access to markets and rural poverty evidence from household consumption in china abstract this paper presents evidence on the effects of access to domestic and international markets on per capita consumption of households using data from rural china the econometric analysis uses alternative identification schemes to address the potential endogeneity of access to markets we use straight line distances to coastline and navigable river along with the topography of the intervening counties as sources of exogeneous variations we also use identification through heteroskedasticity which does not rely on standard exclusion restrictions the results from alternative identification schemes show that better access to both domestic and international markets has positive effects on per capita consumption the domestic market effect is significantly larger in magnitude and there is complementarity between the access to domestic and international markets

the part time premium enigma an assessment of the chilean case proquest denotes formulae omitted working part time has been seen by some researchers public policy advisers and politicians as a way for women to find a balance between home and paid work gregory and connolly 2008 bardasi and gornick 2008 however there is no agreement on the optimal balance indeed there are contrasting views on the subject those in favor suggest that in the absence of part time jobs female labor force participation would be substantially lower sundstrom 1991 dekker 2008 according to this belief women confronted with the choice between working full time and not working at all would opt for the latter on the other hand detractors in european countries assert that part time jobs imply a waste of resources and of investments in human capital since the many part time working women who are highly educated generally make a downward occupational move when they switch from full time to part time work gregory and connolly 2008 manning and petrongolo 2008 furthermore part time jobs have adverse repercussions for the economic well being of part time working women given that public social welfare benefits wage increases and professional development might be scarce for these women leiva 2000 warren 2008 fernandez kranz and others 2011 fernandez kranz and rodriguez planas 2011 in addition in mem ber countries of the organization for economic cooperation and develop ment oecd hourly earnings are lower manning and petrongolo 2008 and employer provided training less common gregory and connolly 2008 connolly and gregory 2009 in part time jobs than in full time jobs further more in those countries though the hourly earnings gap between women and men in full time work has been narrowing the same is not the case for female part time workers and males in full time jobs manning and petrongolo 2008 part time work among women after the birth of their first child is currently responsible for some of the pay gap between men and women kanji 2011 chile s rate of female labor force participation is one of the lowest in latin american countries cepal un eclac 2011 despite female educational attainment that is similar to or higher than that of other latin american countries carrillo gandelman and robano 2013 to increase female labor force partici pation the chilean government is promoting part time and home based work for women although part time work is not as extensive as in other countries the proportion of chilean women working part time has tripled in the past ten years and part time workers now represent more than 20 percent of the female work force national socio economic characterization survey casen 2009 contreras puentes and bravo 2005 show that in chile the female labor force participation rate is positively correlated with education it is not appar ent why female labor force participation is so low discrimination in the labor market or more generally the existent gender wage gap favorable to males nopo 2012 carrillo gandelman and robano 2013 might partially explain the low female participation rate as might cultural factors contreras and plaza 2010 find that women who have internalized machista values are less likely to participate in the labor market despite concerns of endogeneity owing to data limitations contreras and plaza 2010 find a negative rela tionship between female labor force participation and conservative values puentes and ruiz tagle 2011 using the voz de mujer survey analyze the same phenomenon while controlling for possible endogenous relationships 1 they find that cultural factors are not endogenously determined by a woman s labor participation decision on the contrary it seems that whether women work has little effect on cultural factors in the short term according to their study values develop in early childhood rather than during a woman s work ing life interestingly the same 2002 survey that contreras and plaza 2010 used was reapplied by the centro de estudios publicos and released in april 2012

