If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital She asks how a household's education le... more If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital She asks how a household's education level and depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot demographic characteristics influence the gains to hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even household income from irrigating previously unirrigated if it has access to credit the household will achieve lower land. returns than an educated household. The net marginal benefit of irrigation increases If, as is common, the income-poor are less educated strongly with the education of a household. because of failures in the credit market and because they The results suggest that unless disparities in education live in areas where there is less access to schooling, then are addressed, market-oriented reforms will generate the poor will also have lower returns on investments. inequitable agricultural growth in Vietnam. Van de Walle tests this argument for the case of irrigation infrastructure in Vietnam. This paper-a product of Public Economics, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the determinants of poverty and the policy implications. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank,
Development practitioners are coming to a consensus Isham, Narayan, and Pritchett show methodolog... more Development practitioners are coming to a consensus Isham, Narayan, and Pritchett show methodologically that participation by the intended beneficiaries improves how to answer each of these objections. Subicctivity does project performance. But is there convincing evidence not preclude reliable cardinal measurement. Halo effects that this is true? Skeptics hay.. three objections: do not appear to induce a strong upward bias in * 'Participation" is not objective: project rankings are estimating the effect of participation. Finally, subjective. instrumental variables estimation can help establish a-* This subjectivity leads to "halo effects." structural cause and effect relationship between * Better project performance may have increased participation and project performanceat least in the beneficiary participation rather than the other way rural water supply projects they studied. around; a statistical association is not proof of cause and effect. This papera product of the Office of the Vice President, Development Economicsis one in a series of background papers prepared for World Development Report 1994 on infrastructure. Copies of this paper are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H StreetNW, Washington DC 20433. Please contact Michael Geller, room T7-079, extension 31393 (38 pages)-September 1994. 7be Potiq Rteseareb 'Workig Paper S bi y d hemii cy fmdRegs o iss ork in pra&tio cncurage the exc6ang of idCas atnte demlopmecnt issues. An obrcaiive of theseriesis togct the findingsout quidkJy, cucn if the presentations are kss tha full polWd Tt, prpers arry the nams cof Me authors andlshould be zsed and cited accordingly. Tbc fuiigs. iaterpretafionss ad conclusions are the aubors' oam and should not be attributed to the World Bank, irs Executive Board of Directors or axy of its mEmber countris
and the 7th International Conference on Migration and Development. Financial support for the data... more and the 7th International Conference on Migration and Development. Financial support for the data collection came from the Rockwool Foundation, the World Bank and the William and Flora Hewlett foundation. The responsibility for any errors or omission is our own The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
We study food Engel curves among the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer prog... more We study food Engel curves among the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia. After controlling for the endogeneity of total consumption and for the price variability across villages, our estimates imply that an increase in consumption by 10% would lead to a decrease of 1% in the share of food. However, quasi-experimental estimates of the impact of the programme show that the share of food increases. This result is not inconsistent with the hypothesis that the programme could increase the bargaining power of women, inducing a more than proportional increase in food consumption.
The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i>... more The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i> study contains information on women's knowledge on reproductive health and the sources of reproductive health information for a sample of women who delivered a baby between March 2007 and June 2008 in Makwanpur district, Nepal. Detailed information was collected on women's participation in non-government organisation group meetings. These are participatory women's group meetings that aim at improving reproductive health outcomes. Information on women's network of relatives was also collected. <br> <br> Further information can be found on the <a href="http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/esrcinfocentre/viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-167-25-0124" title ="ESRC Award">ESRC Award</a> web page.<br>
This paper explores the implications for public policy of the fact that individuals know more tha... more This paper explores the implications for public policy of the fact that individuals know more than the authorities about their exposure to infectious disease and can take migration decisions before their health status is publicly observable. In a 2-period model we study conditions under which the presence of quarantine measures may lead to ine¢ cient outcomes by strengthening individuals' interest in migration to escape centres of disease and thereby imposing negative externalities on other uninfected individuals. We show …rst that when the disease has an epicentre, the marginal migrant imposes a net negative externality. Secondly, quarantine policies may sometimes encourage migration instead of discouraging it. Thirdly, even when they succeed in discouraging migration, quarantine policies may lower social welfare, and even increase overall disease incidence, if they go too far, thereby discouraging those intra-marginal migrants for whom private bene…ts exceed private costs by more than the negative externality they impose on others.
