Smallholder Supply Response and Gender in Ethiopia: A Profit Function Analysis

Empirical studies on gender and agricultural productivity are typically based on production function estimates of a single crop or aggregate output, ignoring the role of prices and endogeneity of input choice. We apply the profit function approach to farm-level data from Ethiopia to compare supply response between male and female farmers, incorporating the full range of crops and prices and non-price incentives. Gender-differential in labor productivity is accounted for by including separate variables for adult male and female labor as well as child labor. We find that women respond to price incentives as strongly as men farmers do, but responsiveness largely depends on the type of crops and the relative importance of binding constraints. In contrast to price responses, differences in the non-price effects are not qualitatively different between the two groups, with location-specific factors soliciting significantly larger share of output response than household-specific factors. The data shows that female-headed farmers are more likely to be asset-poor subsistence farmers living in climatically less favored areas; consequently, constrained by limited access to better quality land, male labor and animal traction to diversify into high-yielding fertilizer-intensive food crops. Gender-targeted interventions that explicitly address low endowment of capital by women are likely to pay-off, as well as technologies that improve the productivity of land and labor. Well-integrated pro-poor policies that facilitate access to basic physical capital and credit are equally important. Our findings suggest that broad-based price and fertilizer policies are unlikely to be optimal, as they do not target the prevailing crop and agro-climatic mixes. Broad-based infrastructure and market access policies, on the other hand, are more likely to benefit all farmers

Budget support, conditionality and poverty

This paper examines the effectiveness of budget support aid as an anti-poverty instrument. We argue that a major determinant of this effectiveness is the element of trust – or `social capital´, as it may be seen – which builds up between representatives of the donor and recipient. Thus we model the conditionality processes attending budget support aid, not purely in the conventional way as a non-cooperative two-person game, but rather as a non-cooperative game which may mutate into a collaborative equilibrium if sufficient trust between the negotiating parties builds up. Whether or not this happens is, we argue, fundamental to the effectiveness of conditionality, and of budget support aid. This then requires us to enquire into the determinants of trust, which - we empirically demonstrate - derive from the experience of the negotiating parties with one another, from the incentives they are able to provide to trust one another and from the processes within which their negotiations are conducted. The model is tested against two samples: extensively against a broad sample of all African countries undergoing budget support operations and intensively against a narrow sample of Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia. The statistical analysis suggests that trust has in practice been achieved not only through a positive `social history´ but by the transmission of forward-looking `signals´ or `bona fides´ concerning fundamentals: high pro-poor expenditure, low military expenditure, and low corruption show a positive relationship with growing trust (measured in terms of freedom from programme interruptions). Where these signals are present, budget support aid is in general growing, and slippage on overt conditionality is in general forgiven; but there are exceptions to this trend, as our case-study analysis demonstrates . A proactive stance in defence of a pro-poor strategy is positive for trust, as are certain procedural reforms including the presence of an IMF resident mission and frequent face-to-face meetings between negotiators for donor and recipient. High trust generates stability of aid, and stability of aid, in conjunction with its level and its targeting, significantly influences growth and poverty outcomes

Aid, agriculture and poverty in developing countries

We make two contributions to the debate on aid-effectiveness, illustrating that for impact on poverty what matters is not just the level but also the composition and stability of aid. One specific implication of this for aid policy is that aid most effectively reduces poverty if it supports public (and other) expenditures which are supportive of agricultural development – these, our regression analysis confirms, are not only direct expenditure on agriculture, but also education and infrastructure, and military expenditure has a negative impact. Three factors appear to be particularly conducive to the development of stable pro-poor expenditure patterms (and in particular pro-agriculture expenditure patterns). These are expenditure strategies which protect the poor against risk, the development of stable relations between governments and aid donors, and long-term political commitment to pro-poor strategies by government. The argument is pursued partly by panel-data econometric analysis of developing countries as a whole, and partly by case studies of sustained and non-sustained green revolutions in heavily aid-dependent countries in Africa

Performance Analysis of the Decentralized Eigendecomposition and ESPRIT Algorithm

In this paper, we consider performance analysis of the decentralized power method for the eigendecomposition of the sample covariance matrix based on the averaging consensus protocol. An analytical expression of the second order statistics of the eigenvectors obtained from the decentralized power method which is required for computing the mean square error (MSE) of subspace-based estimators is presented. We show that the decentralized power method is not an asymptotically consistent estimator of the eigenvectors of the true measurement covariance matrix unless the averaging consensus protocol is carried out over an infinitely large number of iterations. Moreover, we introduce the decentralized ESPRIT algorithm which yields fully decentralized direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimates. Based on the performance analysis of the decentralized power method, we derive an analytical expression of the MSE of DOA estimators using the decentralized ESPRIT algorithm. The validity of our asymptotic results is demonstrated by simulations.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, submitted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Effect of Salicylic Acid on the Early Development of the Chick Limb-Bud

Transplanted hind limb-buds of chick embryos were treated with salicylic acid. Treatment with this chemical caused reduction in length, weight and volume of the developing limb-buds. A side effect observed was an apparent loosening of the basal membrane and examined with regard to length, weight, and volume. The above observations are discussed in relation to the different hypotheses of the ectoderm-mesoderm interaction. The physiological role of the basal membrane, as well as the possible implications of the basal findings to the question of limb development and morphogenesis, are also discussed

Islamic Shari\u27a Law, History and Modernity: Some Reflections

In the last two centuries, Muslim modernists have introduced major legal reforms that led to the restriction of the range and scope of Islamic Shari’a Law and the overhaul of legal thought and practice in the Muslim World. Nevertheless, every time a new legal reform is proposed, it is met with outcries from Islamists who label it un-Islamic and blasphemy against God. This paper examines some major premodern scholars of Islamic jurisprudence whose thought and practice about Shari’a Law featured tremendous flexibility in the way they understood their role as legislators and accepted a diversity of rules. The paper shows how important Islamic history is for a proper understanding of Islamic Shari’a Law, which accommodates change and constant interpretation

ARGES: an Expert System for Fault Diagnosis Within Space-Based ECLS Systems

ARGES (Atmospheric Revitalization Group Expert System) is a demonstration prototype expert system for fault management for the Solid Amine, Water Desorbed (SAWD) CO2 removal assembly, associated with the Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) System. ARGES monitors and reduces data in real time from either the SAWD controller or a simulation of the SAWD assembly. It can detect gradual degradations or predict failures. This allows graceful shutdown and scheduled maintenance, which reduces crew maintenance overhead. Status and fault information is presented in a user interface that simulates what would be seen by a crewperson. The user interface employs animated color graphics and an object oriented approach to provide detailed status information, fault identification, and explanation of reasoning in a rapidly assimulated manner. In addition, ARGES recommends possible courses of action for predicted and actual faults. ARGES is seen as a forerunner of AI-based fault management systems for manned space systems

Variational quantum monte carlo calculation of the ground state energy of hydrogen molecule

No abstrac

The Elliptic and Hyperbolic fixed points in the Henon- Heiles Potential

In this report the trajectories in the Henon-Heiles potential V(x/y) = 1/2 (x2 + y2) + x2y - y2/3 were integrated using the fourth order Runge-Kutta algorithm at some fixed energy levels while the initial conditions of the position [y] and the momentum conjugate [Py] were varied, the corresponding Poincare maps (surface of sections) were plotted which satisfies the condition for a dynamical system to be chaotic.Keywords: Hyberbolic, Momentum, Topology, Elliptic