IMPACT of Cash Transfer Programs on School Attendance and Child Poverty: An Ex-ante Simulation for Sri Lanka

For countries assessing whether to implement a cash transfer program, an ex-ante evaluation is vital to assess its potential impacts. This study simulates the impact of alternative cash transfer programs on school attendance and poverty among Sri Lankan children. We find that cash transfer programs targeting poor children would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty and encourage school attendance. If means-testing is not feasible, then programs targeting the children in households with at least three school-age children would provide a suitable second-best solution. Our findings suggest that even a limited program budget can provide significant impacts.Cash Transfers; Poverty; School Attendance; Sri Lanka

Wage Differentials in Sri Lanka: The case of a post-conflict country with a free education policy

This study analyses wage differentials in Sri Lanka by the individuals’ educational attainment. The wage returns to education are estimated by using a combination of the techniques of ordinary least-square, two-stage least-square, sample-selection, and quantile regression on micro-data of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey-2013. Therefore, the estimates provided by this study are representative of the entire country and corrected for both the endogeniety and the sample-selection biases. The study concludes that education generates a positive impact on private earning. The results show that one additional year of schooling increases hourly wage rate by 9% approximately. Also, according to the results, the primary and secondary education reduces income inequality among people whereas the bachelor’s-degree University education is a contributor to the income inequality. Further, the results relating to the additional controls reveal that the male, urban, and the public sector employees earn relatively higher wage returns

Researching with Secondary Data: A brief overview of possibilities and limitations from the viewpoint of social research

The objective of this paper is to provide information on reliable sources of secondary data available for applied social researchers, feasible studies, and Econometric Modelling techniques that can be applied in those studies. Using secondary data for research projects has now become popular with the availability of nation-wide survey data from reliable sources. The Econometrics methods ranging from multiple regression analysis to dynamic panel analysis can be applied with secondary data to generate nationally representative empirical evidence on the subject of interest. However, the researchers need to be careful of reading secondary data using documentation provided along with datasets. There are limitations and challenges of using secondary data for researching as well

Wage Differentials in Sri Lanka: The case of a post-conflict country with a free education policy

This study analyses wage differentials in Sri Lanka by the individuals’ educational attainment. The wage returns to education are estimated by using a combination of the techniques of ordinary least-square, two-stage least-square, sample-selection, and quantile regression on micro-data of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey-2013. Therefore, the estimates provided by this study are representative of the entire country and corrected for both the endogeniety and the sample-selection biases. The study concludes that education generates a positive impact on private earning. The results show that one additional year of schooling increases hourly wage rate by 9% approximately. Also, according to the results, the primary and secondary education reduces income inequality among people whereas the bachelor’s-degree University education is a contributor to the income inequality. Further, the results relating to the additional controls reveal that the male, urban, and the public sector employees earn relatively higher wage returns

IS POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT A BREEDING GROUND FOR PUBLIC SECTOR CORRUPTION? EVIDENCE FROM A CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS

This study employs the instrumental variable two-stage least squares regression approach for the data for 121 countries to explore the impact of a country’s political environment on its level of corruption. The study provides strong evidence that a higher degree of rule of law, press freedom, readiness and capacity to handle e-governance practices, and urbanization are associated with a lower level of public sector corruption across all 121 countries. The colonial dummies and having a presidential government are found to be valid instruments for rule of law in addressing the issue of endogeniety embedded in it. Further, to a certain degree, landlocked countries are relatively more corrupt than coastal countries. Finally, policy implications are discussed based on the findings of the study.Keywords: Corruption, Political Environment, Endogeniety, Public Secto

Life Cycle and Fixed Portfolio Allocation Strategies: A Performance Comparison for Emerging Market Pension Funds

This study compares the performance of various fixed and lifecycle portfolio strategies for the accumulation phase of retirement planning in emerging market countries. With an expected utility framework and abootstrapped Monte Carlo procedure, we find that the majority of emerging market investors with varying attitudes toward risk can maximize their expected utility by using lifecycle strategies instead of fixedallocation strategies. Most commonly, emerging market investors maximize expected utility with a lifecycle strategy using a 30 percent average equity exposure, though the results vary among countries.KEYWORDS: Pension funds, portfolio strategies, emerging market

社会保障システムに関する研究: スリランカと他の新興市場国における事例

政策分析プログラム / Policy Analysis Program政策研究大学院大学 / National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies論文審査委員: Wade Pfau（主査）, 大山 達雄, Minchung Hsu, Alistair Munro, 高橋 新吾（IUJ

Lifecycle and fixed portfolio allocation strategies: a performance comparison for emerging market countries

This study compares the performance of various fixed and lifecycle portfolio strategies for the accumulation phase of retirement planning in emerging market countries. With an expected utility framework and a bootstrapped Monte Carlo procedure, we find that the majority of emerging market investors with varying attitudes toward risk can maximize their expected utility by using lifecycle strategies instead of fixed allocation strategies. Most commonly, emerging market investors maximize expected utility with a lifecycle strategy using a 30 percent average equity exposure, though the results vary among countries

The Employment Status of the Elderly in Sri Lanka: Patterns and Determinants

By using the Sri Lanka Household Income and Expenditure Surveys in 2002, 2006/2007, and 2009/2010, this paper examines patterns and determinants of employment status of the Sri Lankan elderly. The study employs multinomial logit model to realize the research objectives. The results of the study reveal that more than 50 percent of the Sri Lankan elderly are currently inactive, yet five percent of the oldest elderly and 18 percent of the elderly with bad health conditions are engaged in labor market activities. The results further demonstrate that younger male elderly, who are married and living in female-headed households are more likely to be employed than to be inactive. The receipts of remittances, social security payments, and bad health conditions reduce the probability of being employed. At present, ethnicity does not play a significant role in determining employment status of the Sri Lankan elderly

Lifecycle and fixed portfolio allocation strategies: a performance comparison for emerging market countries

This study compares the performance of various fixed and lifecycle portfolio strategies for the accumulation phase of retirement planning in emerging market countries. With an expected utility framework and a bootstrapped Monte Carlo procedure, we find that the majority of emerging market investors with varying attitudes toward risk can maximize their expected utility by using lifecycle strategies instead of fixed allocation strategies. Most commonly, emerging market investors maximize expected utility with a lifecycle strategy using a 30 percent average equity exposure, though the results vary among countries