Colombia's civil conflict over the last 40 years has displaced many families and individuals ... more Colombia's civil conflict over the last 40 years has displaced many families and individuals from their villages of origin. Estimates vary, but it is clear that the problem has become, especially in recent decades, a very important one. Casual visits to the main cities in Colombia provide abundant evidence of the problem: displaced individuals are visible in poor neighbourhoods and more generally on the streets. The consequence of such displacement can be dramatic. In addition to the direct act of violence that causes the displacement, individuals often loose their livehood, productive assets and valuable skills, the human capital they possess is often inadequate in the new environments, children are removed from school and so and so forth. The study of the consequences of displacement in Colombia has often used data on individuals or households that have been displaced from the villages of origin and that have emerged somewhere else, typically in a large city. This, however, is only part of the story. Many individuals do not leave the region of origin and decide to stay in the village of origin. This report is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, that complements the existing studies by looking at individuals who live in the same villages of origin of the displaced but, for some reason, are not displaced. These data are then compared with those of a more traditional survey which gathers information on displaced individuals and families.
The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i>... more The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i> study contains information on women's knowledge on reproductive health and the sources of reproductive health information for a sample of women who delivered a baby between March 2007 and June 2008 in Makwanpur district, Nepal. Detailed information was collected on women's participation in non-government organisation group meetings. These are participatory women's group meetings that aim at improving reproductive health outcomes. Information on women's network of relatives was also collected. <br> <br> Further information can be found on the <a href="http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/esrcinfocentre/viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-167-25-0124" title ="ESRC Award">ESRC Award</a> web page.<br>
Most governments cannot provide the necessary health services required for their citizens either ... more Most governments cannot provide the necessary health services required for their citizens either as a result of scarcity of resources or corruption (Mostert et al., 2012). Lack of credibility and trust in fund managers has been highlighted as one of the reasons why people do not join health insurance schemes in developing countries, especially in Africa (Escobar et al., 2010). This work investigates the impact of corruption on household’s willingness to participate and pay for health insurance in the presence of corruption. To do so, we use (1) a binary logit model to study the relationship between household characteristics and experienced corruption; (2) an ordered probit model to explore how household characteristics are associated to the intensity of corruption perceived; and (3) a Mixed Logit model to estimate the association of corruption and participation and willingness to pay for a health insurance scheme. We find that corruption decreases the willingness to participate and ...
Policymakers in most OECD countries face the challenge that they must fight people smuggling while... more Policymakers in most OECD countries face the challenge that they must fight people smuggling while retaining control of migration flows. Policies designed to increase border controls are not sufficient on their own; the level of enforcement that would eliminate people smuggling entirely would be extremely costly. Further, these policies have unintended consequences in the people smuggling market; they increase the fees charged by smugglers, increase reliance on their services, and increase their cartellization. By contrast, a visa-selling policy can weaken smugglers by decreasing their prices and squeezing their profits. However, eliminating people smuggling only in this way requires cheap visas and necessarily leads to a rise in the numbers of people migrating. An innovative policy of selling visas combined with enforced sanctions on employers and employees for illegal working can control migration flows and put smugglers out of business. Using the revenue generated to finance enforcement...
This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extende... more This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extended family networks from Tanzania. Using cross-reports on asset holdings, we construct measures of misperception of income among all pairs of households belonging to the same network. We show that there is significant asymmetry of information and no evidence of major systematic over-evaluation or under-evaluation of income in our data, although there is a slight over-evaluation on the part of migrants regarding non-migrants. We develop a static model of asymmetric information that contrasts altruism, pressure and exchange as motives to transfer. The model makes predictions about the correlations between misperceptions and transfers under these competing explanations. Testing these predictions in the data gives support to the model of transfers under pressure or an exchange motive with the recipient holding all the bargaining power.
This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extende... more This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extended family networks from Tanzania. Using cross-reports on asset holdings, we construct measures of misperception of income among all pairs of households belonging to the same network. We show that there is significant asymmetry of information and no evidence of major systematic over-evaluation or under-evaluation of income in our data, although there is a slight over-evaluation on the part of migrants regarding non-migrants. We develop a static model of asymmetric information that contrasts altruism, pressure and exchange as motives to transfer. The model makes predictions about the correlations between misperceptions and transfers under these competing explanations. Testing these predictions in the data gives support to the model of transfers under pressure or an exchange motive with the recipient holding all the bargaining power.
