The impact of access to health facilities on maternal care use and health status: Evidence from longitudinal data from rural Uganda

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/yamauchi_chikako/Maternal and child mortality remains high in developing countries. While timely antenatal care and delivery at formal facility are recommended, many mothers do not use them. This paper investigates whether newly established health facilities affect maternal health care utilization as well as the health of mothers and children. In order to deal with possibly endogenous facility placement, we apply the community-level and mother-level fixed effects models to the new, decade-long panel data from rural Uganda. Results demonstrate differential roles played by large facilities and small clinics. Openings of large facilities increase the probability of delivery at formal facility, attended by trained personnel. This is accompanied by an increased use of inexpensive transportation modes such as walking and own bicycle to delivery places. Weak evidence is also found for reduced degree of selective infant survival. New community-level clinics, on the other hand, increase regular antenatal care usage and reduce complications during delivery. These results suggest that accessible clinics help pregnant mothers to avoid preventable problems through early diagnosis of risky cases and/or treatment of existing diseases. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of providing good access to health facilities, in particular to community-level clinics, in order to promote the utilization of maternal care and improve maternal and infant health.JEL Classification Codes: I10, I18, D12technical repor

Accounting for Social Security claiming behavior

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/porapakkarm-ponpoje/Social Security benefit claiming is highly concentrated at two ages, 62 and the full retirement age, which is hard to explain by the program’s incentives. We study claiming and labor supply decisions in a structural framework and provide three main findings. First, we show that claiming behavior can be well explained by a parsimonious life-cycle model with fully rational agents. The two key mechanisms are (i) the strong unwillingness to hold annuities, (ii) the effects of the earnings test. Second, we show that current rules distort claiming and labor supply decisions, and eliminating these distortions results in large welfare gains. Finally, we show that claiming decisions can be used to sharpen the identification of important preference parameters.JEL ClassificationCodes:D91,G11,G22technical repor

The Impacts of Trade Liberalization on Women’s Marriage and Fertility Decisions in Vietnam

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/wie-dainn/This study investigates the impact of a large demand shock on the timing of women’s marital decisions and first childbirth experiences in Vietnam. Using the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in 2001 as an exogenous shock, we hypothesize that the reduction in women’s and men’s self-employment would delay family formation and childbirth, with the ultimate impact on marriage remaining ambiguous. Analyzing data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys, we find that both men and women are less likely to be self-employed in the face of a substantial trade shock. Notably, the decreasing impact on women's self-employment becomes more pronounced than that for men post-2012, a decade after the agreement's enforcement. Employing the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and survival analysis, we empirically demonstrate that increased exposure to trade postpones women's timing of marriage and first childbirth. On average, in 2013, the BTA resulted in a 4.43- and 4.45%-point decrease in the probability of entering marriage and becoming a mother, respectively. We also present suggestive evidence that increased exposure to trade liberalization eventually increases the likelihood of marriage and the number of children among women over 40.JFL Classification Codes: F6, J2, J3This work was supported by the Policy Research Center at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies [Project Number: P231RP201].technical repor

Aging, Inadequacy, and Fiscal Constraint: The Case of Thailand

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/porapakkarm-ponpoje/We use an overlapping generations model to study the challenge in developing countries with a large informal sector and aging populations. We use Thailand as a case study and incorporate its labor market structure and its public pension system into the calibrated model. Unlike developed countries, workers in developing countries commonly transit from the formal sector to the informal sector, which can be in the early stage of their working life. This labor market feature crucially limits the coverage of the contributory social security system. We find that 66% of Thai elderly (aged 60 years old or over) are ineligible for social security annuity benefits because of an insufficient number of years paying into the social security fund. In addition, we use our model to evaluate two schemes to raise the existing universal basic pension income to the poverty line; namely, uniform benefits and pension-tested benefits. We find that pension-testing effectively improves the targeting efficiency, and non-trivially lower the cost of the basic pension income program.JEL Classification Codes: J1,H55,I3The authors thank researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), and Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research (PIER) and panelists at the Bank of Thailand Symposium 2021 for useful comments. Coding and computation partly benefited from the discussion with George Kudrna. Financial supports from Australian Research Council linkage grant LP190100681 and Policy Research Center grant at GRIPS are acknowledged. Porapakarm thanks Swinburn Samuel Leyton for his excellent research assistance.technical repor

