Market participation and marketing performance: A case study of Bolivian potato farmers

Agribusiness, Marketing,

TAXATION: NO SIMPLE ANSWERS

Public Economics,

Those with blue hair please step forward: An economic theory of group formation and application to Cajas Rurales in Honduras

This paper presents an economic model of group formation with an application to data collected from an agricultural credit program in western Honduras. We formulate a simple theory of group formation using the concept of centers of gravity to explain why individuals join a group. According to our theory, prospective members join based on the potential benefits and costs of group membership, and based on their perception of social distance between themselves and other group members. Social distance is unobservable by outsiders but known by the individual: if you are in then you know who has blue hair. Thus, we argue that social distance helps explain preferences for group formation. To test our theory we analyze data collected from members and non-members of PRODERT, a program that has helped create 188 “Cajas Rurales” (CRs). Using conjoint analysis we test for differences in preferences between members and non-members for the main attributes of the CR. We find that members and non-members exhibit similar preferences for the attributes of the CR; therefore non-membership is not related to supply factors. Using information gathered by executing field experiments, we estimate a proxy for social distance. We use this proxy to run a group formation equation and find that it explains, along with individual characteristics, participation in the CR. Finally we offer suggestions on how to balance performance and coverage in programs in which beneficiaries decide who joins. Small cohesive groups may show exceptional performance at the cost of low coverage, and the opposite may be true.Agricultural Finance, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

SUPPLY AND DEMAND FOR MARRIED FEMALE LABOR: RURAL AND URBAN DIFFERENCES IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES

This study examined the supply of and demand for married female labor in the southern United States. Special attention was given to differences in labor force participation, labor supply, and quantities of labor supplied and demanded across rural and urban areas. Once state effects were accounted for, decisions to change participation were found not to vary by urban-rural designation. Differences in demand were fully captured by an intercept shifter and the variations in hours supplied by married females between urban and rural areas. Labor supply varied greatly with the effects of key determinants (number of children, work force experience, family income) being strongly different in rural areas. Different policies are needed to promote female labor supply in rural areas as opposed to urban areas.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Public Investment Targeting in Rural Central America

This paper uses an asset-base framework to analyze the determinants of rural growth and poverty reduction for the three poorest countries in Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. High inequalities in the distribution of productive assets in all three countries constrain how the poor share in the benefits of growth, even under appropriate policy regimes. Heterogeneous conditions require complementary analysis of spatial determinants of well-being, analysis of household-level assets, and how household livelihood strategies, conditioned on spatial attributes and asset bases, determine well-being outcomes. Using a combination of GIS mapping techniques and quantitative household analysis, we generate a description of rural territories that recognizes the differential effects of policies and asset bundles across space and households. We identify the asset combinations that matter most to raise household well-being and take advantage of poverty-reducing growth. In all three countries, investments have generally been directed toward more favored areas. But area economic potential does not automatically translate into improved well-being for all households. We found a strong overlap between economic potential, poverty rates and poverty densities in Guatemala and Honduras but not in Nicaragua. This implies that while in Guatemala and Honduras public investments may be targeted toward the Western Altiplano and the hillside areas respectively, in Nicaragua high poverty rates but low poverty densities in the Atlantic zone, and somewhat lower poverty rates but high poverty densities near Managua and other urban centers in the Central and Pacific regions, present a trade-off which makes targeting decisions more complicated.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

PRODUCTIVITY AND LAND ENHANCING TECHNOLOGIES IN NORTHERN ETHIOPIA: HEALTH, PUBLIC INVESTMENTS, AND SEQUENTIAL ADOPTION

The adoption of more efficient farming practices and technologies that enhance agricultural productivity and improve environmental sustainability is instrumental for achieving economic growth, food security and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. Our research examines the interaction between public investments, community health, and adoption of productivity and land enhancing technologies by households in the northern Ethiopian state of Tigray. Agricultural technology adoption decisions are modeled as a sequential process where the timing of choices can matter. We find that time spent sick and opportunity costs of caring for sick family members are significant factors in adoption. Sickness, through its impact on household income and labor allocation decisions for healthcare and other activities, significantly reduces the likelihood of technology adoption. Our findings suggest that agencies working to improve agricultural productivity and land resource conservation should consider not only the financial status of potential adopters, but also their related health situation.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Economic Impact Analysis of Marker-Assisted Breeding in Rice

