a simple estimator for simultaneous models with censored endogenous reggressors this paper presents a simple two step estimator for models with censored endogenous regressors and sample selection bias the approach unifies the literature on censored endogenous regressors and sample selection bias and provides extensions the procedure employs generalized residuals to adjust for the inconsistency caused by the endogeneity of the censored regressors the paper also provides two new tests of weak exogeneity an empirical example examining the trade off between fringe benefits and wages indicates that the estimation procedure works well a monte carlo experiment suggests that the proposed tests have good power properties copyright 1993 by economics department of the university of pennsylvania and the osaka university institute of social and economic research association

cash transfer programs with income multipliers procampo in mexico abstract cash transfer programs create multiplier effects when recipients put the money they receive to work to generate further incomes when this is the case the ultimate income effects are multiples of the amounts transferred we analyze the procampo program in mexico that was introduced to compensate farmers for the anticipated negative effect of nafta on the prices of basic crops the transfer rules and the timing of the panel data collected allow unique control of biases in this impact analysis we find that the multiplier among ejido sector recipients is in the range 1 5 2 6 multipliers are higher for households with medium and large farms low numbers of adults in the household nonindigenous backgrounds and located in the center and gulf regions high multipliers reflect income opportunities that had remained unrealized due to liquidity constraints that are relaxed by the transfers opportunities come from the asset endowments that these households received through the land reform particularly irrigated land and they are enhanced by access to technical assistance

tracking poverty over time in the absence of comparable consumption data following the endorsement by the international community of the millennium development goals mdg there has been an increasing demand for practical methods for steadily tracking poverty an economically intuitive and inexpensive methodology is explored for doing so in the absence of regular comparable data on household consumption the minimum data requirements for this methodology are the availability of a household budget survey and a series of surveys with a comparable set of asset data also contained in the budget survey this method is illustrated using a series of demographic and health surveys for kenya

credit market constraints consumption smoothing and the accumulation of durable production assets in low income countries investments in bullocks in india in this paper we formulate and estimate a finite horizon structural dynamic model of agricultural investment behavior that incorporates the major features of low income agricultural environments income uncertainty constraints on borrowing and rental markets and the use of investment assets to generate income and smooth consumption the model is fit to longitudinal indian household data on farm profits bullock stocks and pump sets the estimated structural parameters are used to assess the effects on the life cycle accumulation of bullocks agricultural profits and welfare associated with complete markets and bullock liquidity and with second best policies that provide assured sources of income to farmers and weather insurance

old problems in the new solutions politically motivated allocation of program benefits and the new fertilizer subsidies summary fertilizer subsidies have been reinstituted in many african countries with innovations seeking to avoid the downsides of past programs the new subsidy paradigm however does not address how to curtail political manipulation which exacerbated inefficiencies of previous programs this paper analyzes whether politics affected voucher allocations in ghana s 2008 fertilizer subsidy program we find that more vouchers were targeted to districts that the ruling party had lost in the previous presidential elections and more so in districts that had been lost by a higher percentage margin this evidence shows that a significant threat to the efficiency of fertilizer subsidies remains

marketed surplus under risk do peasants agree with sandmo using a newly defined notion of aversion to income risk the behavior of the marketed surplus producer under price risk is characterized unlike the familiar case first examined by sandmo output depends on both ordinal preferences for goods and on risk attitudes conditions are found that yield an output level under risk that is smaller than under certainty if these conditions do not hold both risk and risk aversion may have a positive effect on output implications for econometric studies of risk attitudes are considered and illustrated with an example finally we examine the effect of uncertainty on the peasant s long run equilibrium

a trait based model of the potential demand for a genetically engineered food crop in a developing economy we predict the potential demand of smallholder farmers for genetically transformed varieties of a food crop the cooking banana of the east african highlands farmer demand for planting material is derived in an agricultural household model that accounts for variety traits and missing markets the demand for candidate host varieties is predicted using a zero inflated poisson zip regression system the fitted model is used to illustrate the sensitivity of farmer demand for improved planting material to a investments in research and development represented by the effectiveness of gene insertion and expression and b other public investments in education extension and market infrastructure that support diffusion by comparing the characteristics of agricultural households we demonstrate that the choice of host variety can have social consequences favoring one rural population compared with another clients for transgenic banana planting material are likely to be poorer subsistence oriented farmers in areas greatly affected by biotic constraints a model of this type might be useful in assessing the investments needed to support the systematic dissemination of improved planting material the approach can be generalized to other crop biotechnologies for smallholder farming systems particularly in developing economies

world poverty and the role of agricultural technology direct and indirect effects agricultural technology can help reduce poverty through direct and indirect effects direct effects are gains for the adopters while indirect effects are gains derived from adoption by others leading to lower food prices employment creation and growth linkage effects conceptualising and measuring these effects is highly complex yet is needed for each region if technology is to be used as an effective instrument for poverty reduction we propose a methodology for doing this in the context of computable general equilibrium modelling and apply it to archetype models for africa asia and latin america results show that the dominant effect of technology on poverty is through direct effects in africa indirect agricultural employment effects in asia and linkage effects through the rest of the economy in latin america in each case increasing the poverty reduction effect through the targeting of technology across crops and through complementary rural development programmes is also explored

weighing what s practical proxy means tests for targeting food subsidies in egypt abstract despite achieving a significant cost reduction over the past two decades the absolute cost of food subsidies in egypt is still high relative to the benefits received by the poor there is scope for better targeting these food subsidies in particular for targeting cooking oil and sugar ration cards both because reforms in this area are perceived to be far less politically sensitive than adjusting subsidy policy for bread and wheat flour and because higher income groups presently receive a significant percentage of the benefits targeting the high subsidy green ration cards to the poor and the low subsidy red ration cards to the nonpoor will require identification of both poor and nonpoor households an international food policy research institute research team in egypt in collaboration with the egyptian ministry of trade and supply developed a proxy means test for targeting ration cards the paper describes the process of moving from the optimal income predicting model to the final model that was both administratively and politically feasible an ex ante evaluation of the levels of accuracy of the proxy means testing model indicates that the model performs quite well in predicting the needy and nonneedy households an effective and full implementation of this targeting method would increase the equity in the ration card food subsidy system and at the same time the total budgetary costs of rationed food subsidies would decline moreover the experience gained under this reform would facilitate targeting future social interventions to reduce and prevent poverty in egypt