Impact of the US-China Trade War on Vietnam’s Labor Market

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/en/facultyinfo/wie-dainn/Trade can significantly reduce informality in developing countries by fostering economic growth and creating formal employment opportunities. A large proportion of workers in developing countries such as Vietnam work in the informal sector, making them vulnerable and less productive. This study examines the short-term impact of the US–China trade war as a positive demand shock on the informality of Vietnam's labor market, using nationally representative data from the Vietnam Labor Force Survey from 2017 to 2019. We create an industry-level measure based on variations in tariff increases applied to Chinese goods, representing the tariff advantages granted to Vietnamese firms. The estimation results show that workers in industries with higher tariff advantages are less likely to be employed as informal or uninsured workers. By applying Goldberg and Pavcnik’s (2003) framework, we interpret these findings as indicating that Vietnamese firms perceived the US–China trade shock as a positive and permanent demand shock. To our knowledge, the empirical evidence presented in this study represents a rare investigation into the effects of the trade war on the labor market of a non-participating country. Additionally, the findings offer important implications for other developing countries by showing how Vietnam’s labor market and informality improved as firms took advantage of the new trade opportunities created by trade diversion.JEL Classification Codes: J46, F14, F16technical repor

Development of CO₂ Emissions and Impact of Carbon Pricing

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/kawasaki-kenichi/Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have continued to increase. The targets of GHG emissions reduction under the Paris Agreement have been far from achievement. Carbon pricing has been implemented but it is limited, covering less than a quarter of global GHG emissions. This paper presents an overview of recent developments in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and investigates quantitatively the relative significance of the impact of carbon pricing, using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The results of model simulations suggest that the impact of carbon pricing in the European Union (EU) member states and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries would be limited compared with that of a global initiative. Carbon tax (once introduced in a strong enough form worldwide, in particular if it included developing countries) would be effective for substantially reducing global CO₂ emissions. However, the adverse economic impact of carbon pricing would be serious and much larger than the magnitude of possible carbon tax revenue. On the other hand, the impact of a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would be minor compared with that of a carbon tax, regardless of the coverage of countries. Trade effects of a CBAM could more or less be offset by trade liberalization. The economic and trade impact of carbon pricing would vary by region as well as by sector. Climate and trade policies would need to be well designed and based on sound quantitative analysis.JEL Classification Codes: C68,F13,Q58technical repor

Efficiency of Land Allocation through Tenancy Markets: Evidence from China

journal articl

国会審議映像検索システムとそのSNS的活用の可能性：ニュースと審議映像のTweet

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/masuyama_mikitaka/国会審議映像検索システムは，国会会議録の文字情報から，発言に対応する映像をピンポイントで再生するものであり，動画の音声認識によって会議録と審議映像を同期させている．これにより，国会会議録がキーワード検索できるように，国会審議映像も発言内容から検索できるようになり，審議映像の部分再生，字幕付与が可能となる．審議映像は衆参両院事務局のサーバー上で再生し，審議映像のURL をインターネットで共有することも容易である． 国会審議には会議録に含まれない様々な情報がある．国会審議映像検索システムを活用すれば，パネルなどの視覚的資料も瞬時に確認することができるし，文字情報としての会議録だけでなく，音声や映像を分析対象とすることによって，国会審議の空間的，時間的な広がりを研究領域として開拓することもできる．本稿では，国会審議映像の部分的視聴を可能にする「国会審議映像検索システム」を概説したうえで，そのSNS 的活用の可能性を検討するため，インターネットで配信される国会関連のニュースについて，該当部分の審議映像URL をツイートし，ニュース配信を視覚的に補完する試みを紹介する． This paper offers an overview of the video retrieval system we have developed for the Japanese Diet, and shows how one can utilize our system in linking the Diet deliberation videos to internet news. By using sound recognition techniques to match up the Diet proceedings and deliberation videos, our system allows one to retrieve the moment of video feeds he or she is interested in, visually understand the flow of parliamentary debates, and check the facial expression and body language of speakers. In this paper, we describe how our video retrieval system works, and demonstrate the utility of our system for SNS information sharing by introducing our activity to tweet deliberation video URLs in relation to political news via internet.本稿は「政策情報のユニバーサル化・国際化に関する実証と実践」（2015 年度～2019 年度・課題番号15H05727）による部分的成果である．technical repor

Network DEA: A slacks-based measure approach

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/facultyinfo/tone_kaoru/Traditional DEA models deal with measurements of relative efficiency of DMUs regarding multiple-inputs vs. multiple-outputs. One of the drawbacks of these models is the neglect of intermediate products or linking activities. After pointing out needs for inclusion of them in DEA models, we propose a slacks-based network DEA model that can deal with intermediate products. Using this model we can evaluate divisional efficiencies along with the overall efficiency of decision making units (DMUs).総合政策 / Multi Disciplinary policy studiestechnical repor

A Representative Consumer Framework for Discrete Choice Models with Endogenous Total Demand

https://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/kidokoro_yukihiro/Standard discrete choice models correspond to 'partial' utility maximization in which the controlled total is determined exogenously; typically, consumers are assumed to demand at most one unit. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a model in which discrete choice models are incorporated consistently into the full utility maximization framework and to establish a theoretical foundation for discrete choice models that assume no a priori controlled total. We derive the form of the corresponding indirect utility function of a representative consumer and the own-price and cross-price elasticities, and develop a method for measuring welfare, clarifying their implications.JEL Classification Codes: D11, D61経済学 / Economicstechnical repor