energy input for tomato production what economy says and what is good for the environment the central fars province is the main tomato producer region in southwest iran this study was undertaken to evaluate the energy consumption patterns of tomato production corresponding ghg emissions and relationships between inputs and output by a cobb douglass econometric model the changes in ghg emissions were also investigated to display if the result is in favor of the environment as well as economy the non hierarchical cluster analysis determined three groups of tomato farmers with respect to the energy inputs and tomato yield c1 c2 and c3 including 90 46 and 20 farmers respectively the findings showed that around 40 60 gj ha energy is needed to produce 54 70 ton ha tomato although the c1 farmers consumed around 20 gj ha higher energy than c3 they also had a higher output input energy ratio 1 15 and 1 12 respectively the ghg emission index ighg disclosed that energy efficiency indices cannot represent the environmental risks of energy inputs since some higher energy efficient groups also emitted higher carbon the econometric analysis revealed that some energy inputs significantly correlates with the yields of c1 and c2 farmers the highest marginal physical productivities mpps however indicated that tomato yield is most sensitive to machinery and chemicals energy inputs in the c1 and c2 respectively which should be considered first to increase in order to achieve productivity enhancement the result displayed that higher energy consumption according to the econometric models and mpps may lead to much higher co2 emissions compared to the current average emissions particularly when mpp is low hence it is suggested that production types with the highest mpps should be considered if change in energy inputs is desired in addition it is recommended that green econometric models are needed to evaluate balanced energy use consumption together with other agronomical economical and the environmental sustainability impact assessment criteria

nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural africa concepts dynamics and policy implications abstract asset activity and income diversification lie at the heart of livelihood strategies in rural africa this paper introduces a special issue on the topic income diversification and livelihoods in rural africa cause and consequence of change we concentrate on core conceptual issues that bedevil the literature on rural income diversification and the policy implications of the empirical evidence presented in this special issue

the effect of labor market performance on deforestation in developing countries under open access an example from rural nepal abstract this research examines the deforestation behavior of smallholder agriculturalists as off farm labor market conditions change a model of a representative village is proposed which incorporates dependence on open access forests for fuelwood and animal raising dynamic simulations are then presented which compare time paths of forest stocks deforestation levels and household labor supply under a variety of conditions despite the open access regime assumed in the model with a perfect albeit low wage off farm labor market the agro forestry system in nepal is basically stable an alternative model where there is no off farm labor market eliminates the important features of adjustment to deforestation which generate forest stability suggesting that the availability of off farm opportunities is an important determinant of deforesting behavior and equilibrium forest stock levels

part time work gender and job satisfaction evidence from a developing country this paper investigates the relationship between part time work and job satisfaction using a recent household survey from honduras in contrast to previous work for developed countries this paper does not find a preference for part time work among women instead both women and men tend to prefer full time work although the preference for working longer hours is stronger for men consistent with an interpretation of working part time as luxury consumption the paper finds that partnered women with children poor women or women working in the informal sector are more likely to prefer full time work than single women partnered women without children non poor women or women working in the formal sector these results have important implications for the design of family and child care policies in low income countries

market integration development and smallholder forest clearance a significant proportion of deforestation in latin america is caused by smallholders living at the frontier of modern rural markets this paper develops a household model that examines the roles of market integration subsistence time preference and non timber forest uses in the household s decision to clear forest for future agriculture the model explores the possible impacts of development programs that encourage market integration the model shows that rates of forest clearance should be exacerbated in areas in which market integration is most rapid an empirical estimation using household data from the tsimane people of bolivia tests hypotheses from the model

soil erosion and labor shortages in the andes with special reference to bolivia 1953ndash 1991 implications for conservation with development abstract many claims in support of soil conservation policies have been flawed by excessively deterministic reasoning and unwarranted spatial overaggregation a case study remedying these flaws demonstrates that soil erosion in the bolivian andes worsened during recent decades 1953 91 due to changes in production as peasants shifted labor from conservation techniques to nonfarm employment these findings reflect in three policy issues concerning sustainable resource management oriented toward development conservation with development are discussed a environmental consequences and economic causes of increased nonfarm employment by part time peasant farmers b environment related aspects of technology innovation and technique modifications in labor scarce peasant production and c the environmental perceptions of peasant farmers in participatory development planning

