Out-of-school suspensions and parental involvement in children’s education

Do parents alter their investment in their child’s human capital in response to changes in school inputs? If they do, then ignoring this effect will bias the estimates of school and parental inputs in educational production functions. This paper tries to answer this question by studying out-of-school suspensions and their effect on parental involvement in children’s education. The use of out-of- school suspensions is the novelty of this paper. Out-of-school suspensions are chosen by the teacher or the principal of the school and not by parents, but they are a consequence of student misbehavior. To account for the nature of these out-of-school suspensions, they are instrumented with measures of “principal’s preference toward discipline.” The estimates show that, without controlling for selection, the level of parental involvement is negatively correlated with the number of out-of-school suspensions. Once selection is accounted for, the effect disappears—that is, out-of-school suspensions do not affect parental involvement in children’s education.Education ; School choice

The mismatch between job openings and job seekers

Today's high unemployment rate is often linked to a structural imbalance—a mismatch between the skills and location required to fill vacant jobs and the skills and geographical preferences of the unemployed. But the evidence downplays the role of this mismatch.Unemployment ; Labor market

Striga Management through Herbicide Resistance: A Public-Private Partnership in Action

Striga is an indigenous parasitic weed that attacks cereals and other crops in Africa. In maize croplands alone, Striga infests over 2.3 million ha resulting in 1.6 million tons of grain loss worth US $383 million annually. An innovative approach to controlling the parasite was to induce herbicide resistance in maize and to coat the seed with herbicide to provide chemical protection from infection. This breakthrough that was realized after 12 years of collaborative research and development by the International Maize and Wheat Centre (CIMMYT), the Kenya Agricultural Research Center (KARI) and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, is now ready for deployment in Sub-Saharan Africa. This effort is most advanced in Kenya, where one variety of the Imazapyr-resistant (IR) maize hybrid aptly named Ua Kayongo (Striga Killer) was tested by over 13,000 households and registered for commercial release by Western Seed Company. Compared to a currently recommended commercial hybrid (H513), Ua Kayongo improved maize yields by 1,022 kg ha-1, reduced Striga expression by 81$143 ha-1 (+63%). This technology occupies a central role in the design of comprehensive Striga Eradication Initiatives in maize fields, but hindrance to achieving this goal has emerged from unlikely sources. Crop breeders committed to developing alternative, Striga-immune varieties self-indulgently dismiss IR maize as a technological dead-end single gene approach, while “green” interests unfairly label IR-maize a GMO. A public-private partnership has formed to deploy IR maize to needy African farmers. Differences in operational approaches are expected among these partners, given their underlying interests and organizational mandates, and it is important that these issues continue to be resolved in a manner that does not lose momentum or shift focus. Now that Striga has become a preventable disorder in maize fields, it is time to minimize the drama and direct all available resources toward assisting Striga’s victims in Africa.Africa, Herbicides, Maize, Striga, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Localization of an experimental ecological unit in the Maradi region of Nigeria

A detailed topographical and geomorphological description of a specific ecological unit in the Maradi region of the Sahel in the Niger Republic is presented. Sandy structures are classified into active dunes and covered dunes and an extensives vocabulary is developed to describe sub-categories. The descriptions are based on meteorological data (anemometric and rainfall) from local weather stations, ground observations, aerial photographs and LANDSAT pictures. The problem of dune reactivation and desertification is discussed both from the standpoint of causes and possible counter measures

Employment in major cities in the district slumps relative to the rest of the country

Federal Reserve District, 8th ; Employment

Matrix Index of Income Varieties of Indonesian Labor Force and Its Application in Indonesa

Matrix Index of Income Varieties (MIVP) is an index, which is developed from the variety co efficiency and statistic χ2 so that it will produce output totally as shown by Index of Williamson/Theil, as regionally as Index of Theil, sectorally as Index of Gini.Besides, Matrix Index of Income Varieties (MIIV) is able to identify which individual/ sector/region influence the draw of income inequalities above or below the average. In application, MIIV will produce a maximal outcome if it is combined with Labor Force Productivity Index.The outcome of MIIV/MIVP in Indonesia shows that the high-income inequalities in Indonesia are influenced by the contribution of regional economy, regional labor force contribution, the characteristic of regional economic sector, and regional potentials of each province