Internal migration and rural service provision in northern Ghana:

This paper uses a two-stage conditional maximum likelihood procedure and new data from Ghana to identify the determinants of rural-urban migration at the individual, household and community levels, with a particular focus on rural services. The econometric evidence supports the theoretical expectation that human-capital and network variables as well as assets are important determinants of migration. Taking the possible endogeneity of rural services into account, the evidence suggests that rural service improvements aimed at reducing economic isolation can enhance labor mobility and free up on-farm labor for migration by lowering transaction costs.Rural-urban migration, rural services, Development strategies,

Social services, human capital, and technical efficiency of smallholders in Burkina Faso:

This study applies regression analysis as well as a non-parametric method to survey data from Burkina Faso to analyze the role of human capital in explaining technical efficiency in smallholder agricultural production. Exploiting the panel nature of the data and explicitly treating human capital inputs as endogenous, a two-stage estimation method is used for the analysis of determinants of data envelopment analysis (DEA) technical efficiency scores in a double-bootstrap procedure. Findings suggest that the impact of human capital on technical efficiency differs strongly by gender. Strong positive returns exist for education of females, whereas male education is associated with higher inefficiency. Body mass index of adult females also positively relates to technical efficiency. At the community level, presence of a clinic, connection to the electrical grid, presence of a secondary school, and year-round accessibility of the community are found to be vital for human capital formation.Human capital, non-parametrics, public services, Smallholders,

Migration and technical efficiency in cereal production: Evidence from Burkina Faso

"This paper uses data envelopment analysis and new data from Burkina Faso to test the impact of intercontinental and continental migration on technical efficiency in the production of two cereals—millet and sorghum—by rural households. Econometric evidence supports our theoretical expectation that the impact of emigration varies by migrant destination. I find evidence of a positive relation between continental migration and technical efficiency and a negative relation between intercontinental migration and technical efficiency. In an imperfect market environment, continental migration is associated with greater efficiency because it removes a male labor surplus; explanations for the negative relationship between intercontinental migration and technical efficiency should be sought in a surplus of female labor supply. Overall, findings suggest that migration does not lead to a transformation of cereal production from traditional to modern, because in an imperfect market environment, liquidity received in the form of remittances cannot compensate for labor shortfalls." from authors' abstractMigration, Rural households, Data envelopment analysis, Science and technology, Agricultural innovation, Cereal production, Institutional change, Innovation systems,

Migration, poverty, and inequality: Evidence from Burkina Faso

"This paper applies Gini and concentration coefficient decomposition as well as the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty index and a welfare function to new data from Burkina Faso to test the relationship between long-distance international migration and internal migration within the African continent and inequality, poverty, and social welfare in rural households. Findings support our theoretical expectation that this relationship varies by migrant destination. We find evidence of a negative correlation between internal migration and inequality and a positive correlation between international migration and inequality. International migration, which involves high costs and risks, appears to be mainly accessible to already wealthy households. Comparatively high remittances from this form of migration are associated with greater inequality. We also find that although international migration is associated with a much lower incidence, depth, and severity of poverty, its impact on social welfare is limited because the beneficiaries of international migration do not include the rural poor." from authors' abstractInternational migration, Internal migration, Rural households, Poverty, Social welfare, Urban-rural linkages, nonfarm,

Heterogeneous migration flows from the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso: the role of natural and social capital

This paper uses a system of labour supply equations and data from Burkina Faso collected in 2003 to test the conditions underlying two different migratory movements: continental and intercontinental migration. We provide theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence that heterogeneity in migration is related to heterogeneity in rural households. We find that comparatively asset-poor households embark on continental migration, whereas intercontinental migration takes place in comparatively wealthy households in response to opportunities for accumulation of wealth in Europe. We also find that access to religion-specific migrant networks plays a positive and negative role in explaining, respectively, intercontinental and continental migratio

