Networks of knowledge: how farmers and scientists understand soils and their fertility. a case study from Ethiopia

This paper explores knowledge about soils and their fertility from the perspective of different players, including both scientists and farmers. Different understandings of soils and their management are seen to be bound up with the contexts within which knowledges about soils are created—the networks of players engaged in building knowledge, the settings within which ideas about soils are tested and examined, and the wider assumptions and beliefs that different people carry with them. The contrasting, and sometimes overlapping, understanding of soils by farmers, scientists and development practitioners in Ethiopia is focused on. Drawing on a range of documentary material and detailed fieldwork carried out in Wolayta, southern Ethiopia, over a number of years, the paper argues that a focus on the contexts for the generation of different knowledges helps avoid the unhelpful distinctions often made between indigenous and scientific knowledges, and moves analytical attention towards an assessment of who is involved in knowledge creation and the power relations implied. The paper concludes with a discussion of how multiple knowledges about soils and their fertility might interact in the context of meeting agricultural development challenges and the potential for a productive engagement between different actors and networks.     

Development as Dignity: Dissensus,Equality and Contentious Politics in Bihar,India

This article contributes to the literature on the finance–growth link by presenting new findings based on a new, larger dataset that is an improvement on earlier studies due to its greater coverage in terms of time periods and countries, as well as the incorporation of additional control variables such as institutional quality and the investment rate. Our results demonstrate that financial development does not have a statistically significant effect on economic growth, a finding that is robust to different model specification and estimation techniques. This suggests that the finance–growth link is not as strong as portrayed in the literature, being dependent on the sample of countries and time periods considered.     

Spatial Inequality,Polarization and its Dimensions in Iran: New Empirical Evidence

This paper analyses the extent and dynamics of inequality amongst the provinces of Iran. It reviews theoretical propositions for possible convergence and divergence and argues that, while the evidence from the more developed countries supports the case of convergence, the empirical evidence for developing countries is ambiguous at best. Straight and population weighted measures of inequality are used to see the evolvement of inequality amongst the provinces of Iran with respect to two indicators of income and consumption with a rural and urban break up. Polarization in distribution depicts a disturbing picture for urban areas and this is traced around a few proposed dimensions. The results reveal a close cluster of the provinces in Iran drifting behind the rest of the provinces.     

Horizontal inequality and ethnic diversity in Brazil: patterns,trends, and their impacts on institutions

In this paper, we analyse the patterns and trends of horizontal inequality and ethnic diversity in Brazil in the past 30 years and their effect on the quality of the country’s institutions. Using data from the last four demographic censuses (1980, 1991, 2000, and 2010), we estimate numerous measures to analyse inequalities between different ‘ethnic’ groups. Our results show that, in Brazil between 1980 and 2010, the trend toward greater equality shown in other analyses of vertical inequality, is also found in terms of horizontal inequalities along racial, gender, and regional lines. Nevertheless, horizontal inequalities in terms of race and gender, in particular, remain pronounced. Ethnic diversity regarding race and religion has increased since 1980. Through our regression analysis, we note that both horizontal inequality and ethnic diversity negatively affect the institutional quality of Brazilian municipalities.     

Incorporating Trade into the Investment Development Path: A Case Study of Korea and Taiwan

We suggest that there is some interface between the investment development path (IDP) and the trade development path (TDP)-with both trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) of created asset-intensive products increasing their significance relative to gross national product (GNP) of countries. The proportion of intra-industry trade and FDI to total trade and FDI also increases as an economy develops, particularly so for created asset-intensive products. We have taken the FDI intensity of manufacturing sectors as a proxy for a created asset intensity, and classified it into three categories, viz. above, average and below created asset intensities. Trade and FDI data from the Korean and Taiwan economies between 1968 and 1997 generally support the idea of an integrated TDP and IDP. The growth of trade and FDI tends to be positively correlated with GNP per capita and with the created asset intensity of products.     

