Estimating farmers’ willingness to pay for weather index-based crop insurance uptake in West Africa: Insight from a pilot initiative in Southwestern Burkina Faso

© 2018, The Author(s). Weather index-based crop insurance is increasingly becoming important as a risk mitigation strategy that farmers may use to mitigate adverse climate shocks and natural disasters encountered during farming. While Europe, North America, and Asia account for 20.1%, 55%, and 19.5% of the total agricultural insurance premium worldwide, respectively, Africa accounts for only 0.5% of the world insurance industry. One of the key reasons advanced against the low index insurance participation rate in Africa is the failure to involve farm households at the initial conceptualization and design of pilot initiatives. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to design an improved participatory methodology that could help elicit information on the value placed by farm households in Southwestern Burkina Faso on a new weather index-based crop insurance management initiative. A key concept in the improved participatory methodology is that of the willingness to pay (WTP) of farm households for the scheme. Knowledge of the maximum amount that farmers are willing to pay for the scheme can help insurance policy providers and public policy makers to design and put in place measures that sustain index insurance schemes in a developing country context and improve welfare among participating farmers

A Ricardian valuation of the impact of climate change on Nigerian cocoa production: insight for adaptation policy

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relative importance of climate normals (average long-term temperature and precipitation) in explaining net farm revenue per hectare (NRh) for supplementary irrigated and rainfed cocoa farms in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach NRh was estimated for 280 cocoa farmers sampled across seven Nigerian states. It was regressed on climate, household socio-economic characteristics and other control variables by using a Ricardian analytical framework. Marginal calculations were used to isolate the effects of climate change (CC) on cocoa farm revenues under supplementary irrigated and rainfed conditions. Future impacts of CC were simulated using Six CORDEX regional climate model (RCM) ensemble between 2036-2065 and 2071-2100. Findings Results indicate high sensitivity of NRh to Nigerian climate normals depending on whether farms use supplementary irrigation. Average annual temperature increases and precipitation decreases are associated with NRh losses for rainfed farms and gains for supplementary irrigated cocoa farms. Projections of future CC impacts suggest a wide range of NRh outcomes on supplementary irrigated and rainfed farm revenues, demonstrating the importance of irrigation as an effective adaptation strategy in Nigeria. Originality/value This paper uses novel data sets for simulating future CC impacts on land values in Nigeria. CORDEX data constitute the most comprehensive RCMs projections available for Africa

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Evaluating the impact of registration on future firm performance in the Middle East and North Africa region: evidence from the World Bank Enterprise Survey

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the future firm performance of formal enterprises that started-up unregistered and spent longer unregistered are significantly different to those that registered at the outset. Reporting World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 3,420 formal enterprises from eleven countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and controlling for other determinants of firm performance as well as the endogeneity of the registration decision using the Heckman selection model, the finding is that unregistered firms at start-up witness lower sales and productivity growth but higher employment growth rates. The effect of the registration decision on future performance thus depends on the performance indicator analysed. The theoretical implications are then discussed along with the limitations and future research required

Does bribery have a negative impact on firm performance? a firm-level analysis across 132 developing countries

Purpose – Reflecting the moral theorisation of bribery as a negative phenomenon, bribery has been widely shown to have a deleterious impact at the national level on economic development and growth. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether it is also the case at the firm level that bribery has negative impacts on firm performance. Until now, the few studies conducted in individual nations and regions have produced mixed results. Here, therefore, a more comprehensive evaluation of the relationship between bribery and firm performance is undertaken across the developing world. Design/methodology/approach – To do so, World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 106,805 enterprises across 132 developing countries is used to provide a firm-level analysis of the relationship between bribery and firm performance. Findings – The finding is that bribery enhances firm performance. Firms asserting that it is necessary for enterprises like theirs to give gifts or payments to public officials in order to get things done have 13.9 per cent higher average annual sales growth rates and 48 per cent higher annual productivity growth rates, after controlling for other determinants of firm performance. Practical implications – Given that engaging in bribery at the firm level results in higher firm performance, despite bribery having an overall detrimental negative impact at the country level, public authorities will need to develop measures to alter not only the cost-benefit ratio confronting individual enterprises but also the institutional deficiencies that result in the prevalence of bribery. Originality/value – This is the first firm-level evaluation of the relationship between bribery and firm performance across the developing world

State dependence and causal feedback of poverty and fertility inEthiopia

The paper implements simultaneous random effect models as a means to analyse causality issues related to poverty and fertility in Ethiopia, a country which is plagued by high and persistent poverty and very high fertility rates in rural areas. Using longitudinal data from both urban and rural areas of Ethiopia, we analyse the relationship between childbearing and poverty. In addition to identifying state dependence in poverty and fertility, we investigate to what extent fertility act as a feedback mechanism leading to higher poverty and vice versa. We find that poverty itself has little effect on fertility, whereas there is evidence of state dependence in poverty and important feedback from fertility on future poverty. Not unexpected, we find substantial differences between rural and urban areas

Poverty and fertility dynamics: a comparative analysis

In this paper we use unique longitudinal data sources to study the relationship between poverty and fertility at household level in Albania, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Vietnam. These countries differ greatly in their history, average income, social structure, economic institutions and demographic features. We find that there is a substantial difference in the relative importance of the determinants of poverty dynamics and fertility; the persistence of high levels of fertility and poverty in Ethiopia is driven by lack of economic growth, high demand of children and poor access to family planning; education is a crucial element in reducing poverty and fertility, as is clear from Vietnam, Indonesia and Albania

When does food stop being a luxury? Evidence from quadratic Engel curves with measurement error

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3487.2848(no 02/03) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo