Does Revolution Work? Evidence from Nepal’s People’s War

In 2015, after a decade-long conflict and nine years of negotiation, Nepal promulgated a constitution that replaced its 240-year-old monarchy by a federal republic. The subsequent 2017 local elections ushered more than 30,000 first-time politicians into office. Using a census of 3.68 million Nepalis (2.56 million of whom are of voting age) covering eleven districts, party nomination lists and party candidate selection committee surveys, electoral data and information on conflict incidence, we document that castes that were historically excluded from political representation achieved representation without a significant representation-ability trade-off: improved social representation among politicians is accompanied by positive selection on education and income. Triangulating across multiple data sources, we show that the entry of the revolutionary Maoist group as a post-conflict mainstream party played an important role. Finally, political representation of non-elite castes improved their policy inclusion as measured by individual access to earthquake reconstruction transfers. These gains, however, vary with the extent of social connections to the elected mayor and point to a continuing need to balance power by supporting institutions that provide all citizens political voice

1st International Conference on Bioresource Technology for Bioenergy, Bioproducts & Environmental Sustainability (BIORESTEC)

With growing global interest in bioenergy, biobased product and environmental sustainability, the first International Conference on Bioresource Technology for Bioenergy, Bioproducts & Environmental Sustainability (BIORESTEC) was organized from October 2326, 2016 in Sitges, Barcelona in Spain. The conference was organized in association with Elseviers premier journal Bioresource Technology (BITE), with an aim to provide a shared forum for researchers, academicians, industries, and policymakers, to discuss the current state-of-the-art and the emerging trends in biotechnology, bioenergy, and biobased products. The 1st BIORESTEC conference received tremendous response from all over the globe with 754 abstracts submitted. The scientific committee consisted of 13 eminent scientists from 11 countries. The committee then screened and selected 54 abstracts for oral and 166 abtsracts for poster presentations. Besides, there were 19 invited speakers from 14 countries. Apart from the scientific presentations, a workshop on How to write a scientific paper and get published was also organized for early career researchers by Elsevier. This special issue of the journal contain 29 papers (all presented at the BIORESTEC conference) after peer-review process. These papers broadly cover areas such as biomass pretreatment, algal and lignocellulose biorefinery, biological waste treatment, white biotechnology and biomass policies, LCA and techno-economics and classified as below.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Essays on Decentralization and Pathways to Development

Decentralization has dramatically altered governance in developing countries. However, the empirical evidence regarding its effects on the provision of public goods has been limited and ambiguous. In the first chapter I argue that this ambiguity stems from insufficiently disentangling partial from full decentralization. I differentiate between these two types by comparing administrative decentralization, political decentralization, and their complementarities in Indonesia. The paper employs a unique Indonesian panel of village level outcomes and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy with village level fixed effects. I show that use of a naïve specification that only considers political or administrative decentralization as separate treatments while neglecting their complementarities leads to an omitted variable bias problem. Results from a more complete specification suggest that districts that were treated with both types of decentralization, i.e. full decentralization, display significantly greater provision of public goods compared to those that experienced partial decentralization in the form of only political or administrative decentralization. The second chapter of this thesis contributes to a related literature. It focuses on the causal effect of occupational transitions on consumption changes and poverty. Recent research has pointed out that sectoral transitions from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sector could be a successful pathway out of poverty due to higher productivity in the non-agricultural sector. But these studies face several limitations, such as the use of cross sectional or short panel data. We address some of these gaps and introduce two novel ways of defining sectoral transitions. Each of these definitions is used to exploit a fixed effects and an instrumental variable strategy with long run panel data on Indonesian households. Under both strategies we find that consumption growth is conditional on initial economic status and the nature of the transition---the growth was relatively higher only for those households who were either poor and agricultural in the baseline, or non-poor and non-agricultural. In terms of poverty, we find longer non-agricultural employment resulted in a positive probability of exiting poverty and a negative probability of becoming poor. Based on these findings we propose that pro-poor policies must be tailored to the agricultural or non-agricultural status of a household. The third chapter is a natural extension of the first one. In this chapter I test whether individual outcomes associated with publicly provided goods, such as schools and health-centers, depend on decentralization complementarities. Based on three different datasets I conclude that individual welfare outcomes were significantly better for those belonging to fully decentralized districts compared to those in partially decentralized districts