cash crop production food price volatility and rural market integration in the third world large farmers in the third world often devote to cash crops a larger share of their land than do small farmers this paper suggests a possible explanation even in the presence of food markets third world farmers food security is best assured by food self sufficiency a model of crop portfolio choice under multivariate risk is used to show that reasonable assumptions regarding risk and preferences reproduce the observed pattern simulations further indicate that food market integration reduces the need for food self sufficiency policy implications are drawn regarding domestic trade liberalization and agricultural technology

the digital provide information technology market performance and welfare in the south indian fisheries sector when information is limited or costly agents are unable to engage in optimal arbitrage excess price dispersion across markets can arise and goods may not be allocated efficiently in this setting information technologies may improve market performance and increase welfare between 1997 and 2001 mobile phone service was introduced throughout kerala a state in india with a large fishing industry using microlevel survey data we show that the adoption of mobile phones by fishermen and wholesalers was associated with a dramatic reduction in price dispersion the complete elimination of waste and near perfect adherence to the law of one price both consumer and producer welfare increased

remittances liquidity constraints and human capital investments in ecuador summary over the last decade ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers this paper investigates how remittances via trans national networks affect human capital investments through relaxing resource constraints and facilitate households in consumption smoothing by reducing vulnerability to economic shocks our results show that remittances increase school enrollment and decrease incidence of child work especially for girls and in rural areas furthermore we find that aggregate shocks are associated with increased work activities while remittances are used to finance education when households are faced with these shocks 2008 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

microfinance and moneylender interest rate evidence from bangladesh summary the linkage between the formal and informal credit markets in developing countries has largely been unexplored this paper addresses one important aspect of the linkage by empirically investigating the impact of the intervention of microfinance programs on the moneylender interest rates in northern bangladesh and finds that moneylender interest rates increase with microfinance program coverage higher microfinance program coverage increases moneylender interest rates in the villages in which more loans are invested in productive economic activities than consumption borrowers resort to moneylenders for additional funds probably because of inadequate supply unavailability of seasonal working capital from mfis and tight repayment schedules which in turn increase demand for moneylender loans

inequality as a cause of environmental degradation abstract this paper advances two hypotheses first the extent of an environmentally degrading economic activity is a function of the balance of power between the winners who derive net benefits from the activity and the losers who bear net costs second greater inequalities of power and wealth lead all else equal to more environmental degradation

nonmarket institutions for credit and risk sharing in low income countries the design credit and risk institutions in low income countries provides one of the most exciting testing grounds for theories of contracting with imperfect information and limited enforcement this paper reviews some of the recent literature with a special focus on nonmarket institutions that cope with risk and provide credit this literature attempts to bring together insights from economic theory especially information economics contract theory and mechanism design theory however it is also applied being motivated by the circumstance of the poor countries that their authors have visited and studied

assessing the frontiers of ultrapoverty reduction evidence from challenging the frontiers of poverty reduction targeting the ultra poor an innovative program in bangladesh abstractthis article uses household panel data to provide robust evidence on the effects of brac s building resources across countries targeting the ultra poor tup program in bangladesh we use alternative treatment comparison pairs in addition to brac s own classification we exploit type 1 errors in assignment in brac s selection process to create a second treatment comparison pair this allows us to estimate the program effects on the target group not contaminated by mistargeting to address selection on unobservables we implement heteroskedasticity based identification and two recent estimators based on matching and propensity score reweighting the results show that participation had significant positive effects on food security clothing shoes livestock and cash savings but there is weak or no evidence of an impact on the number of household durables and assets and indicators of health and women s empowerment the effects on the poorest of the poor the target group may be different from

the interaction of population growth and environmental quality an important question for policy is whether holding constant per capita income and other relevant factors population pressures have a significant effect upon environmental degradation the authors examine the effect of population pressures upon deforestation in 64 developing countries in an attempt to provide relevant empirical findings data on deforestation were drawn from the food and agriculture organizations production yearbook results suggest that a relationship exists between per capita income and deforestation and that for africa rural population density shifts the relationship upward the increase in the rate of deforestation levels off as income increases the rate of growth in per capita income also has a significant negative impact upon deforestation although the magnitude of the effect is small the authors close in stressing that reducing the rate of population growth is not necessarily the best way to reduce the rate of deforestation deforestation in developing countries is really a problem of market failure since property rights are often neither defined nor enforced there is essentially no private cost of deforestation with no long term stake in the land people have no incentive to use land efficiently this situation must be addressed in conjunction with the problems of poverty and population growth