dis incentivizing sustainable intensification the case of zambia s maize fertilizer subsidy program abstract poor and declining soil fertility is a major constraint to increased cereal yields in sub saharan africa while input subsidy programs isps for inorganic fertilizer are a popular and expensive tool used by african governments to increase smallholder farmers cereal yields far fewer resources are devoted to promoting other soil fertility management sfm practices that can improve soil health increase cereal yield response to inorganic fertilizer and support sustainable agricultural intensification moreover little is known about how isps affect farmers use of such sfm practices we examine whether and to what extent household participation in zambia s maize fertilizer subsidy program affects the household s use of fallowing intercropping crop rotation and animal manure using nationally representative panel survey data from zambian smallholder farm households we find that zambia s maize fertilizer subsidy program reduces the probability and extent of fallowing and intercropping of maize with other crops in addition we find some evidence that the program induces an increase in continuous maize cultivation on the same plot over time however the weight of the evidence suggests no statistically significant isp effects on the use of animal manure the analysis uses the mundlak chamberlain device to control for time invariant unobserved heterogeneity and addresses concerns related to the endogeneity of selection into the subsidy program with an instrumental variables control function approach overall our results suggest that zambia s maize fertilizer subsidy program may have dis incentivized sustainable intensification rather than promoted it

raising primary school enrolment in developing countries the relative importance of supply and demand abstract few policies are as universally accepted as raising primary school enrolment in developing countries but the policy levers for achieving this goal are not straightforward this paper merges household survey data with detailed school supply characteristics from official sources in order to estimate the relative impact of demand and supply side determinants of rural primary school enrolment in mozambique policy simulations based on a set of plausible interventions show that in rural mozambique building more schools or raising adult literacy will have a larger impact on primary school enrolment rates than interventions that raise household income when relative costs are considered adult literacy campaigns are nearly 10 times more cost effective than the income intervention and 1 5 to 2 5 times better than building more schools

how far down the path to free trade the importance of rice price stabilization in developing asia abstract international trade agreements are pushing the world in the direction of free trade but price stabilization which is inconsistent with completely free trade remains important in developing asia because of the large share of rice in economic output a policy of pure price stabilization for rice without consistent protection either subsidization or taxation can help to create the macroeconomic stability that is essential for sustained rapid economic growth by increasing the quantity and efficiency of investment throughout the economy pure price stabilization can also generate significant equity gains by protecting poor consumers and farmers from sharp fluctuations in prices while domestic commodity price stabilization schemes have a checkered history around the world the experience of asian countries in stabilizing rice prices offers more scope for optimism asian governments have been generally successful in stabilizing rice prices and there are several instances where this has been accomplished without sustained protection of either consumers or farmers however there is room for improved stabilization mechanisms that would lower the costs of intervention

wages mobility and firm performance advantages and insights from using matched worker firm data to illustrate the wide applicability of longitudinal matched employer employee data we study the simultaneous determination of worker mobility and wage rates using an econometric model that allows for both individual and firm level heterogeneity the model is estimated using longitudinally linked employer employee data from france structural results for mobility show remarkable heterogeneity with both positive and negative duration dependence present in a significant proportion of firms the average structural returns to seniority are essentially zero but this result masks enormous heterogeneity with positive seniority returns found in low starting wage firms

understanding the process of agricultural technology adoption mineral fertilizer in eastern dr congo summary we analyze the adoption of mineral fertilizer in south kivu we model technology adoption as a three step process including awareness tryout and adoption and empirically analyze these steps using cross sectional farm household data and bivariate and heckman selection probit models we find that awareness about fertilizer is high 57 and mainly determined by education and social capital tryout is low 13 of aware farmers but positively influenced by extension interventions continued adoption is high 70 of tryout farmers but capital constraints are important and not all extension interventions are effective for continued adoption our results entail implications for extension policies in poor areas

state intervention for food price stabilisation in africa can it work abstract although its arguments may have more general applicability this paper discusses the desirability and options for the stabilisation of staple food prices principally in eastern and southern africa it addresses three broad questions i why is stabilisation of food grain prices desirable ii what is technically feasible and iii can the governance and trade issues thrown up by suggested mechanisms be solved it considers a number of options for price stabilisation assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each and suggesting situations in which each may be appropriate

the impact of soil conservation and output diversification on farm income in central american hillside farming this article analyzes the determinants of farm income among hillside farmers participating in natural resource management projects in el salvador and honduras the farm income function was evaluated using a system of equations in which income is determined simultaneously by the farmer s decision to adopt soil conservation technologies and by the level of diversification number of agricultural activities on the farm the database used comes from surveys administered to 678 beneficiaries of these projects during 2002 the econometric results suggest that all the variables related directly to land use i e output diversification soil conservation practices and structures and the adoption of forestry systems have a positive and statistically significant association with farm income also farmers who own land enjoy higher farm incomes than those who do not the results indicate that when investing in natural resource management projects governments and multilateral development agencies should pay close attention to output diversification land tenure and human capital formation as effective instruments in increasing farm income

technical efficiency and productivity of maize producers in eastern ethiopia a study of farmers within and outside the sasakawa global 2000 project abstract this paper investigates the technical efficiency of two samples of maize producers in eastern ethiopia one involving farmers within the sasakawa global 2000 project and the other involving farmers outside this program the study uses stochastic frontier production functions in which the technical inefficiency effects are assumed to be functions of the age and education of the farmers together with the time spent by extension advisers in assisting farmers in their agricultural production operations for the cross sectional data obtained for the 1995 96 agricultural year cobb douglas stochastic frontiers are found to be adequate representations of the data given the specifications of the translog stochastic frontiers for farmers within and outside the project the empirical results indicate that farmers within the sg 2000 project are more technically efficient than farmers outside the project relative to their respective technologies the mean frontier output of maize for farmers within the sg 2000 project is significantly greater than that for the farmers outside the project

adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries a survey this paper reviews various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector the survey points out that the tendency of many studies to consider innovation adoption in dichotomous terms adoption nonadoption may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range more attention needs to be given to the socio cultural and institutional environment in area studies so that their interrelation with economic factors affecting adoption can be inferred the presence of several interrelated innovations is another aspect that needs to be considered more carefully in future research since a number of simultaneous decisions may be involved furthermore the possibility of regular sequential patterns in adopting components of a new technological package should be specifically addressed in future studies finally the impact of differential adoption rates on land holding distribution merits attention in future research

