_Policy, Planning, and Research Working Paper Series_ 23 lower risk who want no more children and whose health would benefit substantially from limiting the number ofchildren they bear. In virtually all developing countries, the number of women who want no more children exceeds the number of contraceptive users. What factors determine women's use of contraceptives, and how can family planning programs reach the large numbers of women at risk from further pregnancies?

The most successful family planning policies offer women a variety of contraceptive methods tailored to specific age groups and educational levels. Community-based programs that provide a high quality of family planning services and emphasize the importance ofthe mother's health will increase the likelihood that these programswillreach womenwhoare not practicing contraception at present.

The question that is always asked is, What will it cost? Much program experience suggests that family planning is one of, if not the most cost-effective means of averting maternal deaths. The savings generated by family planning services could be invested in saving the lives and health of women who do want to have more children.

This paper is a product of the Health Advisor, Population and Human Resources Department. Please contact A. Manciano, room S6-141, extension 33226.

# 67. Price and Tax Policy for SemiSubsistence Agriculture In Ethiopia

## Robert D. Weaver and Saad Ali Shire

_Tax and food price policies are important mechanisms for affecting smallholder food supply._ In the case of semi-subsistence agriculture where wage employment is not available, therole playedby prices andtaxesin determining production and consumption decisions is not clearly establishedby _economic_ theories of household choice. This study demonstrates that where choices in production, consumption, and leisure can be made independently, farmers will decide what to grow on the basis of their preferences for marketed goods, and will also be affected by the level and type of taxation.

The model shows the impact of four taxes - agricultural revenue, land (either a head tax or a tax based on land area), production, and marketed goods - consumption on crop production and tax revenues. The results demonstrated that a production tax curtailed output while a lump-sum land tax expanded production. The impact of a tax on agricultural revenue or on products sold in the market depends on the farmers' preferences for marketed goods.

For Ethiopia, a model of production was estimated for eight food crops for semi-subsistence households. In general, production responded to changes in relative expected prices, land availability, level of household demand, and sowing period rainfall. Production of teff, wheat, chick peas, and sorghum was found to increase with higher prices, and production of field peas was found to fall. Evidence suggests that expanding the amount of arable land will raise farmers' output of wheat, chick peas, maize, and sorghum.

These results give strong evidence of the role of producer and consumer prices in semi-subsistence agriculture. In addition, the results show the importance of production capacity, household demand, and climatic factors, supporting a balanced approach to agricultural development that recognizes the joint roles of prices, production capacity, and demand.

This paper is a product of the International Commodity Markets Division, International Economics Department. Please contactDawn Gustafson, room S7044, extension 33714.

# 68. A Comparison of Lamps for Domestic Lighting In **Developing Countries**

## Robert van der Plas

_Electric lights are superior to kerosene - lamps in almost all ways they are far more energy-efficient, but their high frontend costs keep many people from enjoying their advantages._ The average amount of fuel consumed for lighting is much higher in villages with- out electricity than in villages with it five times higher in Indonesia, twice as high in India. Moreover, people with kerosene lamps have much lower lighting levels than people with electric lights.

Why, then, do people still use kerosene lamps when electricity is available? Mainly because they fit well with a poor family's spending patterns. The price of a wick lamp is low. The monthly cost of using it is low. And kerosene can be bought in small quantities as needed.

But the marginal cost of adding another kerosene lamp is greater than the marginal benefit. The addition ofanother lamp neither increases the level of lighting nor improves the quality -but it does increase the consumption of kerosene.

People have figured this out. A survey of a few households in Rwanda and Burundi in October 1987 showed that households relying on kerosene wick lamps use only one for the whole house.

Households with electric lights are accustomed to much higher levels of light -for which they have tofinanceaconnection charge and installation cost and for which they pay more for regular use. Such households typically have four or five lamps in the whole house and good lighting levels in each room.

The difference between kerosene and electric lamps are like those between bicycles and cars: both get you where you want to go but at certain costs with certain benefits. Although both kinds of lamps give light, they are not directly comparable because they differ so greatly in their characteristics: it takes 18 kerosene lamps to give off the light of a single 60 watt incandescent bulb.

This paper, a product of the Household Energy Unit in the Energy and Sector Management and Assessments Division, Industry and Energy Department, has also appeared as an Industry and Energy Department Working Paper. Please contact Vonica Burroughs, room S4-035, extension 33635.

# 69. **Does Local Financing Make Public Primary Schools More Efficient? The Philippine Case**

Emmanual Jimenez, VicentePaqueo, andMa. Lourdes de Vera _Philippine schools that rely more heavily on local sources of income are more costeffective than those that are more dependent on central funding._ In the highly centralized system of the Philippines, local funding provides the only source of flexibility to meet specific and urgent needs.

The government in Manila, which pays all teacher salaries, finds it easier politically in times of fiscal belt-tightening to cut recurrent costs. Although local