smallholder wood production and population pressure in east africa evidence of an environmental kuznets curve the incentives for growing fuelwood on small farms are examined using survey data from kenya the analysis finds that tree planting is a competitive activity and that farmers are responsive to incentives to plant trees these incentives vary across households facing different factor availabilities and market opportunities the existence of a persistent fuelwood gap and the notion that population pressure will lead to declining tree cover are not supported by the analysis a simulation model indicates that as land continues to be subdivided tree cover may actually rise a result consistent with other evidence of an environmental kuznets curve

links between rural poverty and the environment in developing countries asset categories and investment poverty abstract this paper presents a framework for analyzing the links between poverty and the environment in rural areas of developing countries it introduces the concept of investment poverty and relates it to other measures of poverty in analysis of these links the notion of poverty is examined in the context of categories of assets and categories of environment change with particular focus on farm household income generation and investment strategies as determinants of the links the strength and direction of the poverty environment links are shown to differ even invert depending on the composition of the assets held by the rural poor and the types of environmental problems they face policy strategies need to focus on conditioning variables that affect market development community wealth infrastructure household asset distribution and the affordability and appropriateness of natural resource conservation technologies

livelihood diversification in uganda patterns and determinants of change across two rural districts despite the continuing centrality of agriculture to the rural economy of uganda households engage in diverse livelihood strategies this paper presents findings of a two district study of the role of various factors that influence livelihood trends and strategies qualitative and quantitative analysis reveals differences according to wealth gender and between traditional and non traditional occupations comparisons drawn between the two districts kumi in the eastern region and rakai in the central region identify social and historical as well as contemporary levels of investment as the determinants of varying levels of livelihood diversification

peasant household behaviour with missing markets some paradoxes explained a model of peasant household behavior under varying degrees of household specific food and labor market failures is constructed to show that these structural features can explain several well known patterns of peasant response which have often been attributed to peculiar motives presumed specific to peasants the model explains sluggish response to cash crops prices and high instability in perceived food and labor scarcities the key role of manufactured consumer goods prices in stimulating peasants effort in cash crops production the effectiveness of taxation as opposed to incentives in stimulating cash crops production and the key role of technological change in food production to enhance cash crop production results are obtained analytically in the case of one market failure and by numerical simulation with more than one

community based electric micro grids can contribute to rural development evidence from kenya summary in this paper we clarify the mechanisms through which rural electrification can contribute to rural development through a detailed case study analysis of a community based electric micro grid in rural kenya we demonstrate that access to electricity enables the use of electric equipment and tools by small and micro enterprises resulting in significant improvement in productivity per worker 100 200 depending on the task at hand and in a corresponding growth in income levels in the order of 20 70 depending on the product made access to electricity simultaneously enables and improves the delivery of social and business services from a wide range of village level infrastructure e g schools markets and water pumps while improving the productivity of agricultural activities we find that increased productivity and growth in revenues within the context of better delivery of social and business support services contribute to achieving higher social and economic benefits for rural communities we also demonstrate that when local electricity users have an ability to charge and enforce cost reflective tariffs and when electricity consumption is closely linked to productive uses that generate incomes cost recovery is feasible 2008 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

