Politics and preschool : the political economy of investment in pre-primary education

What drives governments with similar revenues to publicly provide very different amounts of goods for which private substitutes are available? Key examples are education and health care. This paper compares spending by Brazilian municipalities on pre-primary education -- a good that is also provided privately -- with spending on public infrastructure like parks and roads, which lacks private substitutes. Panel data from 1995-2008 reveal how the distribution of income affects public investment. Revenue is endogenous to investment outcomes, and the analysis addresses this problem by exploiting a 1998, nationwide education finance reform and several revisions to the policy. The author constructs a variable that captures exogenous variation in revenue generated by nonlinearities of the law to instrument for observed revenue. Municipalities with higher median income and more inequality are less likely to allocate revenue to education or to expand pre-primary enrollment. They are more likely to allocate revenue to public infrastructure. There is suggestive evidence that this occurs for two reasons, hypothesized in two separate literatures. In rich and unequal municipalities, fewer total people support public education spending (the collective choice channel), and also, any given poor person wanting public education has less influence over policymakers there (the political power channel).Public Sector Management and Reform,Public Sector Economics,Primary Education,Access to Finance,Regional Governance

The Economic Costs of the War in Iraq

Government policies are routinely subjected to rigorous cost analyses. Yet one of today’s most controversial and expensive policies—the ongoing war in Iraq—has not been. The $212 billion allocated by the U.S. Treasury has been widely reported. But the real, direct economic costs include more than budgetary allocations. Other costs include lives lost, injuries, and lost civilian productivity of National Guard and Reserve troops mobilized for the conflict. The conflict, however, also has generated cost savings, especially in terms of resources no longer being used to enforce UN sanctions and people no longer being killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. In this paper we monetize these direct costs and avoided costs of the war in Iraq, both to-date and the total expected net present value of costs through 2015. Our estimates are imprecise. The data are not of high quality and every calculation requires a number of assumptions. In addition, we do not calculate indirect effects of the conflict, such as its impact on oil prices or other macroeconomic impacts, or certain intangibles, like the benefits of a stable democratically elected government in Iraq, should one emerge. Nonetheless, our best estimates suggests that the direct economic costs to the U.S. through August 2005 are about$255 billion, about $40 billion to coalition partners, and$134 billion to Iraq. These estimates suggest a global cost to date of about $428 billion. The avoided costs, meanwhile, are about$116 billion. We estimate that the expected total net present value of the direct costs through 2015 could be $604 billion to the U.S.,$95 billion to coalition partners, and $306 billion to Iraq, suggesting a global total expected net present value of about$1 trillion. The net present value of total avoided costs, meanwhile, could be about $429 billion.

Has Private Participation in Water and Sewerage Improved Coverage? Empirical Evidence from Latin America

Introducing private sector participation (PSP) into the water and sewerage sectors in developing countries is difficult and controversial. Empirical studies on its effects are scant and generally inconclusive. Case studies tend to find improvements in the sector following privatization, but they suffer from selection bias and it is difficult to generalize from their results. To explore empirically the effects of PSP, we assemble a new dataset of connections to water and sewerage services at the city and province level based on household surveys in Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. The household surveys, conducted over a number of years, allow us to compile data before and after the introduction of PSP as well as from similar (control) regions that never privatized at all. Our analysis reveals that, in general, connection rates to piped water and sewerage improved following the introduction of PSP, consistent with the case study literature. We also find, however, that connection rates similarly improved in the control regions, suggesting that PSP, per se, may not have been responsible for those improvements. On the other hand, connection rates for the poorest households also tended to increase in the regions with PSP and in the control regions, suggesting that ,in terms of connections at least, PSP did not harm the poor.