social capital and coping with economic shocks an analysis of stunting of south african children abstract south african households live in an environment characterized by risks and many face a significant probability of experiencing economic losses that threaten their daily subsistence using household panel data that include directly solicited information on economic shocks and employing household fixed effects estimation we explore how well households cope with shocks by examining the effects of shocks on child nutritional status unlike in the idealized village community some households appear unable to insure against risk particularly when others in their communities simultaneously suffer large losses households in communities with more social capital however seem better able to weather shocks

ex post impacts of improved maize varieties on poverty in rural ethiopia public agricultural research has been conducted in africa for decades while many studies have examined its aggregate impacts few have investigated how it affects the poor this paper helps fill this gap by applying a new procedure to explore the ex post impacts of improved maize varieties on poverty in rural ethiopia plot level yield and cost changes due to adoption are first estimated using instrumental variable and marginal treatment effect techniques where possible heterogeneity is carefully accounted for a backward derivation procedure is then developed to link treatment effect estimates with an economic surplus model to identify the counterfactual household income that would have existed without improved maize varieties poverty impacts are finally estimated by exploiting the differences between observed and counterfactual income distributions improved maize varieties have led to a 0 8 1 3 percentage drop of poverty headcount ratio and relative reductions of poverty depth and severity however poor producers benefit the least from adoption due to the smallness of their land holdings

measuring the impacts of agricultural research on poverty reduction policymakers are increasingly calling upon agricultural research managers to consider poverty reduction objectives when making resource allocations the authors present a simple method to measure the impact of agricultural research on the poor this method has the advantage that it presents the results in a manner consistent with commonly used measures of poverty this consistency and focus should facilitate and enhance dialogue between policymakers and research managers when deciding on resource allocations and assessing impacts on poverty reduction an illustrative application is presented using data from malawi

maize of the ancestors and modern varieties the microeconomics of high yielding variety adoption in malawi farmer adoption of seed fertilizer technology can be characterized in terms of several interrelated choices one choice is whether to adopt only seed only fertilizer or both components of the technology adoption another choice relates to the extent of land allocation to modem and to farmers seed varieties extent of adoption a third choice is the level per hectare of either seed or fertilizer or both intensity of adoption 1 in the literature about agricultural innovations in developing countries some theoretical models treat more than one aspect of the adoption decision 2 but most econometric approaches have portrayed only the discrete adoption choice for a single input although farmers often adopt parts or components of recommended technology neither the theoretical nor the econometric models have included the level of fertilizer applied to farmers varieties in the analysis of seed fertilizer adoption 3 two features of the seed fertilizer adoption decision as defined above are particularly evident in malawi first even when farmers adopt hybrid maize they continue to allocate a part of their maize area to their own varieties microeconomic theory provides four explanations for land allocation to both modern and traditional seed variet

labor shortages on small landholdings in malawi implications for policy reforms abstract a simple linear programming model of representative smallholder households is used to investigate the sources of relative scarcity of labor and land in malawi the paradox of on farm labor shortages on small landholdings can be explained by the multiple constraints smallholders face these multiple constraints including lack of finance concerns for food security and others lead to suboptimal allocations of household resources in turn the low returns to labor and land contribute to household food insecurity and a vicious cycle of poverty the findings of the paper provide a clear signal to policymakers and research and extension institutions that these constraints are all linked and addressing one cannot be effective without addressing the others

decomposing producer price risk a policy analysis tool with an application to northern kenyan livestock markets abstract this paper introduces a simple method of price risk decomposition that determines the extent to which producer price risk is attributable to volatile inter market margins intra day variation intra week day of week variation or terminal market price variability we apply the method to livestock markets in northern kenya a setting of dramatic price volatility where price stabilization is a live policy issue in this particular application we find that large variable inter market basis is the most important factor in explaining producer price risk in animals typically traded between markets local market conditions explain most price risk in other markets in which traded animals rarely exit the region variability in terminal market prices accounts for relatively little price risk faced by pastoralists in the dry lands of northern kenya although this is the focus of most present policy prescriptions under discussion

learning by doing and learning from others human capital and technical change in agriculture household level panel data from a nationally representative sample of rural indian households describing the adoption and profitability of high yielding seed varieties hyvs associated with the green revolution are used to test the implications of a model incorporating learning by doing and learning spillovers the estimates indicate that i imperfect knowledge about the management of the new seeds was a significant barrier to adoption ii this barrier diminished as farmer experience with the new technologies increased iii own experience and neighbors experience with hyvs significantly increased hyv profitability and iv farmers do not fully incorporate the village returns to learning in making adoption decisions

the macro dimensions of food security economic growth equitable distribution and food price stability abstract rather than asking how to cope with hunger and famine the question might be how to escape their threat altogether important in this regard is recognizing that agriculture and the rural economy are greatly influenced by policies and outcomes in the rest of the economy strategies include economic growth with unchanging income distribution and growth with redistribution the latter encourages balanced growth to create non farm employment opportunities while investing in rural infrastructure

endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance abstract we use a well developed dynamic panel generalized method of moments gmm estimator to alleviate endogeneity concerns in two aspects of corporate governance research the effect of board structure on firm performance and the determinants of board structure the estimator incorporates the dynamic nature of internal governance choices to provide valid and powerful instruments that address unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity we re examine the relation between board structure and performance using the gmm estimator in a panel of 6 000 firms over a period from 1991 to 2003 and find no causal relation between board structure and current firm performance we illustrate why other commonly used estimators that ignore the dynamic relationship between current governance and past firm performance may be biased we discuss where it may be appropriate to consider the dynamic panel gmm estimator in corporate governance research as well as caveats to its use

can crop purchase programs reduce poverty and improve welfare in rural communities evidence from the food reserve agency in zambia the last decade has seen a resurgence of parastatal crop marketing institutions in sub saharan africa many of which cite improving food security and incomes as key goals however there is limited empirical evidence on the welfare effects of these programs this article considers one such program the zambian food reserve agency fra which purchases maize from smallholder farmers at a pan territorial price that typically exceeds maize market prices in surplus production areas using both fixed effects and an instrumental variables approach combined with correlated random effects we estimate the effects of the fra s maize marketing activities on smallholder farm household welfare results suggest that fra activities have positive direct welfare effects on the small minority of smallholder households that are able to sell to it however the results also suggest negative indirect fra effects as higher levels of fra activity in a district are associated with higher levels of poverty

