Which inequality matters? Growth evidence based on small area welfare estimates in Uganda

Existing empirical studies onthe relation between inequality and growth have been criticized for their focus on income inequality and their use of cross-country data sets. Schipper and Hoogeveen use two sets of small area welfare estimates-often referred to as poverty maps-to estimate a model of rural per capita expenditure growth for Uganda between 1992 and 1999. They estimate the growth effects of expenditure and education inequality while controlling for other factors, such as initial levels of expenditure and human capital, family characteristics, and unobserved spatial heterogeneity. The authors correct standard errors to reflect the uncertainty due to the fact that they use estimates rather than observations. They find that per capita expenditure growth in rural Uganda is affected positively by the level of education as well as by the degree of education inequality. Expenditure inequality does not have a significant impact on growth.Inequality,Governance Indicators,Achieving Shared Growth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Poverty Impact Evaluation

Deregulation and Schedule Competition in Simple Airline Networks

The present paper investigates the choice of route network, frequencies and ticket prices in air transport networks served by oligopolists. The paper describes these choices in a simple airline network by means of a simulation model. Airline competition is modeled as a 2 stage game: airlines first choose a particular flight schedule in a network, and in the second stage, airlines choose ticket prices. This simulation model thus describes airline profit maximizing behaviour in a given network environment. The model may now serve as a basis to address particular policy related questions. One such question is the welfare effect of airline deregulation. The welfare consequences resulting from the deregulation of airline markets have been investigated quite amply, both theoretically and empirically. In most cases, deregulation has been demonstrated to confer substantial benefits to consumers, and in some cases also to producers. At the same time, however, the external costs associated with aviation have become a major public policy concern in many countries. External effects - which in this case include noise, emissions and congestion - arise when markets lack: resources like peace and quiet, clean air and space are often unpriced. As a result, these resources are used in quantities beyond a social optimum. In the context of airline deregulation, it is now interesting to analyze the welfare effects caused the process of airline deregulation, taking the external costs of aviation into account. The present paper addresses this question while the network character of air transportation is taken into account.

Women: Walking and Waiting for Water The Time Value of Public Water Supply

Public funding of water supply infrastructure in developing countries is often justified by the expectation that the time spent on water collection significantly decreases, leading to increased labor force participation of women. In this study we empirically test this hypothesis by applying a difference-in-difference analysis to a sample of 2000 households in rural Benin where improved water supply was phased in over time. Time savings per day are rather modest at 35 minutes: even though walking distances are considerably reduced, women still spend a lot of time waiting at the water source. Moreover, a reduction in time to collect one water container induces women to collect a higher number of containers per day. Our results indicate that time savings are rarely followed by increased labor supply of women: men are the first to be freed from water fetching activities

Deregulation and Schedule Competition in Simple Airline Networks

The present paper investigates the choice of route network, frequencies and ticket prices in air transport networks served by oligopolists. The paper describes these choices in a simple airline network by means of a simulation model. Airline competition is modeled as a 2 stage game: airlines first choose a particular flight schedule in a network, and in the second stage, airlines choose ticket prices. This simulation model thus describes airline profit maximizing behaviour in a given network environment. The model may now serve as a basis to address particular policy related questions. One such question is the welfare effect of airline deregulation. The welfare consequences resulting from the deregulation of airline markets have been investigated quite amply, both theoretically and empirically. In most cases, deregulation has been demonstrated to confer substantial benefits to consumers, and in some cases also to producers. At the same time, however, the external costs associated with aviation have become a major public policy concern in many countries. External effects - which in this case include noise, emissions and congestion - arise when markets lack: resources like peace and quiet, clean air and space are often unpriced. As a result, these resources are used in quantities beyond a social optimum. In the context of airline deregulation, it is now interesting to analyze the welfare effects caused the process of airline deregulation, taking the external costs of aviation into account. The present paper addresses this question while the network character of air transportation is taken into account

Improved water supply and water handling technologies: Revealed complements but perceived substitutes for safe water quality

We analyze the impact of public water infrastructure and water handling technologies on the water quality and water handling behavior of households in rural Benin using both quasi-experimental and experimental household-level panel data. We find that the installation of improved village-level water sources induces households to reduce water disinfection efforts at home, indicating that households perceive improved public water infrastructure as a substitute for improved water handling to obtain safe drinking water. Consequently, point-of-use drinking water quality does not change. A reduction of contamination with E. coli at points of use can only be achieved if interventions providing drinking water technologies at the water source are complemented by household-level interventions and efforts to teach households how to maintain good water quality.ISSN:2352-728

Women Are Walking and Waiting for Water: The Time Value of Public Water Supply

Funding of the public water supply in developing countries is often justified by the expectation that it significantly decreases the time spent on water collection, leading to increased labor force participation of women. We empirically test this hypothesis for rural Benin. Daily water collection times are reduced by 41 minutes but still take 2 hours after the installation of a public pump. Even though walking distances are reduced, women still spend a lot of time waiting at the water source, and not all women use the improved water source. Moreover, a reduction in time to fill one water container induces women to fill more containers per day. Time savings are rarely followed by an increase in the labor supply of women. The economic value of the annual time savings is 1%–2% of a rural households’ income