The benefits of developing and releasing salinity-tolerant and phosphorous-deficiency-tolerant rice in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines were estimated for marker-assisted breeding as compared to conventional breeding using economic surplus analysis. Marker-assisted breeding is estimated to save at least 2 to 3 years in the breeding cycle and result in incremental benefits over 25 years in the range of $300 to$800 million depending on the country, stress, and time lags. Salinity and phosphorous deficient soils are difficult problems to solve through conventional breeding because of “genetic load” or undesirable traits that accompany desirable ones during backcrossing. MAB, enabled by advances in genomics and molecular mapping is more precise and hence time-saving. Solving salinity and P-deficiency problems is important, regardless of whether MAB or CB is used, as the cumulative benefits are at least $220 million and as much as$4 billion over the next 25 years depending on the problem and country.Crop Production/Industries,

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MIGRANT, SEASONAL, AND H-2A FARMWORKERS ON THE VIRGINIA ECONOMY

Labor and Human Capital,

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PEANUT RESEARCH ON POVERTY REDUCTION: RESISTANCE STRATEGIES TO CONTROL PEANUT VIRUSES IN UGANDA

Economic impacts of research that developed Rosette Virus-resistance peanut in Uganda are estimated. Changes in economic surplus are calculated and combined with household data to assess changes in poverty rates and effects on livelihoods of the poor. The poverty rate may decline up to 1.5 percent as a result of the research.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

THE IMPACT OF WELFARE REFORM ACROSS METROPOLITAN AND NON-METROPOLITAN AREAS: A NON-PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS

Recent public cash assistance reform measures designed to induce recipients to leave welfare and enter the workforce represent the most important change in social welfare policy in recent decades. Single female-headed families with children (SFHFwC), who represent 53 percent of non-metropolitan families with children living below the poverty line, are the major target group of reform measures. Recent studies have expressed concerns that heads of SFHFwC may face particular difficulties in transiting from welfare to work in non-metropolitan areas due to relatively weak demand for low skill female labor, greater childcare and transportation barriers to workforce participation, and economies of scale in the delivery of public programs to assist in transition. Despite these concerns, non-metropolitan SFHFwC have shown significant improvements in a number of economic indicators of family welfare since the initial implementation of reforms. However, the underlying causes of economic gains, and the relationship between gains and reform measures, remains unclear. This paper examines shifts from 1993 to 1999 in the distribution of real per-capita total receipts of non-metropolitan and metropolitan area SFHFwC with data from the U.S. Current Population Survey Annual Demographic Files. Nonparametric density estimates reveal a significant positive rightward shift in the per-capita distribution of total receipts of non-metropolitan SFHFwC occurred from 1993 to 1999. These gains are largely attributable to a rightward shift in the distribution of the earnings portion of total per-capita receipts, as the public assistance component of total receipts shifted leftward over the same period. The contributions of structural change in workforce welfare participation as well as underlying individual and area attribute shifts, are then examined using nonparametric density re-weighting methods. Specifically, five counterfactual experiments are conducted. The first experiment simulates the counterfactual distribution of non-metropolitan 1999 per-capita total receipts if the frequency of workforce welfare participation states in the 1999 data were at 1993 levels, but the distribution of per-capita receipts within each of four possible states of workforce and welfare participation remained at 1999 levels. The second counterfactual density simulates the 1999 non-metropolitan area distribution of per-capita receipts that would have prevailed if structural relationships between workforce welfare participation decisions and area and individual attributes were at 1993 levels, but area and individual attributes remained at 1999 levels. The third counterfactual experiment simulates the 1999 distribution of per-capita receipts that would have prevailed with both the 1993 structural relationship between workforce welfare participation and area and individual attributes and 1993 area and individual attribute levels. The fourth counterfactual experiment simulates 1999 distributions of per-capita receipts that would have prevailed if area unemployment and individual attributes in each workforce welfare state remained at 1993 levels, but the distribution of workforce welfare states were at 1999 levels. The final counterfactual density presents the 1999 per-capita receipts distribution that would have prevailed with 1999 workforce welfare participation rates arising from 1993 levels of unemployment in non-metropolitan areas. These experiments suggest that structural change in the relationship between area and individual attributes and workforce welfare program participation decisions from 1993 to 1999 accounts for only a small portion of observed shifts in total per-capita receipts. Changes in individual and area attributes, by contrast, account for much of the observed rightward shift in non-metropolitan per-capita total receipts from 1993 to 1999. Further, SFHFwC economic gains appear to arise from increased education levels and other individual attribute shifts, rather than more favorable area economic conditions. Gains should, therefore, be relatively resilient to future area economic downturns.Public Economics,