the developing world is poorer than we thought but no less successful in the fight against poverty a new data set on national poverty lines is combined with new price data and almost 700 household surveys to estimate absolute poverty measures for the developing world we find that 25 of the population lived in poverty in 2005 as judged by what poverty typically means in the world s poorest countries this is higher than past estimates substantial overall progress is still indicated the corresponding poverty rate was 52 in 1981 but progress was very uneven across regions the trends over time and regional profile are robust to various changes in methodology though precise counts are more sensitive

board independence and operating performance analysis on french company and individual data this article studies the relationship between board independence and firm operating performance in french listed companies we take advantage of an original database with a time series dimension that can be used to mitigate heterogeneity and dynamic endogeneity issues in addition this database can be disaggregated at the individual director level this design enables us to introduce firm fixed effects and individual fixed effects in firm performance equations thereby controlling for heterogeneity at the firm and individual levels our main result is to document a significant negative relationship between independence and accounting performance this result suggests that in the french context the costs of independence i e the informational gap supported by independent directors compared to insiders and affiliated directors outweigh the benefits of independence i e the reduction in agency costs

are women overrepresented among the poor an analysis of poverty in 10 developing countries abstract this paper presents new evidence on the proportion of women in poverty in 10 developing countries it compares poverty measures for males and females and for male and female headed households and investigates the sensitivity of these measures to the use of per capita and per adult equivalent units and different definitions of the poverty line while poverty measures are higher for female headed households and for females the differences are significant in only a fifth to a third of the datasets the contribution of female headed households to aggregate poverty is less than that of females due to the low population share of the former stochastic dominance analysis reveals that differences between male and female headed households and between males and females are often insignificant except for ghana and bangladesh where females are consistently worse off these results suggest that cultural and institutional factors may be responsible for higher poverty among women in these countries our results point to the need to analyze determinants of household income and consumption using multivariate methods and to give greater attention to the processes underlying female headship

risks and farmers investment in productive assets in nigeria the majority of farmers in sub saharan africa ssa lack the means to mitigate the impact of risks associated with rainfall and commodity prices due to capital constraints and the imperfect insurance market in these countries because most ssa farmers are risk averse they may be willing to invest in productive assets that can mitigate the impacts of such risks if their capital constraints are relaxed through external financial assistance we test this hypothesis by using panel data on investment behavior of nigerian farmers who received financial assistance on productive assets the empirical results show that farmers facing higher rainfall risks are more likely to invest in irrigation pumps that can mitigate the impact of rainfall risks while those facing higher risks of white gari price are more likely to invest in milling machines that enable them to process cassava into flour instead of gari which supports our hypothesis

a women s boom in the boardroom effects on performance this article analyzes whether improving gender diversity in boardrooms improves firms economic performance in the context of french cac40 listed companies between 2008 and 2012 this research uses instrumental variable panel regressions including production frontier estimates to arrive at two key results first gender diversity in boards depends on firms attributes including their previous gender promotion strategies second promoting women in boardrooms has a significant and positive effect on economic performance after accounting for the endogeneity of diversity gender diversity even reduces corporate inefficiencies and enables firms to come closer to their optimal performance

impacts of food crop improvement research evidence from sub saharan africa abstract the paper reviews and summarizes evidences of impacts of crop improvement research of major food crops in africa it provides evidence of increased availability of improved varieties of major food crops to farmers in africa increased food production in regions where adoption has occurred and positive returns to research investment indicating that agricultural research in africa has had productivity increasing impacts on its agriculture however research impacts vary considerably across countries and regions within a country as a result of agroclimatic factors and policy environment which affects the supply of seeds and other inputs and the continuity and stability of research investments the paper points to a number of important issues both internal and external to the agricultural research system organization that need to be addressed if agricultural research is to provide a stimulus for modernizing african agriculture given the small size of food crop production area in many african countries it is important for research systems to take full advantage of research spill ins from regional and international research organizations there is a great potential to increase the efficiency of research systems by improving the coordination among members of national research systems and continuing improvements in collaborations between narss and regional and international organizations

impact of conservation agriculture technology on household welfare in zambia this article examines the determinants and impact of conservation agriculture ca technology adoption on farm household welfare in zambia to account for selection bias from both observable and unobservable factors an endogenous switching regression model is employed to estimate the impact of the technology on continuous outcomes like farm output throughput accounting ratio tar poverty gap and severity of poverty a recursive bivariate probit model is however used for the estimation of impact of adoption on a binary outcome like poverty headcount the empirical findings demonstrate that the adoption of ca technology increases maize output and farm tar and reduces household poverty moreover the results reveal that farmers years of schooling social networks access to credit extension services and machinery as well as soil quality positively influence adoption of ca technology

agricultural technology crop income and poverty alleviation in uganda summary this paper evaluates the ex post impact of adopting improved groundnut varieties on crop income and poverty in rural uganda the study utilizes cross sectional data of 927 households collected in 2006 from seven districts in uganda using propensity score matching methods we find that adopting improved groundnut varieties technology significantly increases crop income and reduces poverty the positive and significant impact on crop income is consistent with the perceived role of new agricultural technologies in reducing rural poverty through increased farm household income this study supports broader investment in agriculture research to address vital development challenges reaching the poor with better technologies however requires policy support for improving extension efforts access to seeds and market outlets that simulate adoption

impacts of subsidized hybrid seed on indicators of economic well being among smallholder maize growers in zambia we test the hypotheses that subsidies on hybrid seed change maize production total household income the severity of poverty and relative deprivation among smallholder maize growers in zambia the analysis contributes to the literature by measuring the quantitative effects of seed as compared to fertilizer subsidies on indicators of household well being rather than input demand we apply a combination of econometric approaches to a nationally representative balanced panel of smallholder maize growing households and invoke the chain rule to generate quantitative estimates of impacts per kilogram of subsidized seed our findings demonstrate that in the initial years of the program subsidized seed enhanced the well being of smallholder maize growers according to each indicator but by small magnitudes simple calculations suggest high private and social benefit cost ratios when benefits are measured in terms of household income although magnitudes are sensitive to seed price and administrative costs