poverty policies and deforestation the case of mexico this study examines the determinants and policy implications of deforestation in mexico and includes a brief review of the relevant empirical literature and a description of the theoretical model land use patterns and socioeconomic and physiogeographic factors are determinants data were obtained from digital maps of land use and soils and the 1990 population and 1991 agricultural censuses a simple 2 period equation formalizes the relationship between deforestation and poverty government policies and local land tenure in period 1 representative producers in municipalities have 4 options in allocating labor time wage generation agricultural production deforestation on land without clear property rights and investment in technology during period 2 the options are to farm on available land and deforested areas or work in the wage sector findings reveal that 1 communal land tenure ownership by the ejido did not increase deforestation 2 pricing that favors maize production which is very land intensive increased deforestation and technical assistance reduced deforestation and 3 poverty was related to higher rates of deforestation prices were the most important immediate factor in unsustainable resource use but other factors had an impact the government policy mix did not support sustainable development reduced subsidies would benefit the environment the government should provide safety nets to increase the level of rural investment and reduce poverty and should improve land productivity with technical inputs trade liberalization and elimination of subsidies should be sensitive to the poors need for real wages

inequality and conservation on the local commons a theoretical exercise to analyse the effect of asset inequality on co operation within a group we consider a twoplayer nonco operative model of conservation of a common pool resource overexploitation by one user affects another s payoff by reducing the next period catch we give necessary and sufficient conditions such that conservation is a nash equilibrium and show that increasing inequality does not in general favour full conservation however once inequality is sufficiently great further inequality can raise efficiency thus the relationship between inequality and economic efficiency is u shaped finally we analyse the implications for conservation if players have earning opportunities outside the commons the daily livelihood of vast masses of the rural poor in many countries depends on the success with which common pool resources cprs such as forest resources grazing lands in shore fisheries and irrigation water are managed and on the environmental consequences of their management understanding the factors that lead to success or failure of community management of these resources is thus critical to rural development cpr management is a collective action dilemma a situation in which mutual cooperation is collectively rational for the group as a whole but individual cooperation is not necessarily individually rational for each member one factor that has not always been recognised as critical to the outcome of collective action dilemmas is heterogeneity among the resource users in this paper our attention will be largely restricted to a single but potent kind of heterogeneity inequality in asset ownership olson 1965 hypothesised that inequality might favour the provision of a public good

telecommunications infrastructure and economic development a simultaneous approach in diesem beitrag wird untersucht welchen einflus die telekommunikations infrastruktur auf die wirtschaftliche entwicklung ausubt diese wichtige frage hat im zusammenhang mit der diskussion um informationsautobahnen aktualitat erlangt in der vorliegenden studie wird der einflus der telekommunikations infrastruktur fur 21 oecdlander fur die vergangenen 20 jahre analysiert es wird ein strukturgleichungsmodell geschatzt in dem investitionen in die telekommunikations infrastruktur als endogene variable erfast werden und in einem mikromodell angebot und nachfrage nach telekommunikations investitionen spezifiziert werden das mikromodell wird dann zusammen mit der makro wachstumsgleichung geschatzt als ergebnis stellen die autoren dann eine positive kausalbeziehung zwischen telekommunikations investitionen und wirtschaftlicher entwicklung fest wenn eine kritische masse an telekommunikations infrastruktur existiert

the extent of the market and stages of agricultural specialization this paper provides empirical evidence of nonlinearity in the relationship between crop specialization in a village economy and the extent of the market size of the urban market relevant for the village the results suggest that the portfolio of crops in a village economy becomes more diversified initially as the extent of the market increases however after the market size reaches a threshold the production structure becomes specialized again this evidence on the stages of agricultural diversification is consistent with the stages of diversification identified in the recent literature for the economy as a whole and also for the manufacturing sector the evidence highlights the importance of improving farmers access to markets through investment in transport infrastructure and removal of barriers to trading

gender property rights and natural resources abstract attention to gender differences in property rights can improve the outcomes of natural resource management policies and projects in terms of efficiency environmental sustainability equity and empowerment of resource users although it is impossible to generalize across cultures and resources it is important to identify the nature of rights to land trees and water held by women and men and how they are acquired and transmitted from one user to another the paper particularly examines how the shift from customary tenure systems to private property in land trees and water has affected women the effect of gender differences in property on collective action and the implications for project design

