What is the Impact of Income on the Demand for Bushmeat?: a study of the relationship between income and bushmeat near the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania

In Sub-Saharan Africa, increasing levels of bushmeat consumption and unsustainable bushmeat hunting have become one of the central concerns of conservationists. Many conservationists have recently begun to see income growth as a possible strategy to decrease wildlife consumption. This study tests whether or not this strategy would be effective near the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Results from both the aggregated and disaggregated demand functions indicate that bushmeat is a necessity in the region, implying that increases in income would lead to less than proportional increases in consumption and suggesting that income growth alone is not a viable conservation strategy. Other food sources in addition to economic activities that could provide both protein and income must be made available in order to reduce the demand for bushmeat

Global Tobacco Economics Consortium

A 50% increase in cigarette prices would lead to millions of life-years gained through smoking cessation, across the study countries (India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam, Armenia, China, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, and Chile). About 15.5 million men would avoid catastrophic health expenditures and 8.8 million would avoid falling below the World Bank definition of extreme poverty. Despite differences in socioeconomic class and health finance arrangements, a 50% increase in tobacco prices strongly favours those in the bottom income group for life-years saved, out-of-pocket expenses from tobacco attributable treatment costs averted, and avoidance of catastrophic health expenditures or poverty

Replication data for: Estimating HIV Prevalence: Can Heckman Help?

Estimating national HIV prevalence is challenging due to high rates of HIV test refusal. Barnighausen et al. (2011) proposes the Heckman selection model to account for selection on unobservables, which would result in biased national prevalence estimates. In practice, Heckman models may be difficult to implement because they require a suitable identification variable. Barnighausen et al. (2011) suggests that interviewer identity fulfills the criteria for a valid identification variable. By replicating the paper, we investigate the validity of Heckman estimates of HIV prevalence in Zambia using interviewer identity as the identification variable. Our findings suggest that interviewer identity is endogenous to HIV status under plausible field conditions, and is therefore not a valid identification variable. We find very high predicted prevalence of HIV among men that did not consent to testing (50-54%), and 29-33% among non-consenting men who have never had sex. These surprising results call into question the model's validity. We recommend that DHS evaluate the possibility of altering their data collection procedures to ensure exogeneity of interviewer identity and further evaluate the robustness of the Heckman model before changing HIV prevalence estimation methods

Impact of measles supplementary immunisation activities on utilisation of maternal and child health services in low-income and middle-income countries

Background: Measles supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) are an integral component of measles elimination in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite their success in increasing vaccination coverage, there are concerns about their negative consequences on routine services. Few studies have conducted quantitative assessments of SIA impact on utilisation of health services. Methods: We analysed the impact of SIAs on utilisation of selected maternal and child health services using Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys from 28 LMICs, where at least one SIA occurred over 2000–2014. Logistic regressions were conducted to investigate the association between SIAs and utilisation of the following services: facility delivery, postnatal care and outpatient sick child care (for fever, diarrhoea, cough). Results: SIAs do not appear to significantly impact utilisation of maternal and child services. We find a reduction in care-seeking for treatment of child cough (OR 0.67; 95% CI 0.48 to 0.95); and a few significant effects at the country level, suggesting the need for further investigation of the idiosyncratic effects of SIAs in each country. Conclusion: The paper contributes to the debate on vertical versus horizontal programmes to ensure universal access to vaccination. Measles SIAs do not seem to affect care-seeking for critical conditions