ex ante agricultural research evaluation with site specific technology generation the case of sorghum in kenya abstract agricultural commodity research has very site specific productivity impacts crucial determinants of the magnitude and distribution of research benefits include agroecological conditions for technology generation and adoption as well as commodity market structure this paper presents a process for ex ante research evaluation which accounts for these factors with a dynamic spatial multi market model simulation results based on sorghum research in kenya demonstrate that potential research benefits can vary dramatically across program research target zones in kenya however population induced demand growth not technological development will have the greatest influence on future sorghum markets

uninsured health shocks and agricultural productivity among rural households the mitigating role of micro credit this article investigates how health shocks affect farm productivity in the presence of microcredit it is expected that microcredit increases agricultural productivity by enhancing allocative and

markets and pro poor agricultural growth insights from livelihood and informal rural economy models in malawi this article presents the development of a set of programming models describing the major features of different rural livelihoods and of the informal rural economy they together make up in malawi the models allow for differentiated responses by different household types to change and for the partial equilibrium effects of consequent supply demand and price adjustments in labor and grain markets the models provide insights into the relations between own farm and nonown farm activities in different households livelihoods and in the informal rural economy as a whole and are used to investigate possible impacts of increasing cash crop prices and of a more open rural economy impacts of these changes on the poor are found to be critically dependent upon supply and demand elasticities in labor and grain markets but the poor could potentially suffer significant losses from increased openness of the local economy leading to increased expenditure by less poor households on imported goods and services

zambia s input subsidy programs over the last decade subsidies for fertilizer and hybrid maize seed have re emerged as a cornerstone of the government of the republic of zambia s grz s agricultural development and poverty reduction strategies this article reviews the farmer input support programme fisp and other grz input subsidy programs since structural adjustment it then synthesizes existing and presents new empirical evidence on the programs targeting outcomes and effects results suggest that although 73 of smallholder households cultivate less than 2 hectares of land and that these households constitute 78 of the smallholder farms below the us 1 25 capita day poverty line the majority 55 of fisp fertilizer goes to households that cultivate larger areas other factors constant wealthier households receive more subsidized inputs subsidized fertilizer promotes maize intensification and extensification at the expense of fallow land but an additional kg of subsidized fertilizer only raises maize output by 1 88 kg on average as a result of low maize fertilizer response rates poor targeting crowding out and diversion of fertilizer intended for the program financial benefit cost ratios for fisp fertilizer are well below one the article concludes with recommended reforms to fisp including that it be downsized and the savings invested in known drivers of pro poor agricultural growth

micro level welfare impacts of agricultural productivity evidence from rural malawi this article analyses the micro level welfare impacts of agricultural productivity using a two wave nationally representative panel data from rural malawi welfare is measured by various dimension

the poverty impacts of improved cowpea varieties in nigeria a counterfactual analysis adoption of improved agricultural technologies has long been recognized as critical for reducing poverty through increased productivity incomes and asset accumulation using a nationally representative survey data from a sample of over 1500 households in nigeria this paper evaluates the impacts of adoption of improved cowpea varieties on income and asset poverty reduction using an endogenous switching regression model the results showed that adoption of improved cowpea varieties increased per capita household income and asset ownership by 17 and 24 percentage points respectively the results based on the observed and counterfactual income and asset distributions further showed that adoption reduced both income poverty and asset poverty by 5 percentage points the paper concludes with a discussion of the policy options for increasing adoption and impacts of improved cowpea varieties in nigeria

education and innovation adoption in agriculture evidence from hybrid rice in china this paper uses the diffusion of f1 hybrid rice as a case for examining the effects of education on the adoption of new technology in china a simple behavioral model that treats the adoption of hybrid rice as a portfolio selection problem is presented the implications of the model are tested with farm level data collected from a sample of 500 households in hunan province the results from a dichotomous probit model and a two limit tobit model are consistent with the hypothesis that education has a positive impact on the adoption of new technology

investor protection and corporate governance recent research has documented large differences among countries in ownership concentration in publicly traded firms in the breadth and depth of capital markets in dividend policies and in the access of firms to external finance a common element to the explanations of these differences is how well investors both shareholders and creditors are protected by law from expropriation by the managers and controlling shareholders of firms we describe the differences in laws and the effectiveness of their enforcement across countries discuss the possible origins of these differences summarize their consequences and assess potential strategies of corporate governance reform we argue that the legal approach is a more fruitful way to understand corporate governance and its reform than the conventional distinction between bank centered and market centered financial systems

agricultural commercialisation and food security in rural economies malawian experience this paper contributes to the debate on the nutrition related outcomes of cash crop adoption by using a model with essential heterogeneity and a semi parametric estimation technique the model expl

disrupting demand for commercial seed input subsidies in malawi and zambia summary this study uses nationally representative household level panel data from malawi and zambia to identify the determinants of subsidized maize seed and fertilizer receipt and to estimate how input subsidies affect households commercial purchases of improved maize seed varieties in both countries we find that households in areas where the ruling party won the last presidential election acquire significantly more subsidized inputs than other households results also indicate that each additional kilogram of subsidized maize seed acquired by a household reduces its commercial improved maize seed purchases by 0 58 kg in malawi and by 0 49 kg in zambia on average

access to credit plot size and cost inefficiency among smallholder tobacco cultivators in malawi abstract using data from the malawi financial markets and household food security survey this paper examines the effect of access to credit from formal sources and tobacco plot size on cost inefficiency among malawian smallholder tobacco cultivators farm specific cost inefficiency is estimated within the framework of stochastic frontier analysis access to credit is measured as the sum of household members self reported credit limits at credit organisations arguably a truer measure of an exogenous credit constraint than credit program participation or actual loan uptake it is found that tobacco cultivation is significantly less cost inefficient per acre on larger plots while access to credit by itself has no statistically discernible effect on cost inefficiency it reduces the gain in cost efficiency from a larger plot size

the impact of farm input subsidies on maize marketing in malawi abstract this paper investigates the effects of subsidised fertilizer on marketing of maize in malawi it uses the nationally representative two wave integrated household panel survey ihps data of 2010 and 2013 the results suggest that subsidised fertilizer on average increases farmers maize market participation as sellers total quantity of maize sold and maize commercialisation in addition participation in subsidised fertilizer programme is found to increase the probability of farmers to be net sellers and increases net quantity of maize sold however the study finds no evidence of effect on net quantity of maize bought and on household maize self sufficiency these results suggest that the farm input subsidy programme has contributed toward an increased level of maize market supply engagement for small farmers and in this sense the policy has the potential to provide the wider external benefits furthermore the results have implication on the sustainability of the subsidy programme policy formulation and design of programmes for the agricultural sector and small farmers in developing countries