Judging agricultural policies: a survey

This survey provides a structured picture of 40 years of literature which uses welfare economic tools to judge agricultural policy. Challenges and developments of normative agricultural policy analysis are discussed in an easily accessible graphical framework. It is shown how the literature has gone from examining a very small discrete set of simple policies to a much broader (often continuous) set of policies that combine policy instruments simultaneously. The importance of the Pareto criterion, used to explore the limits of how government can affect welfare, is revealed. Moreover, given the importance of the objective of income redistribution in agricultural policy, agricultural economists have often departed from the purely efficiency‐oriented tradition in economics. It is shown that they have tried to incorporate equity considerations by either adding these criteria as constraints to the social welfare function, or directly incorporating these criteria in the functional form of the social welfare function.     

Output, prices, and the distribution of consumption in rural India

This article analyzes the relation among agricultural output, inflation, and the distribution of consumption in rural India, using both the Singh–Maddala and Dagum families to model the entire distribution parametrically. Employing a benchmark case in which growth is distributionally neutral and idiosyncratic shocks are completely smoothed, and using a GMM‐estimator to deal with potential simultaneity between output and consumption, we conclude that: (i) growth was not distributionally neutral; (ii) good harvests (relative to trend) yielded improvements according to first‐order stochastic dominance; (iii) slow growth before 1980 went with decreasing inequality; (iv) accelerated growth thereafter tended to increase inequality, though yielding improvements according to first‐order stochastic dominance; (v) consumption smoothing was incomplete.     

Perceived economic pressures and farmer ethics

We hypothesize that an increase in the economic pressures a farmer feels could result in that farmer being more tolerant of unethical conduct than farmers not experiencing economic pressures. To test this hypothesis, we use data from a survey of 3,000 Missouri farmers with farm sales in excess of $10,000 in 2005 in which farmers were asked how acceptable they considered various unethical or questionable farming practices. The survey also contained questions designed to measure perceived economic pressures. We find evidence that economic pressures result in a greater willingness of farmers to tolerate unethical conduct, particularly in the case of actions that have the potential of causing harm or that are influenced by law or contract. We also find that the more frequently a farmer reports observing an unethical action, the more accepting he is of it.     

Effects on poverty and equity of the decline in collective tank irrigation management in Tamil Nadu, India

This paper investigates the factors influencing the decline in collective management of local commons and the impact of this decline on agricultural production and household consumption. The analysis is based on a village and household data set collected in 1999 in Tamil Nadu, India, where tank irrigation systems are managed collectively for rice cultivation by informal water users' organizations. Our statistical analyses find that one major reason for the decline in collective tank irrigation management is the dissemination of private well irrigation systems. Once the decline has occurred, our analyses predict that the gap in rice yields between farmers who have access to private wells and those who must rely solely on tanks will widen, with only the latter group suffering lower yields. Our analyses also find that the same pattern holds for levels of income and consumption because the affected farmers cannot sufficiently compensate for the loss of their rice income by diversifying their income sources to agricultural labor or nonagricultural work. In this way, the decline in collective management results in greater inequality and poverty.     

A cross-section analysis of household demand for food and nutrients in Tanzania

Undernutrition and malnutrition are still problems of unacceptable proportions in many developing countries. However, the debate on the roles of income and other socio-economic variables such as women’s education and household size on food and nutrient demand continues. This study examines the demand for food and nutrients amongst households in Tanzania, using recent survey data. A quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) is employed to estimate price and expenditure elasticities, as well as the impact of socio-economic variables on food demand patterns. A moment-based instrumental variable approach is then used to analyse the determinants of nutrient demand. The results show that income and other socio-economic variables exert significant effects on the demand for food and nutrients. The estimated expenditure elasticities for the nutrients range from 0.307 for iron to 1.26 for Vitamin B₁₂. The elasticities are higher for those micronutrients that are consumed through animal products and lower for those micronutrients that are mainly obtained through staple foods. These results reflect the higher expenditure elasticities for meat, fish, eggs, milk, and milk products, as well as fruits and vegetables, relative to cereals and pulses, reinforcing the assertion that the demand for Vitamins A and B₁₂, as well as calcium and zinc will increase with rising income.     