If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital She asks how a household's education le... more If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital She asks how a household's education level and depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot demographic characteristics influence the gains to hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even household income from irrigating previously unirrigated if it has access to credit the household will achieve lower land. returns than an educated household. The net marginal benefit of irrigation increases If, as is common, the income-poor are less educated strongly with the education of a household. because of failures in the credit market and because they The results suggest that unless disparities in education live in areas where there is less access to schooling, then are addressed, market-oriented reforms will generate the poor will also have lower returns on investments. inequitable agricultural growth in Vietnam. Van de Walle tests this argument for the case of irrigation infrastructure in Vietnam. This paper-a product of Public Economics, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the determinants of poverty and the policy implications. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank,
Development practitioners are coming to a consensus Isham, Narayan, and Pritchett show methodolog... more Development practitioners are coming to a consensus Isham, Narayan, and Pritchett show methodologically that participation by the intended beneficiaries improves how to answer each of these objections. Subicctivity does project performance. But is there convincing evidence not preclude reliable cardinal measurement. Halo effects that this is true? Skeptics hay.. three objections: do not appear to induce a strong upward bias in * 'Participation" is not objective: project rankings are estimating the effect of participation. Finally, subjective. instrumental variables estimation can help establish a-* This subjectivity leads to "halo effects." structural cause and effect relationship between * Better project performance may have increased participation and project performanceat least in the beneficiary participation rather than the other way rural water supply projects they studied. around; a statistical association is not proof of cause and effect. This papera product of the Office of the Vice President, Development Economicsis one in a series of background papers prepared for World Development Report 1994 on infrastructure. Copies of this paper are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H StreetNW, Washington DC 20433. Please contact Michael Geller, room T7-079, extension 31393 (38 pages)-September 1994. 7be Potiq Rteseareb 'Workig Paper S bi y d hemii cy fmdRegs o iss ork in pra&tio cncurage the exc6ang of idCas atnte demlopmecnt issues. An obrcaiive of theseriesis togct the findingsout quidkJy, cucn if the presentations are kss tha full polWd Tt, prpers arry the nams cof Me authors andlshould be zsed and cited accordingly. Tbc fuiigs. iaterpretafionss ad conclusions are the aubors' oam and should not be attributed to the World Bank, irs Executive Board of Directors or axy of its mEmber countris
and the 7th International Conference on Migration and Development. Financial support for the data... more and the 7th International Conference on Migration and Development. Financial support for the data collection came from the Rockwool Foundation, the World Bank and the William and Flora Hewlett foundation. The responsibility for any errors or omission is our own The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
We study food Engel curves among the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer prog... more We study food Engel curves among the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia. After controlling for the endogeneity of total consumption and for the price variability across villages, our estimates imply that an increase in consumption by 10% would lead to a decrease of 1% in the share of food. However, quasi-experimental estimates of the impact of the programme show that the share of food increases. This result is not inconsistent with the hypothesis that the programme could increase the bargaining power of women, inducing a more than proportional increase in food consumption.
The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i>... more The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i> study contains information on women's knowledge on reproductive health and the sources of reproductive health information for a sample of women who delivered a baby between March 2007 and June 2008 in Makwanpur district, Nepal. Detailed information was collected on women's participation in non-government organisation group meetings. These are participatory women's group meetings that aim at improving reproductive health outcomes. Information on women's network of relatives was also collected. <br> <br> Further information can be found on the <a href="http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/esrcinfocentre/viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-167-25-0124" title ="ESRC Award">ESRC Award</a> web page.<br>
This paper explores the implications for public policy of the fact that individuals know more tha... more This paper explores the implications for public policy of the fact that individuals know more than the authorities about their exposure to infectious disease and can take migration decisions before their health status is publicly observable. In a 2-period model we study conditions under which the presence of quarantine measures may lead to ine¢ cient outcomes by strengthening individuals' interest in migration to escape centres of disease and thereby imposing negative externalities on other uninfected individuals. We show …rst that when the disease has an epicentre, the marginal migrant imposes a net negative externality. Secondly, quarantine policies may sometimes encourage migration instead of discouraging it. Thirdly, even when they succeed in discouraging migration, quarantine policies may lower social welfare, and even increase overall disease incidence, if they go too far, thereby discouraging those intra-marginal migrants for whom private bene…ts exceed private costs by more than the negative externality they impose on others.