effects of demographic and related microeconomic change on land quality in hills and mountains of developing countries abstract more than 70 empirical studies indicate that local population growth and its microeconomic manifestations in hills and mountains of developing countries do not necessarily threaten forest production agriculture livestock production or watershed stability population growth can make the cost of land relative to labor increase as this cost increases people often change their methods of managing economic plants and animals and make land improvements to offset initial declines in productivity that result from more frequent use of land thus the relationship between land productivity and relative land labor costs often resembles a u halting population growth or removing people from well settled areas might not improve productivity or reduce some off site damages

the dynamics of changes in the female wage distribution in the usa a quantile regression approach this paper examines the female wage structure focusing on changes at different points in the wage distribution newly developed quantile regression methods are used in analysing data from the march current population survey the results show that while the most significant changes for the less skilled women took place at the bottom of the wage distribution for the more skilled groups changes occurred at both ends of the distribution consequently wage inequality decreased for the high school graduates and increased for the younger college graduates furthermore the more highly skilled women experienced the steepest gain in wages regardless of their position in the distribution 1998 john wiley sons ltd

economic growth and the rise of forests although forests have diminished globally over the past 400 years forest cover has increased in some areas including india in the last two decades aggregate time series evidence on forest growth rates and income growth across countries and within india and a newly assembled data set that combines national household survey data census data and satellite images of land use in rural india at the village level over a 29 year period are used to explore the hypothesis that increases in the demand for forest products associated with income and population growth lead to forest growth the evidence is consistent with this hypothesis which also shows that neither the expansion of agricultural productivity nor rising wages in india increased local forest cover

micro credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development who pays abstract there is a growing acknowledgement that micro credit programs have potential for equitable and sustainable development however my anthropological research on the micro credit program of the grameen bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution to ensure timely repayment in the loan centers bank workers and borrowing peers inflict an intense pressure on women clients in the study community many borrowers maintain their regular payment schedules through a process of loan recycling that considerably increases the debt liability on the individual households increases tension and frustration among household members produces new forms of dominance over women and increases violence in society

infrastructure and rural development insights from a grameen bank village phone initiative in bangladesh abstract the intention of the present paper is to evaluate the role of telecommunications within the contexts of rural development in general and of poverty reduction in particular bangladesh has been selected as a case study due to the uniqueness it displayed in an innovative program for expanded telecom infrastructure in which grameen bank gb of bangladesh the village based micro finance organisation leased cellular mobile phones to successful members gb calls these phones village pay phones vpps the effects of vpps are assessed from two angles sellers of services telephone lessees owners and buyers of services villagers the findings of the study lead to two basic conclusions first pursuance of pragmatic policies can turn telephones into production goods especially through lowering transaction costs and second the services originating from telephones in villages are likely to deliver even more benefits to the poor than to the non poor the vpps also seem to have perceptible and positive effects on the empowerment and social status of phone leasing women and their households for villagers in general phones offer additional non economic benefits such as improved law enforcement more rapid and effective communications during disasters stronger kinship bonding etc gb s style of managing communications can help significantly to expand access to this vital information input for all segments of the population reduce inequality and thus enhance the broad based pro poor orientation of rural development activities

feature the price of reconciliation part time work families and women s satisfaction while the gender pay gap has been narrowing for women in full time jobs the pay penalty for the 40 of women who work part time has risen reflecting the growing polarisation of part time jobs in low wage occupations a further dimension is that women often experience downgrading from higher skill full time into lower skill part time occupations as women reorganise their working lives around the presence of children their reported hours and job satisfaction are highest in part time work but life satisfaction is scarcely affected by hours of work this feature explores these issues and their challenge for economic efficiency as well as gender equity