Environmental costs in European aviation

This paper presents estimates of environmental costs in a set of 36 European airline markets. Cost are calculated for noise, air pollution and accident risk using data on aircraft emissions, exposure-response parameters and economic valuation of environmental goods. The 'medium value' cost estimate is 0.0201ECU per passenger-km. This result suggests that environmental costs represent only a small fraction (2.5%) of the internal cost of aviation as measured by the average ticket price. Noise costs are the dominant environmental cost at some 75% of the cost total. The medium estimates are sensitive to changes in the various assumptions in the pathways: a low and high estimate are three times lower and five times higher, respectively, than the medium estimate. The study further suggests that there are environmental economies of scale in air transport and that Chapter 2 aircraft are about a factor four more environmentally costly than Chapter 3 aircraft.

Economic and Environmental Effects of Airline Deregulation

This paper deals with the issue of regulatory reform in the airline industry, in connection with environmental externalities. Deregulation has led to shorter routes, higher frequencies, probably larger aircraft sizes and more intense peak traffic at airports. In addition, deregulation has led to lower average real fares, although various barriers to entry still allow carriers to keep prices above competitive levels. Environmental effects have thus far not received much attention in the discussion on deregulation. The paper contains a discussion of various types of environmental effects of aviation. An analytical model is developed to compare these effects in hub and spoke systems with a fully connected system. The conclusion is that for CO2 emissions private cost considerations and environmental considerations may run parallel in the choice of transport network, but that for other types of pollutants there may be a clear conflict. In addition the paper pays attention to equity aspects of externalities

Explaining Employment Growth in Small Industrial Enterprises: Does Policy Matter? A Case Study for Central Java

Small-scale and cottage industries (SSMI) have received a considerable amount of attention in development strategies and policies in many countries. One of the main arguments in favour of small scale production is its potential to create employment, as it uses more labour per unit of output. Although the empirical evidence in the debate around the allocative efficiency of smallscale production is not unambiguous, scale-biased (macro) economic environments favouring large industries have been used as a justification for the promotion of small industries through direct assistence programmes.The effectiveness of small industry promotion programmes has received mixed judgements. One the one hand, (government) assistance has been praised as having ..a favourable effect on employment.. in small enterprises (Pernia and Pernia, 1986), while, according to others (UNDP et al., 1988), it may present in many cases an ..ineffective palliative.. for unfavourable demandconditions of (rural) SSMI. These evaluations are, however, not entirely comparable, since the latter one is an ..overall, qualitative assessment.. using effectiveness criteria such as outreach,assimilability, impact, sustainability, while the former one is based on a quantitative analysis of economic and social impact. This analysis of impact can thus be seen as part of a broad policy evaluation.This paper attempts to contribute to the debate around the impact of small industry promotion, using evidence concerning small industry assistence programmes in Central-Java, Indonesia. The analysis is based on the data set employed in Sandee et al. (1994); the selection of data and the methods used are different, however.In the next section, some remarks on economic impact analysis as a policy evaluation tool are made. Then, the organization and contents of small industry programmes in Indonesia are described in short. This is followed by a description of the field survey, the data, specifications and methodology used, a discussion of the results and some concluding remarks

Explaining Employment Growth in Small Industrial Enterprises: Does Policy Matter? A Case Study for Central Java

Small-scale and cottage industries (SSMI) have received a considerable amount of attention in development strategies and policies in many countries. One of the main arguments in favour of small scale production is its potential to create employment, as it uses more labour per unit of output. Although the empirical evidence in the debate around the allocative efficiency of smallscale production is not unambiguous, scale-biased (macro) economic environments favouring large industries have been used as a justification for the promotion of small industries through direct assistence programmes.The effectiveness of small industry promotion programmes has received mixed judgements. One the one hand, (government) assistance has been praised as having "..a favourable effect on employment.." in small enterprises (Pernia and Pernia, 1986), while, according to others (UNDP et al., 1988), it may present in many cases an "..ineffective palliative.." for unfavourable demandconditions of (rural) SSMI. These evaluations are, however, not entirely comparable, since the latter one is an "..overall, qualitative assessment.." using effectiveness criteria such as outreach,assimilability, impact, sustainability, while the former one is based on a quantitative analysis of economic and social impact. This analysis of impact can thus be seen as part of a broad policy evaluation.This paper attempts to contribute to the debate around the impact of small industry promotion, using evidence concerning small industry assistence programmes in Central-Java, Indonesia. The analysis is based on the data set employed in Sandee et al. (1994); the selection of data and the methods used are different, however.In the next section, some remarks on economic impact analysis as a policy evaluation tool are made. Then, the organization and contents of small industry programmes in Indonesia are described in short. This is followed by a description of the field survey, the data, specifications and methodology used, a discussion of the results and some concluding remarks.