The impact of migration on rural poverty and inequality: a case study in China

Large numbers of agricultural labor moved from the countryside to cities after the economic reforms in China. Migration and remittances play an important role in transforming the structure of rural household income. This article examines the impact of rural‐to‐urban migration on rural poverty and inequality in a mountainous area of Hubei province using the data of a 2002 household survey. Since migration income is a potential substitute for farm income, we present counterfactual scenarios of what rural income, poverty, and inequality would have been in the absence of migration. Our results show that, by providing alternatives to households with lower marginal labor productivity in agriculture, migration leads to an increase in rural income. In contrast to many studies that suggest that the increasing share of nonfarm income in total income widens inequality, this article offers support for the hypothesis that migration tends to have egalitarian effects on rural income for three reasons: (1) migration is rational self‐selection—farmers with higher expected return in agricultural activities and/or in local nonfarm activities choose to remain in the countryside while those with higher expected return in urban nonfarm sectors migrate; (2) households facing binding constraints of land supply are more likely to migrate; (3) poorer households benefit disproportionately from migration.     

Public investment and regional inequality in rural China

This paper develops a method for decomposing the contributions of various types of public investment to regional inequality and applies the method to rural China. Public investments are found to have contributed to production growth in both the agricultural and rural non‐agricultural sectors, but their contributions to regional inequality have differed by type of investment and the region in which they are made. All types of investment in the least‐developed western region reduce regional inequality, whereas additional investments in the coastal and central regions worsen regional inequality. Investments in rural education and agricultural R&D in the western region have the largest and most favorable impacts on reducing regional inequality.     

High growth and rising inequality in Kerala since the 1980s

Over the last three decades, the state of Kerala in South India has witnessed fast-paced growth, with the highest recorded inequality (in 2009–2010) among all the states in India; however, its human development indicators remain the highest in India. This marks a departure from the well-known development trajectory of Kerala – famously known as the Kerala model – of low growth and moderate inequality with high human development indicators. We conduct GDP and growth decomposition, inequality decomposition and a Marxian class analysis of the National Sample Survey data from Kerala in order to understand these recent phenomena. While the notion that economic liberalization adopted by the state and central governments is the main cause of this new state of affairs is generally valid, we provide a more nuanced account of the causal structures based on class analysis and the impact of outward labour migration to the Persian Gulf.     

Using choice experiments to estimate consumer valuation: the role of experimental design and attribute information loads

With fixed dimensionality of choice experiments (CEs), previous simulation results show that D‐optimal design with correct a priori information generates more accurate valuation. In the absence of a priori information, random designs and designs incorporate attribute interactions result in more precise valuation estimates. In this article, Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the performances of different design strategies are affected by attribute information loads in CEs. Consumer valuation estimates in simulation settings vary with the number of attributes.     

Intra-Country Health Inequalities and Air Pollution in Developing Countries

In the health economics literature, many studies have assessed the association between environmental degradation and health outcomes. This paper extends this literature by investigating how the presence of air pollution might explain health inequalities both between and within developing countries. We argue that differential exposure to air pollution between asset classes, differential ability to prevent the negative health effects of environment degradation, differential capacity to respond to disease caused by pollutants, and particular susceptibility of some groups to the effects of air pollution are all sufficient reasons for explaining a positive link between air pollution and asset-related health inequality. Using data from developing countries, our econometric results show that sulphur dioxide emissions (SO₂) and particulate matter (PM₁₀) partly explain the large disparities in infant and child mortalities between and within developing countries. In addition, we found that the institutions that are based on democratic principles, and which have low levels of corruption and high quality bureaucracy, are the most effective. That is, they are more responsive to the needs of the poor, they promote access to justice and public administration, and they deliver basic services to those most in need. As a result, they are able to more effectively mitigate the mortality effect of pollution for the poorest asset classes compared with that of the richest ones and thus reduce the health inequality it provokes.     

