Education and health at the household level in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper surveys the microeconomic evidence on the determinants of and returns to education and health in sub-Saharan Africa. A year of education is associated with 3-14% increases wages and productivity. The introduction or removal of user fees can have dramatic effects on take-up of health and education services.

Food Price Changes and Consumer Welfare in Ghana in the 1990s

In this paper, we analyse the effect of food price changes on household consumption in Ghana during the 1990s and assess the extent to which changes can be explained by trade and agricultural policy reforms. The measurement of the total household welfare effect, one that jointly considers (static) first order effects as well as (dynamic) consumption responses, is the object of this study. Food consumption behaviour in Ghana is analyzed by estimating a complete food demand system using the linear approximate version of the AIDS model with household survey data for 1991/92 and 1998/99. The estimated price elasticities are then utilized to evaluate the distributional impacts of the relative food price changes in terms of compensating variation. The results indicate that the distributional burden of higher food prices fell mainly on the urban poor. While it is difficult to attribute the price changes and by implication the welfare losses, to any particular policy per se, a simulation analysis indicates that trade liberalisation may not have been responsible for the welfare losses. Our simulation exercise suggests that further tariff liberalisation would tend to offset the welfare losses for all households although it is the poor and rural consumers who stand to gain the most.Food prices, Demand analysis, Consumer behaviour, Welfare, Ghana

Life Satisfaction in Urban China: Components and Determinants

Survey data from urban China in 2002 show levels of life satisfaction to be low, but not exceptionally so, by international comparison. Many of the determinants of life satisfaction in urban China appear comparable to those for people in other countries. These include, inter alia, unemployment, income, marriage, sex, health and age. Communist Party membership and political participation raise life satisfaction. People appear fairly satisfied with economic growth and low inflation, and this contributes to their overall life satisfaction. There is dissatisfaction over pollution, but this – like job insecurity – does not appear to impact on life satisfaction.economic growth, happiness, life satisfaction, unemployment, China

Life Satisfaction in Urban China: Components and Determinants

Survey data from urban China in 2002 show levels of life satisfaction to be low, but not exceptionally so, by international comparison. Many of the determinants of life satisfaction in urban China appear comparable to those for people in other countries. These include, inter alia, unemployment, income, marriage, sex, health and age. Communist Party membership and political participation raise life satisfaction. People appear fairly satisfied with economic growth and low inflation, and this contributes to their overall life satisfaction. There is dissatisfaction over pollution, but this – like job insecurity – does not appear to impact on life satisfaction.life satisfaction, happiness, economic growth, unemployment, China

Regional or National Poverty Lines? The Case of Uganda in the 1990s

Uganda, poverty, inequality

Regional or national poverty lines? The case of Uganda in the 1990s

Absolute poverty lines are often derived from the cost of obtaining sufficient calories. Where staples vary across regions, such poverty lines may differ depending on whether they are set using national or regional food baskets. Regional poverty lines are open to the objection that they may be contaminated by income effects. This paper explores this issue by focussing on Uganda, a country where widening spatial inequalities in the 1990s have caused concern. Conflicting results from earlier studies have suggested that the spatial pattern of poverty in Uganda is very sensitive to whether national or regional food baskets are used in setting poverty lines. We confirm this suggestion by comparing the spatial profile of poverty in 1993 using national and regional poverty lines. However, since the regions consuming the more expensive staple sources of calories are also those with higher incomes, using simple regional poverty lines is problematic. Instead, a method of setting regional poverty lines is considered that adjusts for income differentials between regions. Even with this adjustment, the use of regional food baskets implies a markedly different

Growing out of poverty: trends and patterns of urban poverty in China 1988–2002

This paper estimates trends in absolute poverty in urban China from 1988 to 2002 using the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) surveys. Poverty incidence curves are plotted, showing that poverty has fallen markedly during the period regardless of the exact location of the poverty line. Income inequality rose from 1988 to 1995 but has been fairly constant thereafter. Models of the determination of income and poverty reveal widening differentials by education, sex and party membership. Income from government anti-poverty programs has little impact on poverty, which has fallen almost entirely due to overall economic growth rather than redistribution.poverty, inequality, economic growth, welfare, public policy, China

Growing out of Poverty: Trends and Patterns of Urban Poverty in China 1988–2002

This paper estimates trends in absolute poverty in urban China from 1988 to 2002 using the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) surveys. Poverty incidence curves are plotted, showing that poverty has fallen markedly during the period regardless of the exact location of the poverty line. Income inequality rose from 1988 to 1995 but has been fairly constant thereafter. Models of the determination of income and poverty reveal widening differentials by education, sex and party membership. Income from government anti-poverty programs has little impact on poverty, which has fallen almost entirely due to overall economic growth rather than redistribution.poverty, inequality, economic growth, welfare, public policy, China

Social Protection and Migration in China: What Can Protect Migrants from Economic Uncertainty?

Job-related welfare entitlements are common in China. Migrants who do not hold urban registration are, in principle, not entitled to job-related welfare even if they are employees in the State sector. The official explanation is that rural-urban migrants are allocated access to farm land in their rural origins, and hence their welfare rights and security are covered by this entitlement to the use of land. In this paper, we look at whether migrants still benefited from these opportunities. Second, we investigate whether it is the poor, the unentitled and the vulnerable that are excluded from public protection programs. Chinese official social protection programs are, like in most western countries, officially designated as being for poverty alleviation. However would such programs still be targeted in ways that limit their coverage, curtail the range of basic needs provided for and allocate benefits very unequally? Thirdly, we explore whether households with favourable productive characteristics are more likely to get into social protection programs. Here, the ongoing debate concerning equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes has some relevance. Finally, we examine the roles social networks or Guanxi (the Chinese term for social connections) may play in dealing with economic shocks.social protection, migration, entitlement, China

Educational expansion and economic decline: returns to education in Kenya, 1978-1995

Educational expansion followed by economic decline in Kenya has been associated with a decline in the social return to secondary education, conventionally calculated, from 20% in 1978 to 6% in 1995. Wage benefits from primary school have fallen but returns remain unchanged because of correspondingly falls in costs. Returns to tertiary education have not fallen. The concept of expected returns to education is introduced to allow for effects of education on earnings from self-employment and on the probability of employment. These mirror conventionally calculated returns for men, but are higher for women due to large participation effects of education.Education, rates of return, Kenya