Economic Growth And Child Undernutrition

Sebastian Vollmer and colleagues (April, 2014)1 conclude that “the contribution of economic growth to the reduction in early childhood undernutrition in developing countries is very small, if it exists at all”. Progress will therefore require a shift from “the so-called trickle-down approach of a growth-mediated strategy” to “direct investments in health and nutrition”.

Regional Agricultural Endowments and Shifts of Poverty Trap Equilibria: Evidence from Ethiopian Panel Data

We introduce new approaches to research on poverty traps, focusing on changes in patterns of equilibria over time and across regions, applied to the Ethiopia Rural Household Survey. We revisit the incidence of multiple equilibria using new nonparametric techniques; we also emphasize conditions of single equilibria that remain stagnant below the poverty line. We identify a single equilibrium in our initial interval (1994 - 1999) but and evidence that a second, higher equilibrium is emerging in the subsequent (1999 - 2004) interval. One of three major regions exhibits a deeply impoverished equilibrium that does not improve despite a national environment of pro-poor growth.poverty trap, Ethiopia, multiple equilibria, asset dynamics, regional poverty, sequence of equilibria

An Endogenous Group Formation Theory of Co-operative Networks: The Economics of La Lega and Mondrag.n

co-operatives, networks, game theory, Mondrag.n, La Lega, Legacoop, labour managed firm

Human Capital Convergence: A Joint Estimation Approach

In the growth literature, evidence on convergence of per capita incomes is mixed. In the development literature, health and education indicators are often used to measure countries' development progress. This study examines whether average stocks of health and education are converging across countries and calculates the speed of their convergence using data from 84 countries for 1970-90. A three-stage least-squares (3SLS) procedure is used in a joint analysis of human capital convergence. The results confirm that investments in education and health are closely linked. The study finds unconditional convergence for life expectancy and infant survival, and for the stock of education as measured by average levels of total and secondary schooling in the adult population. Copyright 2002, International Monetary Fund

Generating Revenues from WTP for Ecosystem Restoration: An Auction Experiment on Public Goods

Research on public good auctions is intended to initiate development on new approaches to finance public goods, beyond government and philanthropic efforts. The researchers evaluate the potential to identify economic value for a subset of ecosystem services and markets that have the potential to provide for them. Empirical analysis focuses on public valuation for three specific types of ecosystem activities (bird habitat, sea grass restoration and shellfish restoration) in coastal Virginia. Data was collected using a field experiment employing an experimental auction approach with mechanisms to reduce free riding often seen in the experimental economics literature. These incentive mechanisms are applied to individual restoration activities and willingness to pay estimates are compared to a baseline choice experiment that employs an incentive compatible, majority vote mechanism and actual (not hypothetical) money payments. A conditional logit model, rooted in McFadden’s choice theory, is used to examine the trade-offs between ecosystem restoration activities to estimate willingness to pay, while interval regressions are applied to individualized price auctions. Linear and nonlinear models are estimated to check for validity and sensitivity to scope.experimental economics, valuation, public goods, ecosystem services, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Experimental Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Joined-wing Research Aircraft Configuration

A wind-tunnel test was conducted at Ames Research Center to measure the aerodynamic characteristics of a joined-wing research aircraft (JWRA). This aircraft was designed to utilize the fuselage and engines of the existing NASA AD-1 aircraft. The JWRA was designed to have removable outer wing panels to represent three different configurations with the interwing joint at different fractions of the wing span. A one-sixth-scale wind-tunnel model of all three configurations of the JWRA was tested in the Ames 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel to measure aerodynamic performance, stability, and control characteristics. The results of these tests are presented. Longitudinal and lateral-directional characteristics were measured over an angle of attack range of -7 to 14 deg and over an angle of sideslip range of -5 to +2.5 deg at a Mach number of 0.35 and a Reynolds number of 2.2x10(6)/ft. Various combinations of deflected control surfaces were tested to measure the effectiveness and impact on stability of several control surface arrangements. In addition, the effects on stall and post-stall aerodynamic characteristics from small leading-edge devices called vortilons were measured. The results of these tests indicate that the JWRA had very good aerodynamic performance and acceptable stability and control throughout its flight envelope. The vortilons produced a profound improvement in the stall and post-stall characteristics with no measurable effects on cruise performance

Decentralized production and public liquidity with private information

Firms with private information about the outcomes of production under uncertainty may face capital (liquidity) constraints that prevent them from attaining efficient levels of investment in a world with costly and/or imperfect monitoring. As an alternative, we examine the efficiency of a simple pooling scheme designed to provide a public (cooperative) supply of liquidity that results in the first best outcome for economic growth. We show that if, absent aggregate uncertainty, the elasticity of scale of the production technology is sufficiently small, then efficient levels of investment and growth can always be supported. Finally, some results for a special case (constant elasticity of scale) are examined when investors face aggregate uncertainty. We show that, in addition to a low elasticity of scale for the production function, investors must have sufficiently optimistic prior beliefs if efficient growth is to be achieved regardless of the actual future state of the world.Information theory ; Liquidity (Economics) ; Production (Economic theory)

Further evidence on the link between health care spending and health outcomes in England

This report describes results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative. It builds on our earlier report for the Health Foundation – The link between health care spending and health outcomes: evidence from English programme budgeting data – that took advantage of the availability of a major new dataset to examine the relationship between health care expenditure and mortality rates for two disease categories (cancer and circulation problems) across 300 English Primary Care Trusts. Our results are useful from a number of perspectives. Scientifically, they confirm our previous findings that health care has an important impact on health across a range of conditions, suggesting that those results were robust across programmes of care and across years. From a policy perspective, these results can help set priorities by informing resource allocation across a larger number of programmes of care. They also add further evidence to help NICE decide whether its current QALY threshold is at the right level.

The link between health care spending and health outcomes for the new English Primary Care Trusts

English programme budgeting data have yielded major new insights into the link between health care spending and health outcomes. This paper updates two recent studies that have used programme budgeting data for 295 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England to examine the link between spending and outcomes for several programmes of care. We use the same economic model employed in the two previous studies. It focuses on a decision maker who must allocate a fixed budget across programmes of care so as to maximize social welfare given a health production function for each programme. Two equations – a health outcome equation and an expenditure equation – are estimated for each programme (data permitting). The two previous studies employed expenditure data for 2004/05 and 2005/06 for 295 health authorities and found that in several care programmes – cancer, circulation problems, respiratory problems, gastro-intestinal problems, trauma burns and injury, and diabetes – expenditure had the anticipated negative effect on the mortality rate. Each health outcome equation was used to estimate the marginal cost of a life year saved. In 2006/07 the number of PCTs in England was reduced to 152, largely through a series of mergers. In addition, several changes were made to the methods employed to construct the programme budgeting data. This paper employs updated budgeting and mortality data for the new 152 PCTs to re-estimate health production and expenditure functions, and also presents updated estimates of the marginal cost of a life year saved in each programme. Although there are some differences, the results obtained are broadly similar to those presented in our two previous studies.