ict and agricultural productivity evidence from cross country data this article carries out agricultural production function estimations based on data for the period 1995 2000 on 81 countries to present empirical evidence on the relationship between the adoption of information and communication technology ict and agricultural productivity it is found that new ict has a significantly positive impact on agricultural productivity the evidence suggests that the adoption of modern industrial inputs in agricultural production relies on the information and communication infrastructure however the empirical evidence from this study also suggests that new ict could be a factor for the divergence between countries in terms of overall agricultural productivity not only do we find that the ict adoption levels of the richer countries are much higher than those of the poorer countries but also that returns from ict in agricultural production of the richer countries are about two times higher than those of the poorer countries a plausible explanation for the poorer countries relatively low productivity elasticity of ict is the lack of important complementary factors such as a substantial base of human capital

income diversification poverty traps and policy shocks in cote d ivoire and kenya abstract this paper presents evidence on the effects of two different sorts of policy shocks on observed income diversification patterns in rural africa in cote d ivoire households with poor endowments were less able to respond to attractive emerging on farm and non farm opportunities due to entry barriers to superior livelihood strategies the benefits of exchange rate reform accrued disproportionately to households that were richer prior to devaluation by contrast food for work transfers to households in kenya significantly reduced liquidity constraints enabling project participants to pursue more lucrative livelihood strategies in non farm activities and higher return agricultural production patterns jointly these two shocks underscore the importance of liquidity market access and skill constraints to skilled non farm income sources to dynamic poverty traps in rural africa

modeling the choice to switch from fuelwood to electricity implications for giant panda habitat conservation despite its status as a nature reserve wolong nature reserve china has experienced continued loss of giant panda habitat due to human activities such as fuelwood collection electricity though available throughout wolong has not replaced fuelwood as an energy source we used stated preference data obtained from in person interviews to estimate a random utility model of the choice of adopting electricity for cooking and heating willingness to switch to electricity was explained by demographic and electricity factors price voltage and outage frequency in addition to price nonprice factors such as voltage and outage frequency significantly affect the demand thus lowering electricity prices and increasing electricity quality would encourage local residents to switch from fuelwood to electricity and should be considered in the mix of policies to promote conservation of panda habitat 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

globalization and the connection of remote communities a review of household effects and their biodiversity implications abstract the remote regions of the world provide refuge to a disproportionate amount of the earth s biodiversity as globalization continues isolated human communities in these regions are increasingly connected to global market migration and technology networks we review the diffuse literature on the household effects of changing market access migration and technology adoption in remote regions and implications for native biodiversity market access affects biodiversity in remote communities through changes in household economics and social networks migration either to or from remote settlements affects biodiversity through changes in population remittances human capital and social networks finally we consider effects due to production public infrastructure and information and communication technologies there is much ambiguity surrounding these causal pathways and thus we also examine the roles of various ecological household community and institutional mediating factors in determining the impacts of global connection finally we explore the limitations of our current knowledge and research practices and propose directions for future work to address key uncertainties in theory and evidence as well as weaknesses in methodological approaches we recommend a broad and interdisciplinary mode of inquiry as the best means toward clarifying globalization s impacts on human settlements and the biodiversity harbored in the earth s remaining remote regions

microcredit social capital and common pool resources abstract the paper presents a conceptual scheme for understanding the impact of microcredit small loans to poor borrowers on common pool resources impacts on common pool resources are posited to occur through changes in household production and consumption the focus on women and the social capital created from group training decision making and risk bearing with the group lending techniques characteristic of many microcredit programs enhanced human and social capital can improve environmental outcomes a nonrandom survey of microfinance organizations suggests increased environmental awareness and potential cpr stewardship through microcredit but empirical research is needed to demonstrate actual impacts

understanding the coexistence of formal and informal credit markets in piura peru summary this paper examines why farm households seek informal loans in piura peru where formal lenders offer loans at lower interest rates a panel data econometric analysis reveals that the informal sector serves various types of clients households excluded from the formal sector but also households that prefer informal loans because of lower transaction costs or lower risk an in depth examination of contract terms and loan technologies permits an accurate comparison of effective loan costs and contractual risk across sectors and reveals that proximity and economies of scope enjoyed by informal lenders enable them to substitute information intensive screening and monitoring for contractual risk and supply these various types of clients