Has private participation in water and sewerage improved coverage? - empirical evidence from Latin America

Introducing private sector participation (PSP) into the water and sewerage sectors in developing countries is difficult and controversial. Empirical studies on its effects are scant and generally inconclusive. Case studies tend to find improvements in the sector following privatization, but they suffer from selection bias, and it is difficult to generalize from their results. To explore empirically the effects of PSP on coverage, we assemble a new dataset of connections to water and sewerage services at the city, and province level, based on household surveys in Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. The household surveys, conducted over a number of years, allow us to compile data, before and after the introduction of PSP, as well as from similar (control) regions that never privatized at all. Our analysis reveals that, in general, connection rates to piped water and sewerage, improved following the introduction of PSP, consistent with the case study literature. We also find, however, that connection rates similarly improved in the control regions, suggesting that PSP, per se, may not have been responsible for those improvements. On the other hand, connection rates for the poorest households also tended to increase in the regions with PSP, and in the control regions, suggesting that-in terms of connections at least-PSP did not harm the poor.Environmental Economics&Policies,Decentralization,Health Economics&Finance,Water Conservation,Water and Industry,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Water and Industry

Public or Private Drinking Water: The Effects of Ownership and Benchmark Competition on U.S. Water System Regulatory Compliance and Household Water Expenditures

Whether water systems should be owned and operated by governments or private firms is intensely controversial, and little empirical research sheds light on the issue. In this paper we use a panel dataset that includes every community water system in the U.S. from 1997-2003 to test the effects of ownership and benchmark competition on regulatory compliance and household water expenditures. We find that when controlling for water source, location fixed effects, county income, urbanization and year, there is little difference between public and private systems. Public systems are somewhat more likely to violate the maximum levels of health-based contaminants allowed under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), while private systems are somewhat more likely to violate monitoring and reporting regulations. The results are reversed for systems that serve more than 100,000 people. Household expenditures on water at the county level decrease slightly as the share of private ownership increases, contradicting fears that private ownership brings higher prices. While direct competition among piped water systems is practically nonexistent, we find that benchmark competition among water systems within counties is associated with fewer SDWA violations and, when combined with private ownership, lower household expenditures.Overall, the results suggest that absent competition, whether water systems are owned by private firms or governments may, on average, simply not matter much.

The Economic Costs of the War in Iraq

Government policies are routinely subjected to rigorous cost analyses. Yet one of today's most controversial and expensive policies ,the ongoing war in Iraq, has not been. The $212 billion allocated by the U.S. Treasury has been widely reported. But the real, direct economic costs include more than budgetary allocations. Other costs include lives lost, injuries, and lost civilian productivity of National Guard and Reserve troops mobilized for the conflict. The conflict, however, also has generated cost savings, especially in terms of resources no longer being used to enforce UN sanctions and people no longer being killed by Saddam Hussein's regime. In this paper we monetize these direct costs and avoided costs of the war in Iraq, both to date and the total expected net present value of costs through 2015. Our estimates are imprecise. The data are not of high quality and every calculation requires a number of assumptions. In addition, we do not calculate indirect effects of the conflict, such as its impact on oil prices or other macroeconomic impacts, or certain intangibles, like the benefits of a stable democratically elected government in Iraq, should one emerge. Nonetheless, our best estimates suggests that the direct economic costs to the U.S. through August 2005 are about$255 billion, about $40 billion to coalition partners, and$134 billion to Iraq. These estimates suggest a global cost to date of about $428 billion. The avoided costs, meanwhile, are about$116 billion. We estimate that the expected total net present value of the direct costs through 2015 could be $604 billion to the U.S.,$95 billion to coalition partners, and $306 billion to Iraq, suggesting a global total expected net present value of about$1 trillion. The net present value of total avoided costs, meanwhile, could be about $429 billion.

