transfers, fail to address who receives the transfers and how the transfers are distributed among the poor. We consider three dichotomous outcome variables: (i) poverty status before the receipt of transfers; (ii) the receipt of transfers; and (iii) poverty status after the receipt of transfers. We use a trivariate probit model with sample selection, connecting the outcome variables to the characteristics of the household and its head. Our empirical results highlight that the Italian social transfers system overprotects certain household typologies at the expense of others, as social transfers are primarily awarded to employees with permanent positions and the elderly, while the system is not generous enough to large households with dependant children, the self‐employed, temporary contract workers, and the unemployed.     

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.