Household shocks and child labor in rural Malawi

This paper investigates the impact of household shocks on the incidence and intensity of child labor in rural Malawi. Intensity is measured as the reported number of sessions that a child was working. Probit and zero-inflated negative binomial estimates fail to provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that child labor increases in response to the occurrence of shocks.

Children's endowment, schooling, and work in Ethiopia

I investigate the relationship between children's endowment and parental investment using a rich dataset on a cohort of children from Ethiopia, who were surveyed at ages eight, twelve and fifteen. Children's endowment is measured by scores on tests of cognitive skills/ability. A child's enrollment in school, participation in work and work hours are employed as measures of parental investment in human capital. The results provide strong evidence of reinforcing parental investment - higher ability children are more likely to be enrolled in school and less likely to work and, conditional on participation, also work fewer hours. These results are mostly robust to addressing potential feedback effects between schooling and test scores, especially for the latter ages, and household heterogeneities. On the policy front, the results suggest that the seeds of inequality in human capital and earnings capability during adulthood may be sown quite early in childhood, and thereby underscore the importance of interventions that, among others, attempt to improve prenatal and early life health and nutrition, which are often cited as the sources of deficiencies in children's cognitive ability

Private Transfers, Informal Loans and Risk Sharing among Poor Urban Households

This paper contributes to a growing literature that investigates the mechanisms of risk-sharing among poor households. There are two aspects of the paper that are particularly relevant in the context of the literature. First, it focuses on poor urban areas. The disproportionate focus in the literature on rural households has meant that we know relatively little about the risk-sharing practices of poor urban households. Given that formal insurance is largely absent even in urban areas of most developing economies, it is apparent that these households may be no less vulnerable to income risk than their rural counterparts. Furthermore, because of lack of survey data, the little we know about risk sharing between poor urban households has come from small, targeted surveys. The use of a nationally representative urban survey data in this study is particularly appealing in this regard.1 Second, the study uses information on both private transfer and informal loan activities to assess whether each mechanism serves risk sharing purposes. The simultaneous treatment of both potential instruments sheds light on relative performance, and also highlights idiosyncrasies that affect household participation in either (or both) mechanisms. It has been argued in the literature that if households are motivated by altruism, private transfers in the form of pure gifts are the primary means through which risk-sharing occurs. However, if enforcement problems are pronounced, informal credit with contingent repayment may be used to realize self-enforcing risk-sharing contracts (Fafchamps, 1999). Fafchamps and Lund (2003) argue that such enforcement problems are the reason behind their finding that informal loans (quasi-credit), and not gifts and transfers, perform risk-sharing functions in rural Filipino networks

Substance use and birth weight among mothers attending public hospitals: A case control study

Background: Substance use during pregnancy is greatly underestimated in many parts of the world. Specifically, there are limited up-to-date researches addressing the relationship between substance use and birth outcomes among women in Ethiopia. Therefore, having a study to close the gap and generate firsthand information on the issue is important. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of maternal substance use during pregnancy on the birth weight of a newborn.Methods: The study used analytic facility based case control study, using a face to face interview with a structured and pre-tested questionnaire. The total sample size was allocated to each health facility based on their patient load through proportion to population size, and a total of 112 cases of neonates with low birth weight (weight < 2500gms) were compared with 235 controls of neonates, born with a birth weight above 2500 grams or more. The data were analyzed using both bivariate and multivariable analysis.Results: - Maternal khat chewing, tobacco smoking and narghile (shisha) smoking during pregnancy and paternal smoking were statistically associated with lower birth weight. However, maternal history of alcohol drinking during pregnancy was not associated with lower birth weight. Mothers who did not attend primary school and having history of previous low birth weight child were statistically associated with low birth weight. Moreover, lesser weight gains during pregnancy and short intra pregnancy interval were associated with low birth weight.Conclusion: - The association of low birth weight with substance use was strong, particularly, with maternal khat chewing, cigarette and narghile (shisha) smoking including passive smoking during pregnancy. Therefore, we recommend health professionals working in antenatal care service, be aware, on counseling of mothers for banning or lowering use of substance during pregnancy. Key word: Substance use, Pregnancy, Birth weight, Smoking, Khat chewing, Ethiopi

Contamination rate of commonly consumed fresh vegetables and fruits with parasites of medically importance in Wolkite and Butajira Towns of Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Intestinal parasitic infections are among the most common on causes  of disease in humans, responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Commonly consumed raw vegetables and fruits are among the ways through which humans become infected with parasites of medical importance. A prospective cross-sectional study with an aim of describing the parasite contamination rate of raw fresh vegetables and fruits sold at the central open-aired market of Butajira and Wolkite towns, in southern Ethiopia was conducted on a total of 270 fresh vegetable and fruits samples. Standardized parasitological techniques were employed to detect diagnostic stages of parasites.98 out of the 270 (36.3%) samples were found positive for intestinal parasites. Remarkably, twenty eight out of the forty five cabbage samples analyzed, 62.2%, were found to be contaminated with parasites of medical importance, registering the highest level of contamination. On the contrary Avocado was found to be the least contaminated produce with contamination rate of 17.7% (8/45). Significant association was observed between the kind of vegetables analyzed and existence of parasites (p=0.002). This study identified high rate of contamination in commonly consumed vegetables and fruits. The authors believe that the role fruits and vegetables paly in the transmission of intestinal parasitic infections to humans is un questionable. Substantial attention is needed from all relevant bodies to tackle this problem