public infrastructure and private costs water supply and time allocation of women in rural pakistan the role of infrastructure in promoting development has been established it is noted that improvements in infrastructure increase the efficiency of production in this case study the authors investigated how the quality and quantity of infrastructure affect the time women in pakistan allocate to their various activities the focus is on the relationship between access to water at both the household and the community levels and the time allocation of rural women who have the primary responsibility for water collection findings indicate that changes in the availability of infrastructure affect time use both at the household and individual levels at the household level it is shown that poor infrastructure induces women to reduce their market oriented work and thus their contribution to household income moreover poor infrastructure also causes an increase in the total work burden of women and a decrease in leisure however with improved public water supply infrastructure the total time women spend in all activities would be lowered with a substitution of water collection and income generating activities in addition a public water supply system may also reduce the pathogen content of water thereby improving its quality this increase in quality will most likely to bring health and sanitary benefits

colonist land allocation decisions land use and deforestation in the ecuadorian amazon frontier as one of the last agricultural frontiers of the humid tropics amazonia is the largest area of the world currently undergoing frontier settlement although the earliest intrusions of foreign populations into amazonia date from pre hispanic times the large scale entrance of peasant colonists into the vast region is a recent phenomenon much of this movement represents the spontaneous migration of peoples but governments in the region have also become increasingly interested in opening up and integrating amazonia to national and international economies these actions are frequently seen as potential solutions to a number of national problems including the need to increase agricultural production correct spatial imbalances in the distribution of population exploit frontier lands for reasons of national security and defuse potentially serious political problems resulting from the existing agrarian structure landlessness and unemployment the upper basin of the amazon in ecuador bordering on the eastern slopes of the andes is one such area of frontier settlement recent decades have witnessed the rapid conversion of these amazonian forests to agricultural uses through a series of schemes bearing such labels as land development and colonization most forest intervention in the region has come at the hands of colonist farmers attempting to establish land claims along transport routes originally constructed to aid in petroleum exploration and exploitation these are farmers who formerly have made a living in long established farmlands and who for various reasons population pressures pervasive poverty maldistribution of farmland lack of inputs for intensive cultivation lack of nonagrarian livelihood opportunities and generally inadequate rural development have been increasingly squeezed out of their homelands a marginal person by virtue of his low socioeconomic and political status the farmer often perceives

property rights and natural resource management in developing countries this essay surveys the literature on property rights and natural resource management in developing countries focus is on policy relevant discussions concerning collective action property regimes local institutions for natural resource management the evolution of individual property rights to land land titling by government and poverty environment linkages the tendency to draw policy conclusions from simplistic analysis is criticised and the need for more credible empirical research is highlighted

in praise of inequality public good provision and income distribution abstract it is shown that if all individuals contribute towards the provision of a public good their utilities are equalised even if the income distribution is unequal it may seem that there is then no role for redistributive policy but it is proved that social welfare can be raised by creating sufficient income inequality that only the rich provide public goods

biodiesel value chain and access to energy in ethiopia policies and business prospects abstract similar to many net oil importing sub sahara african countries ethiopia s economy is rural and as it stands today it is far from being a fossil fuel based economy instead the economy is largely powered by traditional burning of solid biomass despite its small share in the overall energy supply 7 imported fuel absorbs half of ethiopia s foreign currency earnings the common justifications behind the development of biofuels such as energy source diversification foreign currency saving rural poverty alleviation through employment and technology transfers were all appealing for ethiopian policy advisers in 2007 mostly influenced by the global discourse ethiopia launched a biofuel expansion strategy and a massive ad hoc investment promotion of two biodiesel crops castor and jatropha in this paper we synthesize the various biodiesel development initiatives and modes of production and point out at the gaps in policy formulation and project implementation evaluating the prospect and constraints for biodiesel production in ethiopia we conclude that most of the prerequisites for a viable biodiesel industry still need to be met we identify key areas and priorities to further strengthen the development of the biodiesel sector