Essays on Decentralization and Pathways to Development

Decentralization has dramatically altered governance in developing countries. However, the empirical evidence regarding its effects on the provision of public goods has been limited and ambiguous. In the first chapter I argue that this ambiguity stems from insufficiently disentangling partial from full decentralization. I differentiate between these two types by comparing administrative decentralization, political decentralization, and their complementarities in Indonesia. The paper employs a unique Indonesian panel of village level outcomes and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy with village level fixed effects. I show that use of a naïve specification that only considers political or administrative decentralization as separate treatments while neglecting their complementarities leads to an omitted variable bias problem. Results from a more complete specification suggest that districts that were treated with both types of decentralization, i.e. full decentralization, display significantly greater provision of public goods compared to those that experienced partial decentralization in the form of only political or administrative decentralization. The second chapter of this thesis contributes to a related literature. It focuses on the causal effect of occupational transitions on consumption changes and poverty. Recent research has pointed out that sectoral transitions from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sector could be a successful pathway out of poverty due to higher productivity in the non-agricultural sector. But these studies face several limitations, such as the use of cross sectional or short panel data. We address some of these gaps and introduce two novel ways of defining sectoral transitions. Each of these definitions is used to exploit a fixed effects and an instrumental variable strategy with long run panel data on Indonesian households. Under both strategies we find that consumption growth is conditional on initial economic status and the nature of the transition---the growth was relatively higher only for those households who were either poor and agricultural in the baseline, or non-poor and non-agricultural. In terms of poverty, we find longer non-agricultural employment resulted in a positive probability of exiting poverty and a negative probability of becoming poor. Based on these findings we propose that pro-poor policies must be tailored to the agricultural or non-agricultural status of a household. The third chapter is a natural extension of the first one. In this chapter I test whether individual outcomes associated with publicly provided goods, such as schools and health-centers, depend on decentralization complementarities. Based on three different datasets I conclude that individual welfare outcomes were significantly better for those belonging to fully decentralized districts compared to those in partially decentralized districts

A Matter of Time: An Impact Evaluation of the Brazilian National Land Credit Program

This paper provides an impact evaluation of the Programa Nacional de Crédito Fundiário, a market assisted land reform program in Brazil. The paper uses a panel dataset and pipeline control group to evaluate the program\u27s impact on agricultural production and earned income, using a difference-in-differences model with either municipal or individual fixed effects. The heterogeneous effect of additional years of land ownership is investigated. The findings suggest that the program increases production and earned income by about 74% and 37%, but only after four years of land ownership. The conclusions are supported by a number of robustness tests, although considerable attrition and potential bias due to unobserved variables suggests caution. The benefits of the program largely go to making debt payments. If the impact on income continues to grow, as it did in the first five years, improvements in net wealth and current welfare could both be achieved

Does Revolution Work? Evidence from Nepal’s People’s War

In 2015, after a decade-long conflict and nine years of negotiation, Nepal promulgated a constitution that replaced its 240-year-old monarchy by a federal republic. The subsequent 2017 local elections ushered more than 30,000 first-time politicians into office. Using a census of 3.68 million Nepalis (2.56 million of whom are of voting age) covering eleven districts, party nomination lists and party candidate selection committee surveys, electoral data and information on conflict incidence, we document that castes that were historically excluded from political representation achieved representation without a significant representation-ability trade-off: improved social representation among politicians is accompanied by positive selection on education and income. Triangulating across multiple data sources, we show that the entry of the revolutionary Maoist group as a post-conflict mainstream party played an important role. Finally, political representation of non-elite castes improved their policy inclusion as measured by individual access to earthquake reconstruction transfers. These gains, however, vary with the extent of social connections to the elected mayor and point to a continuing need to balance power by supporting institutions that provide all citizens political voice

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and single photon emission computed tomography study of the brain in asymptomatic young hyperlipidaemic Asian Indians in North India show early abnormalities

Objective: To evaluate brain metabolism and cerebral blood flow in young patients with hyperlipidaemia. Patients and Methods: Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of the brain was carried out in 19 asymptomatic young patients with hyperlipidaemia (mean age 32.6 ± 6.0 years, range 22-45 years) and 21 age-matched healthy controls divided into the following three groups; (i) hyperlipidaemics on pharmacological treatment (group 1, n = 13), (ii) hyperlipidaemics not on pharmacological treatment (group 2, n = 6) and (iii) control group of healthy subjects (group 3, n = 21). Results: No statistical difference was observed in the brain metabolite ratios between controls and hyperlipidaemic patients (both treatment naive and treated) in the 1H NMR study. Two hyperlipidaemic patients showed a lactate peak and one had a lipid peak. The SPECT study was abnormal in seven hyperlipidaemic patients. In the pooled data, 50% subjects with high serum triglyceride (TG) levels as opposed to 14% subjects with normal serum TG levels showed cerebral hypoperfusion. The choline/creatine (Cho/Cr) ratio of the occipital region of the brain showed correlation with the excess percentage of body fat (%BF) and low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) compared to those with normal %BF and normal HDL-C levels, respectively, in pooled data of all subjects. The N-acetyl aspartate (NAA)/Cho ratio also showed correlation with hypercholesterolaemia. Serum TG levels were positively correlated with the NAA/Cr ratio (r = 0.62, P < 0.05) and the Cho/Cr ratio (r = 0.63, P < 0.05) in the parieto-temporal area in group 1 patients. Conclusion: The study revealed no difference in the brain metabolite ratios between controls and hyperlipidaemic patients, while some hyperlipidaemic patients showed abnormalities of cerebral blood flow. Brain metabolite ratios were also influenced by certain parameters of body composition and lipids. As abnormal body composition, hypertriglyceridaemia and low levels of HDL-C are prevalent in Asian Indians, such data are important and indicate a need for further study