Finance Constraints and Firm Transition in the Informal Sector: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing

This paper focuses on the role of finance constraints in determining the lack of transition of firms in India from very small family firms, which are the predominant type of firms in the informal sector, into larger informal firms that employ non-family labour. Using a rich firm-level data-set drawn from nationally representative surveys of the Indian informal manufacturing sector, this paper tests for the role played by finance constraints in firm transition in the informal sector at the firm and district level. There is evidence that the difficulty that firms face in accessing external finance acts as a significant constraint to small firm growth in the informal sector. Looking at data from India's districts, it is found that the financial development in a given district increases the likelihood that firms in the district will make the transition from household enterprises into non-household enterprises.     

作物保险的政府支持与市场化运作：印度经验与中国

本文剖析了印度全国性和区域作物保险计划，指出印度政府为了稳定农产品生产，通过作物保险手段支持农业，已经取得了很好经验。印度全国性作物保险计划分成两类，一类由政府直接支持，一类为商业性质，而且各邦也根据不同情况，在本地开展作物保险。本文认为，作为WTO《农业协议》“绿箱”政策，中国可借鉴印度发展作物保险的经验模式，在国内恢复和开展作物保险，并注意通过建立作物保险基金、通过各级政府或政府与企业分担风险等方式办理多种作物保险，还要在机制设计上避免逆向选择，并通过构建激励和监督机制，推动作物保险业发展，实现支持粮食生产和保证农户收入的目标。     

Life satisfaction and diet in transition: evidence from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey

This article develops a theoretical framework and provides empirical evidence on the impacts of diet and lifestyles on life satisfaction in Russia using 1995–2005 data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Our results suggest that diet measured as calories, fat, protein, and diversity of food consumption has a statistically significant effect on life satisfaction levels of the Russian population. In addition, living in a region with higher per capita income increases population's life satisfaction. While living in a rural area, having health problems, and having young children affect individual life satisfaction in Russia in a negative and statistically significantly way. Life satisfaction is also positively correlated with education and income, and negatively with unemployment. Better understanding of the drivers of life satisfaction and more generally of subjective well‐being in Russia can assist in the government decision‐making processes, including the allocation of scarce resources and the design of public health policies.     

Regional Economic Growth and Inequality in India during the Pre- and Post-reform Periods

Abstract

This paper evaluates the economic performance of 15 major states in India, and examines whether initially disparate states displayed any tendency towards convergence in real per capita income during the period 1960/61–2006/07. Though the growth performance of the states has improved in the post-reform period, since 1991 the states have diverged in per capita income. The states following different steady-state paths are classified into three clubs—one convergent and two non-convergent. The regional divergence and club convergence are explained in terms of interstate variations in physical and social infrastructures, state-level policy reforms, foreign direct investment flows and economic structure. The poorly performing states could improve their relative economic position by undertaking investments in physical and social infrastructures, and speeding up the reform process by liberalizing investment and infrastructure policies. As industry and services are the major sources of regional divergence, any effort to reduce regional imbalance must focus primarily on these two sectors.     

Ranking efficiency units in DEA using bootstrapping an applied analysis for Slovenian farm data

This article explores how data envelopment analysis (DEA), along with a smoothed bootstrap method, can be used in applied analysis to obtain more reliable efficiency rankings for farms. The main focus is the smoothed homogeneous bootstrap procedure introduced by Simar and Wilson (1998) to implement statistical inference for the original efficiency point estimates. Two main model specifications, constant and variable returns to scale, are investigated along with various choices regarding data aggregation. The coefficient of separation (CoS), a statistic that indicates the degree of statistical differentiation within the sample, is used to demonstrate the findings. The CoS suggests a substantive dependency of the results on the methodology and assumptions employed. Accordingly, some observations are made on how to conduct DEA in order to get more reliable efficiency rankings, depending on the purpose for which they are to be used. In addition, attention is drawn to the ability of the SLICE MODEL, implemented in GAMS, to enable researchers to overcome the computational burdens of conducting DEA (with bootstrapping).