Investments in Land Conservation in the Ethiopian Highlands: A Household Plot-Level Analysis of the Roles of Poverty, Tenure Security, and Market Inventives

Land degradation is a major problem undermining land productivity in the highlands of Ethiopia. This study explores the factors that affect farm households’ decisions at the plot level to invest in land conservation and how much to invest, focusing on the roles of poverty, land tenure security, and market access. Unlike most other studies, we used a double-hurdle model in the analysis with panel data collected in a household survey of 6,408 plots in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. The results suggest that the decisions to adopt land conservation investment and how much to invest appear to be explained by different processes. Poverty-related factors seem to have a mixed effect on both the adoption and intensity decisions. While a farmer’s adoption decision is influenced by whether or not the plot is owner-operated (a measure of risk for the immediate period), intensity of conservation is determined by expectation of the certainty of cultivating the land for the next five years (a measure of risk for the longer term), farmer’s belief of land ownership, and distance from plot to home.Ethiopia, land conservation, poverty, tenure security

Investors\u27 Willingness to Pay for Urban Land: The Case of Addis Ababa City

The spatial, physical and socio-economic conditions of Addis Ababa City, in general, is by far behind the requirements fundamental to sustain the livelihood of the city. In addressing the problems of the city, the suggested government intervention strategies include, among others, the relocation and resettlement of residents for efficient utilization of potential sites, and bringing balanced and coordinated investment/development in different parts of the city. These strategies, so far, seam to concentrate on the supply side and neglected the effective demand of the majority of investors. This study, therefore, aims to assess determinants of investors\u27 willingness to pay for a particular urban land in the city. The study may help the decision makers in developing a win-win strategy in urban development sector policy in terms of achieving economic growth and improved urban development. Moreover, it may be an addition to the existing scarce literature on the issue. Data on the City’s land auction between 1994/95 and 2002/03 is the main source of data to address the issue of investors\u27 willingness to pay for urban investment land. Other relevant secondary data are also used as a source of information. We used ordinary least square estimation to analyze the determinants investors\u27 value on urban investment land. The study findings indicated that investors\u27 offer value (as measured by their markup price) for a particular urban land is positively affected by plot grade, investors\u27 capital, accessibility to basic services and plot for apartment. Investment cost negatively affects investors\u27 willingness to pay for particular urban land. Benchmark or floor price of the plot positively affects their markup value. The study, in particular, suggests that investment opportunities ought to be given to private investors since they are willing to invest and offer higher price given the investment land has access to basic social services, and priority is given for some investment sector

Households’ Willingness to Resettle and Preference to Forms of Compensation for Improving Slum Areas in Addis Ababa City

The spatial, physical and socio-economic condition of Addis Ababa City, in general, is by far behind the requirements fundamental to sustain the livelihood of the City population. The limitations of its current developmental trend and the depth of the existing environmental problems, coupled with the requirements of the projected population of more than 3.5 million people by the year 2010, entail reexamination of constraints and opportunities with the aim of devising appropriate measures and strategies for action. The suggested government intervention strategies, as stated in the report by ORAAMP, include: Relocation and resettlement of residents for efficient utilization of potential sites (basically slum areas) and resources, among others. The suggested relocation and resettlement programs in Addis Ababa, as the literature on urban resettlement dictates can be unavoidable as it can be beneficial and the society, as a whole, can be better off through improved environment and increase opportunities of income and employment that can be realized by involving the private sector and mobilize the potential land value. However, it requires establishment of a policy and guiding framework, which are necessary to create an enabling environment for rehabilitation of resettles. The resettlement practice in the City has been happening in the absence of any policy document, planning framework and assessment of need of the resettlees. Consequently, compensation among the resettlement programs so far undertaken in the City lacks uniformity in type and magnitude. And the compensation mechanism basically fails to consider the needs of the people being resettled. Hence, the question is how to respond effectively to the needs of the people being resettled, how they can be compensated to move voluntarily and how to minimize the magnitude of adverse effect of the resettlement program. And a resettlement without the assessment of these questions is more likely than not to affect decisions made at the expense of the low-income communities who do not have the negotiation means of power, suggesting the need for a better understanding of the possible result that can be achieved by undertaking planned resettlement programs in the slum areas of the City. In the light of the above arguments, this study will attempt to answer the following questions: Will households be willing to resettle from slum areas of the city? What forms of compensation do households prefer to be compensated? What factors (including environmental, demographic, cultural and socio-economic factors, etc.) determine households’ willingness to resettle and preference to forms of compensation? What is the relative strength of resettles\u27 consideration regarding environmental and economic factors in their decision to resettle? The general objective of the study is, therefore, to analyze households\u27 willingness to resettle by taking Addis Ababa as a case. Specifically, it will examine the willingness of households residing in the slum area of the city to resettle and examine the determinants of households\u27 willingness to resettle and preferences to forms of compensation. The study employed contingent valuation method to solicit the respondents’ willingness to resettle. We used a Probit model to estimate a household’s probability of deciding to move to the resettlement area. Multinomial logit model is used in order to estimate and analyze the determinants of a household’s preference to different forms of compensation. The study shows that resettlement is a possible option to improve the socioeconomic and physical condition of the city since households are willing to move to other area if the compensation enables them to restore the existing situation. However, the socioeconomic, demographic, local institutions (such as “Edir” and Ekub”) and environmental characteristics of the displaced people should be taken in to consideration. This requires formulating policies and guidelines that fundamentally aim at least to restore the current standard of living of the resettle

