THE STRUCTURE OF FOOD DEMAND IN URBAN CHINA: A DEMAND SYSTEM APPROACH

The structure of Chinese food demand is examined using a non-homothetic translog indirect utility function. This analysis uses household level survey data for 3 urban Chinese provinces over the 1995-1997 period. We improve upon previous studies by incorporating theoretically consistent equivalence scales to account for differences in household size and composition. These scales allow us to quantify the impact of alternative types of household members on food expenditures. Similar to previous research we find little evidence of purchase economies with the addition of members although, depending on age, we find statistically significant differences in equivalence values across household member age grouping.Demand and Price Analysis,

Education, Equity and Social Cohesion : A Distributional Model [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 7]

This report - the first from the Centre’s comparative strand of research - focuses on the effects of education on social cohesion at the societal level. The research involved two elements. The first was a theoretical analysis and critique of models in the existing international and comparative literature on education, social capital and social cohesion. This led to the development of a new hypothetical model relating skills distribution to social cohesion. The second part of the research used cross-national, quantitative techniques to test the model on aggregated data for 15 countries. The analysis suggests that educational distribution may be a very significant influence on societal cohesion in certain contexts. Improving levels of education alone may not foster social solidarity if inequalities of skill and income persist. The findings here have important policy implications. Existing policies focus on developing the individual resources and competences which will help to build social capital and community cohesion. However, these will not necessarily impact on cohesion at the societal level. Creating a more cohesive society is likely to require policies that are also designed to increase equality through narrowing educational outcomes

Can maternal education hinder, sustain or enhance the benefits of early life interventions? evidence from the Young Lives longitudinal study

Este documento de antecedentes se centra en las complementariedades que la educación puede aportar a las intervenciones múltiples y, en ocasiones, interrelacionadas, del gobierno y otras organizaciones nacionales e internacionales, en el contexto del desarrollo. La comunidad internacional y los gobiernos nacionales de todo el mundo se comprometen a luchar contra la pobreza, reducir las desigualdades sociales y económicas y mejorar la calidad de vida general de las personas, en particular las que viven en extrema pobreza y las que más lo necesitan (como lo indican los ODM). EPT y otras iniciativas globales firmadas y acordadas por muchos países). Por lo tanto, se han invertido recursos para mejorar la salud y la educación, proporcionar protección social y otras intervenciones contra la pobreza para mejorar el bienestar de las personas y las familias. Es en este contexto que este documento plantea la pregunta: ¿puede la educación obstaculizar, sostener o mejorar los beneficios esperados de otras intervenciones

With the help of one's neighbors - externalities in the production of nutrition in Peru

Both public, and private resources contribute to children's nutritional status. And investments by one household may improve health in other neighborhood households, by improving the sanitation environment, and increasing shared knowledge. The authors measure the externalities of investments in nutrition, by indicatingthe impact of women's education in Peruvian neighborhoods, on children's nutrition in other households, after controlling for those households'education, and income. They find that in rural areas this shared knowledge has a significant impact on nutrition. The coefficient of an increase in the average education in the neighborhood is appreciably larger than the coefficient of education in isolation. That is, educating women in rural areas, improves all children's nutritional status, even for those whose caregivers are themselves not educated. In both urban, and rural areas, they observe externalities from investments in sanitation made by neighboring households. They do not find the same externalities in the case of investments, only in the household water supply. There is a direct link between the caregivers'education, and their children's health status. Education transmits information about health, and nutrition. It teaches numeracy, and literacy, which help caregivers read labels, and instructions. Bu exposing caregivers to new environments, it makes them receptive to modern medical treatment. It gives women the confidence to participate in decision-making within a household, and it gives men, and women the confidence to interact with health care professionals.Health Economics&Finance,Urban Services to the Poor,Urban Services to the Poor,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Urban Services to the Poor,Urban Services to the Poor,Health Economics&Finance,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Town Water Supply and Sanitation

Bullying and school attendance: a case study of senior high school students in Ghana

This paper focuses on senior high school students and the ways that bullying affects their school attendance. Selected items from the 2008 Ghana Global School-based Student Health Survey are analysed first to explore the relationships between the duration and type of bullying and school attendance. Second, we investigate whether having emotional problems, in addition to being bullied, incrementally affects the relationship between bullying and school attendance. Third, we explore the mitigating influence of peer friendships on these relationships. In all cases we provide a gender analysis. The results show that bullying is associated with increased absenteeism for both boys and girls. The analysis of reported emotional problems, however, shows distinct gender differences. For boys, increases in emotional problems are not associated with increased absenteeism for those who are bullied. On the other hand, for girls emotional problems were strongly associated with absenteeism and more so for girls who had not reported being bullied. The third strand of our analysis also showed gender differences in which absenteeism associated with bullying was mitigated by the support of friends for boys but not to the same degree for girls, especially those girls who had reported being psychologically bullied. In addition to the threat to school access caused by bullying, the gender dimensions of the latter two sets of findings suggest a school environment in which peer friendship and emotional well-being are intertwined in complex ways. While there is little or no research within the Ghanaian context, supported by research from elsewhere, we suggest that peer friendships for girls may be comprised of more non-physical, social and verbal interaction within which it might be more difficult to pinpoint bullying. That peer interactions might include a mixture of support and bullying could explain why there is a strong influence on girls’ emotional well-being and hence their school attendance

On the impact of early marriage on schooling outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia

This paper examines the effect of age of marriage on women's schooling outcomes for 36 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia. We employ an instrumental variable approach to account for the endogeneity of early marriage driven by socio-economic and cultural factors. Our results show that delaying early marriage by one year is associated with an increase of half a year of education in Sub-Saharan Africa and nearly one third of a year of education in South West Asia as well as a lower likelihood of dropping out from secondary school of 5.5% in South West Asia

Evidence on Graduation in Practice: Concern Worldwide's Graduation Programme in Rwanda

This article examines graduation impacts of social protection programmes in Africa, by presenting evidence from an interim evaluation of the ‘Enhancing the Productive Capacity of Extremely Poor People’ project, implemented by Concern Worldwide in Rwanda's Southern Province. The project builds on the principles of the Rwandan government's national social protection scheme, the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP). Its design is adapted from the ‘graduation model’, an innovative approach from Bangladesh that delivers a sequenced package of support with the objective of moving households out of extreme poverty. Difference?in?differences analysis was performed to compare participants and control group households after the cash transfers phase. Findings reveal that participants have significantly reduced their level of deprivation and demonstrated improvements in consumption, health, education and social participation. Further research will assess the impacts of other project components, notably asset transfers and training, and will investigate the sustainability of these positive impacts over time