towards greater food security for india s poor balancing government intervention and private competition to achieve its strategic objective of food security the government of india goi maintains an elaborate set of food grain policies which include public procurement and price support operations price stabilisation through buffer stocks public food grain distribution and extensive controls on private trade we use aggregate and household level evidence to show that this system is costly generates inefficiencies in the food grain marketing system for both the public and the private sector and often offers few if any benefits to its intended beneficiaries the poor on this basis we propose an integrated reform agenda involving improvements in the targeting of the public distribution system creation of an enabling environment for increased private participation in food grain markets and greater incentives for efficiency by the food corporation of india fci

agricultural commercialization of karen hill tribes in northern thailand based on a random sample of 240 farm households in chiang mai province thailand this study shows that contrary to widespread belief karen farm households are well integrated into markets average levels of market integration are 31 for gross farm output 35 for variable inputs 49 for food consumption and 80 for net family income by estimating a two stage least squares 2sls regression model this study finds that integration into output markets is positively associated with a diversification of land use away from rice monoculture more intense contact with nearby urban centers and a greater number of roads connecting the village to the outside world controlling for these factors the distance to urban centers does not impede market integration distant villages are equally well integrated into output markets the study further finds that integration into output markets improves farm productivity and net per capita income concerns about market integration are discussed results have implications for thai policy makers who have recently placed increasing emphasis on the concept of sufficiency economy in order to promote the well being of rural people

input subsidies cash constraints and timing of input supply is low input use by poor smallholder farmers caused by time inconsistent behavior or by limited ability to buy inputs are input subsidies the best solution to stimulate input demand or are there smarter solutions these issues are investigated by combining survey data stated preference questions and randomized experiments in malawi the demand for fertilizer at harvest time and at planting time farm gate shadow prices for fertilizer and the gap between the willingness to accept wta and willingness to pay wtp prices for a standard input package were investigated significant effects of timing and of cash constraints were found suggesting the possibility that smarter designs exist such as distribution of smaller packages from harvest time to planting time

factors affecting the technical efficiency among smallholder farmers in the slash and burn agriculture zone of cameroon abstract this paper estimates technical efficiency among small holder farmers in the slash and burn agriculture zone of cameroon and identifies sources of inefficiency using detailed survey data obtained from 450 farmers over 15 villages throughout 2001 2002 growing season we find that the mean levels of technical efficiency are 77 73 and 75 respectively for groundnut monocrop maize monocrop and maize groundnut farming systems suggesting existence of substantial gains in output and or decreases in cost with available technology and resources the efficiency differences are explained significantly by credit soil fertility social capital distance of the plot from the access road and extension services policy recommendations are drawn from these findings

the supply of corporate directors and board independence empirical evidence on the relations between board independence and board decisions and firm performance is generally confounded by serious endogeneity issues we circumvent these endogeneity problems by demonstrating the strong impact of the local director labor market on board composition specifically we show that proximity to larger pools of local director talent leads to more independent boards for all but the largest quartile of s p 1500 using local director pools as an instrument for board independence we document that board independence has a positive effect on firm value operating performance fraction of ceo incentive based pay and ceo turnover the author 2013 published by oxford university press on behalf of the society for financial studies all rights reserved for permissions please e mail journals permissions oup com oxford university press

endogenously chosen boards of directors and their monitoring of the ceo author s hermalin benjamin e abstract this paper develops a model in which the effectiveness of a board s monitoring of the ceo depends on the board s independence the independence of new directors is determined through negotiations implicit or explicit between the existing directors and the ceo the ceo s bargaining position and thus influence over the board selection process depends on an updated estimate of the ceo s ability based on prior performance many empirical findings about board structure and performance arise as equilibrium phenomena in this model we also explore the implications of this model for proposed regulations of corporate governance structures please contact the program in law and economics at boalt hall school of law uc berkeley berkeley ca 94720 for a copy of this paper

poverty status and the impact of formal credit on technology use and wellbeing among ethiopian smallholders summary this paper examines the impact of formal credit largely microfinance on the use of improved technology and on consumption and asset growth across households in different degrees of asset poverty using data from rural ethiopia the analysis finds no relationship between participation in microfinance programs and the use of technologies or consumption growth among the poorest households even though the use of certain technologies like fertilizer contributes to their asset accumulation over time for other households microfinance has positive effects on both consumption and asset growth as well as on the use of improved technology the findings imply variation in constraints faced by different classes of poor households and suggest the value of asset based poverty classifications in identifying target groups for poverty interventions

the effect of household wealth on the adoption of improved maize varieties in zambia abstract production and price risks that could render input use unprofitable sometimes prevent rural households from benefiting from input technological change the household s ability to cope with such risks and hence benefit from input technological change is often positively related to its wealth or stock of productive assets empirical evidence however suggests a non linear relationship between wealth and adoption of new agricultural technologies so that within a rural community households on the lower wealth continuum behave differently from those on the higher level using farm level data collected from 300 randomly selected households in three districts of zambia in 2004 2005 crop season this paper first stratifies households into poorly and well endowed households based on their access to productive assets and estimates separate double hurdle models for the adoption of improved high yielding maize ihym varieties for each group the results show that factors influencing the adoption and use intensity of ihym varieties differ between the two groups this draws attention to the need for recommending wealth group specific interventions to increase the adoption and use intensity of such varieties and their subsequent impacts on food security and general livelihoods of the households the explicit testing for the possibility that differences in household wealth affect the way in which other variables influence adoption decisions is the paper s unique contribution to the adoption literature

what are the effects of input subsidy programs on maize prices evidence from malawi and zambia an important hypothesized benefit of large scale input subsidy programs in africa is that by raising maize production the subsidies should put downward pressure on retail maize prices to the benefit of urban consumers and the rural poor who tend to be net food buyers to inform debates related to this rationale for input subsidies this study estimates the effects of fertilizer subsidies on retail maize prices in malawi and zambia using market or district level panel data covering the 2000 2001 to 2011 2012 maize marketing years results indicate that roughly doubling the size of malawi s subsidy program reduces maize prices by 1 2 2 5 on average in zambia roughly doubling the scale of the country s subsidy program reduces maize prices by 1 8 2 8 on average the results are robust across countries and model specifications and indicate that the fertilizer subsidy programs in malawi and zambia have had a minimal effect on retail maize prices