Predicting Users’ Responses of Public Utility Services - Multivariate and Neural Network Analysis - A Case Study

This research addresses the problem of predicting the user’s responses through multivariate choice (MVC) and neural network (NN) frameworks for predicting quality, quantity and overall User satisfaction of public water supply organization, BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) in Bangalore - India for policy initiatives. The MVC study identifies statistically significant factors that explain users’ loyalty to express satisfaction and voice to express dissatisfaction. The MVC model correctly predicts 85% of satisfied customers across satisfaction dimensions.  Wald test on 1940 responses confirms that there exits cross equation correlation across quality, quantity and overall Users’ satisfaction dimensions and thus appropriateness of MVC framework over traditional logit for predicting the user responses. NN framework outperforms the econometric model with 94% correct classification of user responses. The study opens up potential research opportunities for applying the advanced analytical frameworks for predicting user responses in various public and private settings for Policy initiatives so that the service providers could improve their service delivery

Users’ Satisfaction of Public Utility Services – Multivariate System Analysis

This research develops a multivariate system framework for assessing user satisfaction of public water utility organization in a developing country and predicts quality, quantity and overall user satisfaction for policy initiatives. The model framework is applied to the data collected by Public Affairs Centre (PAC) based on the Citizen Report Card approach pioneered by it. Wald test confirms that there exits cross equation correlation across quality, quantity and overall users’ satisfaction dimensions. Based on the system model, the study identifies statistically significant factors that explain users’ loyalty to express satisfaction and voice to express dissatisfaction of users. Policy initiatives are proposed on key factors to reduce voice factors set so that the service provider could improve its service delivery. The system model correctly predicts 85% of satisfied customers across quality, quantity and overall satisfaction dimensions.  Keywords: Multivariate, Logit, Discrete choice Model, Public Sector Utility service provide

The House Price Dynamics and the Macro-Economy: an Empirical Perspective of UAE

Objective: The paper aims to examine house price drivers in Dubai, addressing the effect of internal and external factors afecting house prices   Design/methedology/approach: Using the Hedonic price model, the study examined the implications of house size (space), the availability of bathrooms, bedrooms, waterfronts, and pool and cell phone towers within residential area as auxiliary determinant factors to housing price within developed cities by using the Hedonic Modelling. Also, study highlight the effect of the green strategies that been followed by developer on the housing prices.   Findings: The study is expected to reveal results with significant ramifications for researchers, practitioners and policy makers. From a policy perspective, there is an obvious interest in understanding whether the price of housing is affected by different attributes differently along its distribution.   Research limitations/implications: The data used in this study could be limited, and depends on information to be provided by the Dubai Land Department. There is a room for future research to include more data (such as on other house attributes such as house condition, plot numbers and configuration)

Households' Willingness to Resettle and Preference to Forms of Compensation for Improving Slum Areas in Addis Ababa City

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