Seasonal Migration and Early Childhood Development

This paper provides unique evidence of the positive consequences of seasonal migration for investments in early childhood development. We analyse migration in a poor shock-prone border region in rural Nicaragua where it offers one of the main household income diversification and risk coping strategies. IV estimates show, somewhat surprisingly, that mother?s migration has a positive effect on early cognitive development. We attribute these findings to changes in income and to the intra-household empowerment gains resulting from mother?s migration, which offset potential negative ECD effects from temporary lack of parenting. This paper, hence, illustrates how increased opportunities in seasonal migration due to higher South?South mobility might positively affect early childhood development and as such long term poverty reduction.Nicaragua, migration, income, households

Changing households'investments and aspirations through social interactions : evidence from a randomized transfer program

Low aspirations can limit households’ investments and contribute to sustained poverty. Vice versa, increased aspirations can lead to investment and upward mobility. Yet how aspirations are formed is not always well understood. This paper analyzes the role of social interactions in determining aspirations in the context of a program aimed at increasing households'investments. The causal effect of social interactions is identified through the randomized assignment of leaders and other beneficiaries to three different interventions within each treatment community. Social interactions are found to affect households’ attitudes toward the future and to amplify program impacts on investments in human capital and productive activities. The empirical evidence indicates that communication with motivated and successful nearby leaders can lead to higher aspirations and corresponding investment behavior.Debt Markets,Labor Policies,Investment and Investment Climate,Primary Education,Housing&Human Habitats

Cash transfers, behavioral changes, and cognitive development in early childhood : evidence from a randomized experiment

A variety of theories of skill formation suggest that investments in schooling and other dimensions of human capital will have lower returns if children do not have adequate levels of cognitive and social skills at an early age. This paper analyzes the impact of a randomized cash transfer program on cognitive development in early childhood in rural Nicaragua. It shows that the program had significant effects on cognitive outcomes, especially language. Impacts are larger for older pre-school age children, who are also more likely to be delayed. The program increased intake of nutrient-rich foods, early stimulation, and use of preventive health care-all of which have been identified as risk factors for development in early childhood. Households increased expenditures on these inputs more than can be accounted for by the increases in cash income only, suggesting that the program changed parents'behavior. The findings suggest that gains in early childhood development outcomes should be taken into account when assessing the benefits of cash transfer programs in developing countries. More broadly, the paper illustrates that gains in early childhood development can result from interventions that facilitate investments made by parents to reduce risk factors for cognitive development.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences,Youth and Governance,Primary Education,Street Children

Cash Transfers, Behavioral Changes, and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Cash transfer programs have become extremely popular in the developing world. There is a large literature on the effects of these programs on schooling, health and nutrition, but relatively little is known about possible impacts on child development. This paper analyzes the impact of a cash transfer program on cognitive development in early childhood in rural Nicaragua. Identification is based on random assignment. We show that children in households assigned to receive benefits had significantly higher levels of development nine months after the program began. There is no fadeout of program effects two years after the program had ended and transfers were discontinued. We show that the changes in child development we observe are unlikely to be a result of the cash component of the program alone.

Host community acculturation expectations toward immigrant groups; an evaluation of theoretical models, perspectives, and factors encouraging the development of multicultural societies

The ability of immigrants to integrate into a new society is dependent on a number of factors including the strength of an immigrant\u27s ethnic identity, willingness of the immigrant to accept the beliefs, values, and cultural practices of the host society, and attitudes of members of the host society toward immigrants. This paper reviews research on attitudes toward immigration, in relation to theoretical approaches including Berry\u27s (2003) model of acculturation expectations. Factors discussed throughout this review as contributing to host community acceptance of immigrants include cultural awareness and understanding, preconceived misconceptions and stereotypes, and perceptions of threat to resources and quality of life. Existing research literature has depicted the existence of an ethnic hierarchy, which pm1rays a preference by host community members for particular immigrant groups over others. The presence of this hierarchy has been attributed to an in group preference for the integration of immigrant groups considered to be more culturally similar to the host community. It is concluded that future research should investigate ways of improving attitudes and subsequent relationships between host community members and immigrants in order to promote policies and practices that strive to establish multicultural societies. The ability of immigrants to successfully integrate into a new society is largely dependent on host community acceptance of immigrants, which may be influenced by cultural awareness and understanding, preconceived misconceptions and stereotypes, and perceptions of threat to resources and quality of life. With a sample of 125 undergraduate university students, the present study used the Acculturation Expectation Measurement Scale (AEMS; Berry & Kalin, 1995) to examine Anglo-Australians\u27 acculturation expectations of British and Chinese immigrant groups. It was hypothesised that Anglo-Australians\u27 would elicit more positive, integrationist attitudes toward the culturally similar British immigrant group. Findings of the present study did not replicate the findings of Canadian research studies, perhaps due to differences in government policy, public opinion, and societal dynamics. These research findings have applied implications to the improvement of attitudes and subsequent relationships between host community members and immigrants, in order to promote policies and practices that strive to establish multicultural societies

Spatial specialization and farm-nonfarm linkages

Using individual level employment data from Bangladesh, this paper presents empirical evidence on the relative importance of farm and urban linkages for rural nonfarm employment. The econometric results indicate that high return wage work and self-employment in nonfarm activities cluster around major urban centers. The negative effects of isolation on high return wage work and on self-employment are magnified in locations with higher agricultural potential. The low return nonfarm activities respond primarily to local demand displaying no significant spatial variation. The empirical results highlight the need for improved connectivity of regions with higher agricultural potential to urban centers for nonfarm development in Bangladesh.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Rural Poverty Reduction,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Labor Policies

Shocks and coffee : lessons from Nicaragua

Using household level panel data from Nicaragua, this paper explores the impact of the recent coffee crisis on rural households engaged in coffee production, and coffee labor work. Taking advantage of the panel structure of the data, a number of findings emerge: a) while overall growth between 1998, and 2001 was widespread in rural Nicaragua, coffee households saw large declines in various socioeconomic outcomes; b) among coffee households, it is small farm households that were affected the most, and not poor labor households as previously expected; c) even though coffee households used various risk management strategies to address the shock, it was pre shock, ex-ante strategies (like income diversification) that were the most effective in allowing coffee households insulate against the shock. By contrast, the coffee households that used ex-post coping instruments, did not manage to mitigate the adverse impact as well, with additional potential long run implications via extensive uses of harmful coping strategies (like increases in child labor); and, d) the coffee shock affected upward mobility, and downward poverty vulnerability of coffee households. Such findings seem to confirm the widespread impact of shocks on overall household behavior, and indicate the importance of incorporating risk management in the policy agenda of poverty reduction.Housing&Human Habitats,Regional Rural Development,Crops&Crop Management Systems,VN-Acb Mis -- IFC-00535908,Environmental Economics&Policies