Poverty, Inequality, and Redistribution Under Lexicographic Social Welfare

Unlike aversion to inequality, aversion to poverty resists formalization in welfare economics. One way to assign normative significance to the poverty line is to allow the welfare measure to exhibit a discrete loss from poverty (DLP) at z. However, the resulting redistribution scheme prioritizes headcount-reducing transfers to the borderline poor over transfers to the very poorest, rendering the DLP measure unattractive. The paper remedies this by transcending the conventional real valued welfare measure. It proposes a lexicographic L*-ordering, where the first rank criterion corresponds to an inequality-based evaluation function, while the second rank criterion corresponds to an evaluation function that exhibits DLP. The redistribution scheme entails transfers to the poorest until the first rank criterion is satisficed; only then may transfers be allocated to the borderline poor. The model’s parameters can represent varying degrees of concern for the poorest, highlighting its flexibility as a framework for welfare evaluation.poverty, lexicographic ordering, inequality, redistribution, discontinuous choice

Market Size, Differentiated Scale Economies and Interindustry Trade

A stylized pattern of interindustry trade between developing and developed regions identifies the former as specialists in light manufactures and latter in heavy manufactures. Conventional explanations for this pattern rely on the factor proportions model, which is empirically suspect. This paper proposes an alternative model that relies on the interaction between scale economies and domestic market size. Unlike standard increasing returns analysis, the model provides a rich yet tractable characterization of variations in scale economies across industries. The model, in applying a limit pricing framework to the open economy, offers a new approach to analyzing imperfect competition and interregional trade.Interindustry trade, increasing returns, imperfect competition

Eating for a Lifetime: Filling the Policy Gaps in Philippine Fisheries

The fishery sector has become a large and dynamic contributor to Philippine agriculture. However, the sector confronts the problem of high poverty and alarming threats to its resource base. Policy responses to these problems have been implemented in recent years, but serious gaps remain. Addressing these policy gaps requires reforms that would lead to aquaculture development, bureaucratic rationalization and decentralization, the protection of aquatic habitats, the implementation of a science-based regime of fisheries management, and the promotion of diversified livelihoods among poor fishing communities. A concerted effort to address poverty and resource degradation may incur considerable short-run costs, but would likely yield larger long-term social payoffs.fishery, productivity, resource management, policy

Addressing Policy Issues and Constraints in Agricultural Diversification: the Potential Contribution of the Fruits and Vegetables Subsector

The fruits and vegetables subsector is a dynamic component of Philippine agriculture and has the potentials of fully contributing to the diversification of the agriculture sector. But similar to the agriculture sector as a whole, its full development is stymied by a set of certain policy issues. This Notes discusses these in more detail.agriculture sector, agricultural diversification, fruits subsector, vegetables subsector

The future for fish in the food and livelihoods of the poor in Asia

This article is based on the study, Strategies and Options for Increasing and Sustaining Benefits from Fisheries and Aquaculture Production to Benefit Poor Households in Asia carried out under ADB-RETA 5945, and implemented by the WorldFish Center in partnership with nine participating Asian countries

Dealing with the Soaring Price of Rice

What brought about the soaring price of rice in recent months? How did the government respond to it? This Notes traces the root of the situation and analyzes the way that the government has responded to it.rice prices, rice, rice crisis

Impact pathway analysis for research planning: the case of aquatic resources research in the WorldFish Center

In line with its mandate of poverty reduction and sustainable development, the WorldFish Center is orienting its research towards high impact scientific activity. Identifying such activities is the task of prospective impact assessment, in turn based on impact pathway analysis. The paper describes a framework for analyzing benefits from aquatic resources research, the relevant research categories, pathways to impact by category, and indicators along each pathway that can be estimated in order to quantify probable research impact

An evaluation of alternative methods for online survey recruitment: the equivalency of data collected through amazon mechanical turk and second life to traditional undergraduate student samples

A major proportion of psychological research uses subjects from undergraduate populations. Increasingly, researchers are exploiting the Internet to reach beyond the traditional undergraduate sample. The current study sought to compare data obtained from a conventional undergraduate student sample to data collected via two online survey recruitment platforms: Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing site and the virtual environment of Second Life (SL). Data obtained via these online recruitment platforms was statistically equivalent to the data obtained from the college sample, based on standardized measures of psychological stress and sleep quality. Additionally, correlations between the sleep and stress measures were not statistically different between the groups. These results, along with practical considerations in the use of these platforms, are discussed

Magnetic domain wall propagation in a submicron spin-valve stripe: influence of the pinned layer

The propagation of a domain wall in a submicron ferromagnetic spin-valve stripe is investigated using giant magnetoresistance. A notch in the stripe efficiently traps an injected wall stopping the domain propagation. The authors show that the magnetic field at which the wall is depinned displays a stochastic nature. Moreover, the depinning statistics are significantly different for head to head and tail-to-tail domain walls. This is attributed to the dipolar field generated in the vicinity of the notch by the pinned layer of the spin-valve