The value of skill training programs for self-employment, entrepreneurship and non-cognitive traits. Evidence from a regression discontinuity design

Using a "fuzzy" regression discontinuity design, we examine the short-run impacts of a vocational training program on self-employment, new business plans, entry into entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial traits using data from the Nepal Employment Fund training program, which funds training workshops offered to eligible individuals. We find striking positive effects of training on self-employment among transformative entrepreneurs. Among individuals who our analysis identifies as transformative entrepreneurs, training provision increases the likelihood of self-employment by 0.21, or equivalent to a 50 percent increase in self-employment from the baseline average. We find impact differences by gender: self-employment increase by 21 percent among women and we detect no impacts among men. The program also generated sizable improvements in self-reported self-regulation and a decreased frequency of anxiety about future income. The female sub-sample and the most labor-intensive training types primarily drive the positive program impacts

Population growth and collapse in a multiagent model of the Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley

A s the only social science that has access to data of sufficient duration to reveal long-term changes in patterned human behavior, archaeology traditionally has been concerned with describing and explaining how societies adapt and evolve in response to changing conditions. A major impediment to rigorous investigation in archaeology-the inability to conduct reproducible experiments-is one shared with certain other sciences, such as astronomy, geophysics, and paleontology. Computational modeling is providing a way around these difficulties. k Within anthropology and archaeology there has been a rapidly growing interest in so-called agent-based computational model

Population growth and collapse in a multiagent model of the Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley

A s the only social science that has access to data of sufficient duration to reveal long-term changes in patterned human behavior, archaeology traditionally has been concerned with describing and explaining how societies adapt and evolve in response to changing conditions. A major impediment to rigorous investigation in archaeology-the inability to conduct reproducible experiments-is one shared with certain other sciences, such as astronomy, geophysics, and paleontology. Computational modeling is providing a way around these difficulties. k Within anthropology and archaeology there has been a rapidly growing interest in so-called agent-based computational model

Harvesting health: Fertilizer, nutrition and AIDS treatment in Kenya

This thesis explores various policy options for mitigating food insecurity among patients receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS. The first chapter examines the impact of a fertilizer provision program that targets farming households in which one or more members is currently receiving treatment for AIDS. The study enrolled 540 patients, of which half were selected to receive free fertilizer for the 2007 planting season. I find that treated households planted a larger acreage and produced 350 more kilograms of maize than control households, an increase of 40% worth about 88 USD. Treated households used the increased income from crop sales to invest in livestock and purchase 80% more fertilizer than the control group in the subsequent planting season. The second chapter extends the analysis of the impact of the fertilizer program to examine health outcomes of program participants. Fertilizer recipients, who concurrently received free anti-retroviral therapy (ART), experienced significant health improvements. Fertilizer provision improved the health status of treated individuals, as measured by both body mass index (BMI) and CD4 cell count. In the third chapter, I examine the impact of direct food distribution on the clinical outcomes of patients receiving ART at one clinic within the USAID-AMPATH partnership in western Kenya. The nutrition supplementation program began in 2004 and targeted patients with low Body Mass Index (BMI) and severe immunological suppression, as measured by CD4 cell count. Of the 1977 patients who initiated ART at this clinic, 548 participated in the food supplementation program. Results indicate that while both groups respond equally well to ART, the addition of food does not appear to significantly improve the outcomes of food recipients over the first 18 months of treatment. However, these results must be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size of CD4 and BMI measurements beyond the first 6 months of treatment. More rigorous evaluation, preferably with experimental design, of the impact of nutrition programs on the health outcomes of ART patients is needed

Development of the South Sudan Mental Health Assessment Scale.

This study developed and validated a measure that captures variation in common local idioms of distress and mental health problems experienced by women in South Sudan, a country which has experienced over 50 years of violence, displacement, and political, social, and economic insecurity. This measure was developed during a randomized controlled trial of the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) and used qualitative Free Listing (n = 102) and Key Informant interviews (n = 27). Internal reliability and convergent validity were assessed using data from 3,137 randomly selected women (ages 14-47) in 100 communities in South Sudan. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability were assessed using responses from 180 women (ages 15-58) who completed the measure once, and 129 of whom repeated the measure an average of 12 days (SD = 8.3) later. Concurrent validity was assessed through the ratings of 22 AGI leaders about the presence or absence of mental health symptoms in the 180 women in the test-retest sample. The study resulted in the development of the South Sudan Mental Health Assessment Scale, a 24-item measure assessing six idioms of distress. The scale consisted of one factor and had excellent internal, test-retest, and interrater reliability. The scale also demonstrated good convergent and concurrent validity and performed well psychometrically. Moreover, its development provides an example for other organizations, working in environments where mental health measures have not yet been developed and validated, to create and validate measures relevant to their populations. In this way, the role of mental health in development settings can be more rapidly assessed