FR2.3: Women's Voices in Civil Society Organizations: Evidence from a Civil Society Mapping Project in Mali

How does women's engagement in civil society organizations (CSOs) differ from that of men, and what factors predict women's willingness to hold the state accountable? We analyze these questions in the context of rural and urban Mali, leveraging face-to-face data collected as part of a civil society mapping project during February-March 2020 and December 2020, and an in-depth survey conducted with leaders from a randomly-selected subset of these CSOs during January -- March 2021. First, we explore the characteristics of women's groups compared to other CSOs. Second, we explore their likelihood of sanctioning a hypothetical corrupt mayor. We use an embedded survey experiment to try to understand these groups' willingness to report on the mayor. We find that women in Mali are often highly organized at the local level with great mobilization capacity than men--frequently in self-help groups or organizations related to gendered economic activities. However, they are not typically recognized by outside actors; their strong networks and group infrastructure represent untapped social capital. CSOs comprised of women have lower informational and technical capacity, including lower levels of political knowledge, and incur a higher cost of sanctioning public officials. Women are generally less willing than men to sanction, but become more likely when their CSO is less hierarchical, when their technical capacity is higher, and when their political knowledge is greater. However, priming their importance as a CSO (by telling them they were identified by well-connected citizens as influential) reduces sanctioning--perhaps by making them fear reprisals from recommenders

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration addresses challenges to livelihood, food, and climate security faced by some of the most vulnerable populations worldwide. The Initiative focuses on building climate resilience, promoting gender equity, and fostering social inclusion. It forms part of CGIAR’s new Research Portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis

Climate change and women’s voice and agency beyond the household: Insights from India

Women’s Voice & Agency beyond the household (VABH) has increasingly been recognized as critical to strengthening resilience, increasing women’s access to important resources, improving women’s decision-making power, and facilitating broader social networks (Njuki et al. 2022). Despite rapidly intensifying climate change in recent years, a knowledge gap persists as to how climate change may affect women’s VABH in developing countries. This has been particularly challenging in countries like India, which host one of the largest numbers of the poor and has been increasingly plagued by droughts, floods, cyclones, rising temperatures, and increasing rainfall fluctuations. This study provides a conceptual discussion on the linkages between climate change and VABH and analyzes their empirical relationship using multiple rounds of nationwide household data from India (India Human Development Survey 2005, 2012; World Values Survey 2001, 2006, 2012); climate data; and data on women’s political representation at the district level. Our results suggest that in rural parts of India, adverse climate change and natural disasters, such as cyclones and/or floods, have consistently negative associations with a broad range of VABH-related outcomes. Moreover, in rural areas, greater political representation by women in district assemblies broadly mitigates the potential effects of adverse climate change on VABH-related outcomes. These patterns generally hold across various populations, differentiated by marriage status and age groups, and are more robust in rural compared to urban areas. There are also generally consistent gender differences in these associations. Specifically, results indicate that women’s VABH are disproportionately more negatively affected by adverse CC than men’s VABH, while greater female representation at local district assemblies has greater effects in mitigating adverse CC on VABH among women than men. The results underscore the importance of enhancing women’s political representation as a means to improve women’s VABH

Women’s involvement in intra‐household decision‐making and infant and young child feeding practices in central Asia, No. 2

See the first version of this IFPRI Discussion Paper https://ebrary.ifpri.org/digital/collection/p15738coll2/id/134760This paper examines the relationship between women’s empowerment and infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia using Demographic and Health Survey data from 1995–2017. We employ a measure of women’s empowerment with three distinct dimensions available for a subset of recent surveys as well as a measure of a woman’s decision-making power over use of her own income present in all surveys. We identify a positive association between a woman’s decision making power—a measure of her instrumental agency—and adherence to World Health Organization–recommended feeding practices related to achieving minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet. We find little significant association between a woman’s attitude toward domestic violence, or her degree of social independence, and adherence to recommended feeding practices. Our results further show that women’s decision-making power has the greatest predictive power for adherence to optimal feeding practices among mothers living with a mother-in-law. In contrast, child gender and household poverty do not emerge as important moderators of the relationship between women’s empowerment and feeding practices. We thus provide evidence from Central Asia, a substantially under-studied region, that policies and programs expanding women’s decision-making power can improve child nutrition—especially when directed at extended households in which mothers cohabitate with in-laws. They suggest that all children would benefit—regardless of child gender and availability of complementary household resources