market access by smallholder farmers in malawi implications for technology adoption agricultural productivity and crop income abstract in malawi maize is the major crop and food staple given limited off farm employment opportunities much needed increases in household income for improving food security must come from gains in agricultural productivity through better technology and more profitable crops in the past hybrid maize and more recently tobacco were promoted by policy for increasing smallholder income an analysis of determinants of adoption of these two crops and related income effects is presented apart from factor endowment and exposure to agroecological risks differences in the household s access to financial and commodity markets significantly influence its cropping shares and farm income

resource saving and productivity enhancing impacts of crop management innovation packages in ethiopia crop management innovations are often not discrete fixed stand alone options and their adoption may imply various combinations and adaptations this potentially confounds their impact assessment this article assesses the resource saving and productivity enhancing impacts of a crop management package revolving around minimum tillage in maize based farming systems in northwest ethiopia an endogenous switching regression model was applied to plot and household level survey data collected from 290 rural households operating 590 maize plots during the 2012 production year controlling for variations in plot and household characteristics the average effect of minimum tillage package minimum tillage package on maize productivity is 0 44 t ha compared to conventional practice cp adoption of the mtp decreased the average male and female labor use in maize production by 14 4 and 8 2 person days per ha respectively similarly mtp adoption decreased draft power use for land preparation by 13 2 pair of oxen days per ha compared to cp in general there is a considerable short run maize productivity gain and reduction in labor and draft power use under mtp

false promise or false premise the experience of food and input market reform in eastern and southern africa abstract the literature on the effects of agricultural market reform in africa is sharply divided and inconsistent this article attempts to reconcile opposing viewpoints on the effects of food and input market policy reform in eastern and southern africa drawing from studies of ethiopia kenya malawi zambia and zimbabwe we argue that a major source of the controversy stems from assumptions that countries have actually moved to a liberalized market environment we find that many of the most fundamental elements of the reform programs either remain unimplemented were reversed within several years or were implemented in such a way as to negate private sector investment incentives a framework is developed for explaining why some countries have been able to liberalize their food and fertilizer markets while others have not these findings have implications for how donor assistance and policy oriented research can more constructively contribute to an improved policy environment

dollar a day revisited the article presents the first major update of the international 1 a day poverty line proposed in world development report 1990 poverty for measuring absolute poverty by the standards of the world s poorest countries in a new and more representative data set of national poverty lines a marked economic gradient emerges only when consumption per person is above about 2 00 a day at 2005 purchasing power parity below this the average poverty line is 1 25 which is proposed as the new international poverty line the article tests the robustness of this line to alternative estimation methods and explains how it differs from the old 1 a day line

does storage technology affect adoption of improved maize varieties in africa insights from malawi s input subsidy program abstract to date there is limited knowledge of how having access to post harvest storage technology affects a smallholder african farmer s decision to adopt higher yielding improved maize varieties this is a key issue because higher yielding varieties are known to be more susceptible to storage pests than lower yielding traditional varieties we address this question using panel data from malawi and incorporating panel estimation techniques to deal with unobserved heterogeneity our results indicate that acquiring chemical storage protectants after the previous harvest is associated with a statistically significant and modest positive impact on the probability of adopting improved maize total area planted to improved maize varieties and share of area planted to improved maize varieties in the next planting season we also find that the storage chemical subsidy is associated with significant crowding out of commercial storage chemical purchases as farmers who acquire subsidized chemicals are more than 50 percentage points less likely to purchase commercial chemicals on average these findings have implications for maize adoption and input subsidy policies and they indicate that researchers extension staff and policy makers should consider post harvest issue when promoting adoption of improved varieties

welfare impacts of improved chickpea adoption a pathway for rural development in ethiopia we analyse the impact of improved chickpea adoption on welfare in ethiopia using three rounds of panel data first we estimate the determinants of improved chickpea adoption using a double hurdle model we apply a control function approach with correlated random effects to control for possible endogeneity resulting from access to improved seed and technology transfer activities to instrument for these variables we develop novel distance weighted measures of a household s neighbours access to improved seed and technology transfer activities second we estimate the impact of area under improved chickpea cultivation on household income and poverty we apply a fixed effects instrumental variables approach where we use the predicted area under cultivation from the double hurdle model as an instrument for observed area under cultivation we find that improved chickpea adoption significantly increases household income while also reducing household poverty finally we disaggregate results by landholding to explore whether the impact of adoption has heterogeneous effects adoption favoured all but the largest landholders for who the new technology did not have a significant impact on income overall increasing access to improved chickpea appears a promising pathway for rural development in ethiopia s chickpea growing regions

do input subsidy programs crowd in or crowd out commercial market development modeling fertilizer demand in a two channel marketing system many governments in developing countries distribute fertilizer at subsidized prices in an effort to stimulate small farmers agricultural productivity and food security prior fertilizer demand studies have largely failed to account for the effects of government programs on farmers commercial purchases using a double hurdle model and nationally representative rural household panel data in zambia we distinguish between these sources and measure the contemporaneous crowding in and crowding out effects of government input programs on commercial fertilizer sales where the private sector is relatively active and average wealth is higher areas seemingly more likely to be targeted by government programs results indicate that subsidies have substantially crowded out the private sector in some cases to the point that such programs could actually lower overall fertilizer use on the other hand in poorer areas where the private sector is relatively inactive subsidies help to generate demand and crowd in private sector retailers empirical studies explicitly modeling farmers fertilizer purchase behavior within a dual marketing framework can provide important insights for agricultural policy discussions in developing countries

food prices and the efficiency of public intervention the case of the public distribution system in india abstract as public intervention is a pervasive influence on food prices this paper asks whether and how the inefficiency of state institutions matters to food prices in the context of the wheat subsidy scheme in india the paper models the implications of quality differences between public and private grain supply as both are procured at similar prices the lower quality of public grain marks the inefficiency of government operations the paper proposes and empirically validates a method to test for demand switches that occur as a result of quality preference as a result a reduction in food subsidies increases food prices and hurts the poor even when they are not major recipients of the subsidy this seeming paradox is contingent on the inefficiency of public interventions thus the outcome will be different if the reduction in food subsidy were to be accompanied by reforms in the associated state agencies