On contact numbers in random rod packings

Random packings of non-spherical granular particles are simulated by combining mechanical contraction and molecular dynamics, to determine contact numbers as a function of density. Particle shapes are varied from spheres to thin rods. The observed contact numbers (and packing densities) agree well with experiments on granular packings. Contact numbers are also compared to caging numbers calculated for sphero-cylinders with arbitrary aspect-ratio. The caging number for rods arrested by uncorrelated point contacts asymptotes towards <γ> = 9 at high aspect ratio, strikingly close to the experimental contact number <C> ≈ 9.8 for thin rods. These and other findings confirm that thin-rod packings are dominated by local arrest in the form of truly random neighbor cages. The ideal packing law derived for random rod–rod contacts, supplemented with a calculation for the average contact number, explains both absolute value and aspect-ratio dependence of the packing density of randomly oriented thin rods

The renewed case for farmers' cooperatives: Diagnostics and implications from Ghana

This study presents a stylized but insightful diagnostic of the problems limiting collective action in Ghanaian farmer-based organizations (FBOs). In our analysis, we use a structure-conduct-performance framework, econometrics, and new primary data for 500 FBOs collected through surveys and games. We find that most Ghanaian FBOs are inactive, failing to mobilize their members into any sort of collective action. To understand why this is so, we postulate that in rural Ghana, four typologies can be used to classify FBOs and to distinguish them on the basis of their membership structure and rules of conduct. We then show that FBOs fail to mobilize collective action whenever their structure and conduct are not aligned. In particular, misalignment leads mainly to problems of access to external credit and to a lesser extent to problems of internal cohesion. To maximize collective action, this study recommends the diversification of policy through recognizing the four different types of FBOs, each facing particular and to some extent opposing problems.Collective action, Cooperatives, econometrics, games,

Migration and Income Diversification Evidence from Burkina Faso

This paper uses limited-dependent variable methods and new data from Burkina Faso to test the impact of inter-continental and continental migration on activity choice and incomes in rural households. We provide theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence that the impact of emigration varies both by migrant destination and production activity. We find no evidence of either positive or negative effects of continental migration on agricultural or livestock activities and a small negative impact on non-farm activities. However, inter-continental migration, which tends to be long term and generates significantly larger remittances, stimulates livestock production while being negatively associated with staple and non-farm activities.Labor and Human Capital, D1, J2, Q12,

Spatial price transmission and market integration in Senegal’s groundnut market

The groundnut sector is the largest of Senegal’s agricultural sectors. It has been subject to various degrees of intervention since the country’s independence. Some, including the determination of farm prices by the government have survived the wave of reforms of the 1980s. Groundnut pricing policies have been the source of major transfers from farmers to the groundnut milling industry, which until 2007, was dominated by SONACOS, a publicly owned parastatal. The state was thus a major beneficiary of the transfers. In 2007, the company was privatized and is now privately owned, raising even greater concerns about the distribution of implications of pricing policies for groundnuts. The paper examines the potential ramifications of liberalizing groundnut prices in terms of its impact on prices received by producers and paid by the milling industry. One fundamental question in the analysis is the extent to which local markets would respond to such a move. To answer this question, the paper presents a dynamic model of price formation that uses estimates of spatial integration across local markets to measure the response of local agricultural prices to policy changes. We then apply this model to simulate the impact of liberalizing groundnut prices to allow domestic prices to reflect their international levels. We find that doing so would change prices in the border city of Dakar, which happens to be the central market that determines prices in the local markets of the producing regions of Kaolack and Fatick. We also find that if markets had been fully liberalized when SONACOS was privatized in January 2007, then groundnut prices would have been higher and that the increase in prices would have been passed on almost entirely to producers in Kaolack and, to a lesser extent, to producers in Fatick. Such reforms would have reversed the longstanding discrimination of groundnut farmers. Prices received by farmers in Kaolack over a period of one year would have increased from 352 FCFA/kg to 494 FCFA/kg of shelled groundnuts. For farmers in the Fatick region, prices would increase from 389 FCFA/kg to 474 FCFA/kg.groundnuts, Liberalization, marketing integration, pricing policies, Privatization,