Magnitude and associated factors of intraoperative cardiac complications among geriatric patients who undergo non-cardiac surgery at public hospitals in the southern region of Ethiopia: a multi-center cross-sectional study in 2022/2023

BackgroundIntraoperative cardiac complications are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in non-cardiac surgery. The risk of these complications increased with the average age increasing from 65. In a resource-limited setting, including our study area, the magnitude and associated factors of intraoperative cardiac complications have not been adequately investigated. The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and associated factors of intraoperative cardiac complications among geriatric patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery.MethodsAn institutional-based multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted on 304 geriatric patients at governmental hospitals in the southern region of Ethiopia, from 20 March 2022 to 25 August 2022. Data were collected by chart review and patient interviews. Epi Data version 4.6 and SPSS version 25 were used for analysis. The variables that had association (p < 0.25) were considered for multivariable logistic regression. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant for association.ResultThe overall prevalence of intraoperative cardiac complications was 24.3%. Preoperative ST-segment elevation adjusted odds ratio (AOR = 2.43, CI =2.06–3.67), history of hypertension (AOR = 3.42, CI =2.02–6.08), intraoperative hypoxia (AOR = 3.5, CI = 2.07–6.23), intraoperative hypotension (AOR = 6.2 9, CI =3.51–10.94), age > 85 years (AOR = 6.01, CI = 5.12–12.21), and anesthesia time > 3 h (AOR =2.27, CI = 2.0.2–18.25) were factors significantly associated with intraoperative cardiac complications.ConclusionThe magnitude of intraoperative cardiac complications was high among geriatric patients who had undergone non-cardiac surgery. The independent risk factors of intraoperative cardiac complications for this population included age > 85, ST-segment elevation, perioperative hypertension (stage 3 with regular treatment), duration of anesthesia >3 h, intraoperative hypoxia, and intraoperative hypotension. Holistic preoperative evaluation, optimization optimal and perioperative care for preventing perioperative risk factors listed above, and knowing all possible risk factors are suggested to reduce the occurrence of complications

Hazard Analysis of Unemployment Duration by Gender in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey

There is little evidence on unemployment duration and its determinants in developing countries. This study is on the duration aspect of unemployment in a developing country, Turkey. We analyze the determinants of the probability of leaving unemployment for employment or the hazard rate. The effects of the personal and household characteristics and the local labor market conditions are examined. The analyses are carried out for men and women separately. The results indicate that the nature of unemployment in Turkey exhibits similarities to the unemployment in both the developed and the developing countries

Children’s cognitive ability, schooling and work: evidence from Ethiopia

I investigate the relationship between children’s cognitive ability and parental investment using a rich dataset on a cohort of children from Ethiopia. The data come from Young Lives, a long-term international study of childhood poverty in four countries. Ability is measured by scores on a cognitive test. A child’s enrollment in school, participation in work and work hours are employed as measures of parental investment in human capital. The results provide strong evidence of reinforcing parental investment – higher ability children are more likely to be enrolled in school and less likely to work and, conditional on participation, also work fewer hours. These results are mostly robust to addressing potential feedback effects between schooling and test scores and household heterogeneities. On the policy front, the results suggest that the seeds of adulthood inequality in human capital and earnings capability may be sown quite early in childhood, and thereby underscore the importance of interventions that, among others, attempt to improve prenatal and early life health and nutrition, which are often cited as the sources of deficiencies in children’s cognitive ability.2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Journal of Educational Development. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Educational Development Vol. 38, Sep 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.06.007. The article can be accessed online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073805931400054

Intergenerational educational mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Research on social mobility in developing countries has been hampered by the coresidency criterion applied to most surveys. However, a recent study showed that for educational mobility, the intergenerational correlation (IGC) suffers from significantly less bias in coresident samples, and is also more robust for comparing mobility across sub-samples, time and varying coresidency rates. This study employs the IGC and census data from 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to investigate the association between parents’ and children's educational attainment for several cohorts born between the mid-1950s and early 1990s. According to the results, the SSA average IGC during the period was 0.4, with country averages between 0.3 and 0.5, which would indicate low to medium intergenerational educational persistence. Trend estimates, however, show that the IGC rose (mobility worsened) over the decades in several countries, as it did on average for the region as a whole

Children’s cognitive ability, schooling and work: evidence from Ethiopia

I investigate the relationship between children’s cognitive ability and parental investment using a rich dataset on a cohort of children from Ethiopia. The data come from Young Lives, a long-term international study of childhood poverty in four countries. Ability is measured by scores on a cognitive test. A child’s enrollment in school, participation in work and work hours are employed as measures of parental investment in human capital. The results provide strong evidence of reinforcing parental investment – higher ability children are more likely to be enrolled in school and less likely to work and, conditional on participation, also work fewer hours. These results are mostly robust to addressing potential feedback effects between schooling and test scores and household heterogeneities. On the policy front, the results suggest that the seeds of adulthood inequality in human capital and earnings capability may be sown quite early in childhood, and thereby underscore the importance of interventions that, among others, attempt to improve prenatal and early life health and nutrition, which are often cited as the sources of deficiencies in children’s cognitive ability