the long run impact of energy prices on world agricultural markets the role of macro economic linkages the world prices of some food and energy products have followed similar large swings in recent years we investigate the long run relationship between these prices using a world computable general equilibrium model with detailed representations of food and energy markets particular attention is paid to specifying macro economic linkages which have often been overlooked in recent analysis and debate we find that the omission of these macro economic linkages has a substantial bearing on this relationship a positive relationship due to the cost push effect has been identified in most analysis but we find that the introduction of the real income effect may indeed imply a negative relationship between world food and energy prices

trust membership in groups and household welfare evidence from kwazulu natal south africa unfortunately these two literatures have remained largely unconnected the group and network literature concludes that participation has important economic benefits even when the stated function of the group is noneconomic in most cases however the mechanisms by which groups and networks achieve this are unclear the determinants of trust and participation in groups literature highlights the importance of income and social homogeneity what remains less understood is whether and how trust can be generated for example via participation in groups this article links the empirical literatures referenced above by exploring the relationship between membership in groups and trust specifically using longitudinal data from kwazulu natal province south africa we examine 1 the importance of trust in the decision to join groups 2 the subsequent ability of groups to generate trust and 3 the effect of group membership and trust on a measure of well being per capita household income in addition we disaggregate groups into financial and nonfinancial and we categorize trust in people by agent or actor therefore we can explore whether trust in different kinds of actors is important for participation in different kinds of groups and whether participation in different kinds of groups is important for generating trust in different kinds of actors excerpt

price stabilization liberalization and food security conflicts and resolutions abstract an important stimulus for cereal sector reform has been the massive fiscal costs of many state procurement and intervention agencies this has led to policies to minimize their role in the future through rapid market liberalization and a substantially increased role for the private sector this approach may pay insufficient attention to price stabilization and food security issues there are several instances in which even with a well developed private sector government intervention will be required to achieve adequate stability moreover where the private sector is not fully developed public sector agencies can potentially play an important but hopefully declining role in either performing or financing stabilization services international assistance could be invaluable in supporting well run intervention agencies through temporary liquidity crises cereal sector reform is a difficult process even with strong government commitment this is frequently weakened because donor agencies are unwilling to appreciate and accommodate the real fears of governments concerning their loss of control over food security as a consequence of rapid liberalization the hope is expressed that with a more measured pace and explicit concern for this issue a stronger commitment to reform might emerge

does cash crop adoption detract from child care provision evidence from rural nepal this document addresses the issues of agricultural commercialization using data from fieldwork conducted in nepal it aimed to examine the impact of a project designed to commercialize vegetables and fruit the vegetable and fruit cash crop program vcf on male and female time allocation the goal of vfc program was to increase the commercial production of vegetables and fruits in farm households that were heavily dependent on the production of cereal and livestock for home consumption findings from multivariate analysis suggest that for households with one preschooler vfc participation results in more time to agricultural production of the cash crop for both men and women but also a decrease in care time to preschoolers from both men and women meanwhile for households with more than one preschooler this trade off is not so apparent the analysis also suggests that behavior change initiatives to protect time to child care might be feasible in that vfc participation does not decrease the overall nonwork time of men or women with preschool children in residence

smallholder market participation under transactions costs maize supply and fertilizer demand in kenya abstract this paper assessed the effects of transactions costs relative to price and non price factors on smallholder marketed surplus and input use in kenya a selectivity model was used that accounts for the effects of transactions costs assets technology and support services in promoting input use and generating a marketable surplus output supply and input demand responses to changes in transactions costs and price and non price factors were estimated and decomposed into market entry and intensity the results showed that while transactions costs indeed have significant negative effects on market participation institutional innovations such as group marketing are also emerging to mitigate the costs of accessing markets output price has no effect on output market entry and only provides incentives for increased supply by sellers on the other hand both price and non price factors have significant influence on adoption and intensity of input use overall the findings suggest that policy options are available other than price policies to promote input use and marketed surplus the paper concludes with implications for policy to induce greater input output market participation among smallholders in africa

an exogeneity test for a simultaneous equation tobit model with an application to labor supply a test of weak exogeneity in the simultaneous equation tobit model is proposed and illustrated using a female labour supply model estimated using cross section data the test statistic can be simply output from any standard tobit maximum likelihood package and is asymptotically efficient the procedure provides consistent estimators for the simultaneous tobit model whose asymptotic covariance matrix is a simple extension of the usual tobit formula we also provide the lagrange multiplier test of weak exogeneity this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

agricultural technology productivity and poverty in madagascar summary this paper uses a unique spatially explicit dataset to study the link between agricultural performance and rural poverty in madagascar we show that controlling for geographical and physical characteristics communes that have higher rates of adoption of improved agricultural technologies and consequently higher crop yields enjoy lower food prices higher real wages for unskilled workers and better welfare indicators the empirical evidence strongly favors support for improved agricultural production as an important part of any strategy to reduce the high poverty and food insecurity rates currently prevalent in rural madagascar

cropland allocation effects of agricultural input subsidies in malawi summary we measure the impacts of malawi s farm input subsidy program on the cropland allocation decisions of farmers in kasungu and machinga districts in central and southern malawi using a two step regression strategy to control for endogenous selection into the program we find positive correlations between participation in the program and the amount of land planted with maize and tobacco furthermore results suggest that participating households simplified crop production by allocating less land to other crops e g groundnuts soybeans and dry beans our findings have implications for policies aimed at promoting both food self sufficiency and crop diversification in low income settings 2011 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

risk rationing and wealth effects in credit markets theory and implications for agricultural development we develop a model that shows that asymmetric information can result in two types of credit rationing conventional quantity rationing and risk rationing whereby farmers are able to borrow but only under high collateral contracts that offer them lower expected well being than a safe subsistence activity after exploring its incidence with respect to wealth we show that risk rationing has important policy implications specifically land titling will be only partially effective because it does not enhance producers willingness to offer up the collateral needed to secure loans under moral hazard constraints efforts to enhance agricultural investment and the working of agricultural credit markets must step beyond land titling and also deal with risk copyright 2008 oxford university press