Colombia's civil conflict over the last 40 years has displaced many families and individuals ... more Colombia's civil conflict over the last 40 years has displaced many families and individuals from their villages of origin. Estimates vary, but it is clear that the problem has become, especially in recent decades, a very important one. Casual visits to the main cities in Colombia provide abundant evidence of the problem: displaced individuals are visible in poor neighbourhoods and more generally on the streets. The consequence of such displacement can be dramatic. In addition to the direct act of violence that causes the displacement, individuals often loose their livehood, productive assets and valuable skills, the human capital they possess is often inadequate in the new environments, children are removed from school and so and so forth. The study of the consequences of displacement in Colombia has often used data on individuals or households that have been displaced from the villages of origin and that have emerged somewhere else, typically in a large city. This, however, is only part of the story. Many individuals do not leave the region of origin and decide to stay in the village of origin. This report is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, that complements the existing studies by looking at individuals who live in the same villages of origin of the displaced but, for some reason, are not displaced. These data are then compared with those of a more traditional survey which gathers information on displaced individuals and families.
The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i>... more The <i> Human Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, 2007-2008</i> study contains information on women's knowledge on reproductive health and the sources of reproductive health information for a sample of women who delivered a baby between March 2007 and June 2008 in Makwanpur district, Nepal. Detailed information was collected on women's participation in non-government organisation group meetings. These are participatory women's group meetings that aim at improving reproductive health outcomes. Information on women's network of relatives was also collected. <br> <br> Further information can be found on the <a href="http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/esrcinfocentre/viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-167-25-0124" title ="ESRC Award">ESRC Award</a> web page.<br>
Most governments cannot provide the necessary health services required for their citizens either ... more Most governments cannot provide the necessary health services required for their citizens either as a result of scarcity of resources or corruption (Mostert et al., 2012). Lack of credibility and trust in fund managers has been highlighted as one of the reasons why people do not join health insurance schemes in developing countries, especially in Africa (Escobar et al., 2010). This work investigates the impact of corruption on household’s willingness to participate and pay for health insurance in the presence of corruption. To do so, we use (1) a binary logit model to study the relationship between household characteristics and experienced corruption; (2) an ordered probit model to explore how household characteristics are associated to the intensity of corruption perceived; and (3) a Mixed Logit model to estimate the association of corruption and participation and willingness to pay for a health insurance scheme. We find that corruption decreases the willingness to participate and ...
Policymakers in most OECD countries face the challenge that they must fight people smuggling while... more Policymakers in most OECD countries face the challenge that they must fight people smuggling while retaining control of migration flows. Policies designed to increase border controls are not sufficient on their own; the level of enforcement that would eliminate people smuggling entirely would be extremely costly. Further, these policies have unintended consequences in the people smuggling market; they increase the fees charged by smugglers, increase reliance on their services, and increase their cartellization. By contrast, a visa-selling policy can weaken smugglers by decreasing their prices and squeezing their profits. However, eliminating people smuggling only in this way requires cheap visas and necessarily leads to a rise in the numbers of people migrating. An innovative policy of selling visas combined with enforced sanctions on employers and employees for illegal working can control migration flows and put smugglers out of business. Using the revenue generated to finance enforcement...
This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extende... more This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extended family networks from Tanzania. Using cross-reports on asset holdings, we construct measures of misperception of income among all pairs of households belonging to the same network. We show that there is significant asymmetry of information and no evidence of major systematic over-evaluation or under-evaluation of income in our data, although there is a slight over-evaluation on the part of migrants regarding non-migrants. We develop a static model of asymmetric information that contrasts altruism, pressure and exchange as motives to transfer. The model makes predictions about the correlations between misperceptions and transfers under these competing explanations. Testing these predictions in the data gives support to the model of transfers under pressure or an exchange motive with the recipient holding all the bargaining power.
This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extende... more This paper studies asymmetry of information and transfers within a unique data set of 712 extended family networks from Tanzania. Using cross-reports on asset holdings, we construct measures of misperception of income among all pairs of households belonging to the same network. We show that there is significant asymmetry of information and no evidence of major systematic over-evaluation or under-evaluation of income in our data, although there is a slight over-evaluation on the part of migrants regarding non-migrants. We develop a static model of asymmetric information that contrasts altruism, pressure and exchange as motives to transfer. The model makes predictions about the correlations between misperceptions and transfers under these competing explanations. Testing these predictions in the data gives support to the model of transfers under pressure or an exchange motive with the recipient holding all the bargaining power.
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Papers by Alice Mesnard