Reducing gender gaps in the awareness and uptake of drought-tolerant maize in Uganda: The role of education, extension services and social networks

Submitted by Jane Anyango on

Cultivation of drought-tolerant (DT) maize seed reduces drought risk in sub-Saharan Africa. Data from eastern Uganda reveal gender gaps in awareness and adoption of DT maize. Among surveyed male household heads, 67.6 percent had awareness of DT maize varieties and 29.2 percent grew them. Corresponding figures for female household heads were 43.3 percent (awareness) and 5.3 percent (adoption) and those for wives in spousal couple households were 51.0 percent and 11.1 percent. Propensity score matching (PSM) found that awareness of the technology has a decisive role in DT maize adoption.

Agriculture, Climate Change

Innovation and employment growth: evidence from manufacturing firms in Africa

Submitted by Jane Anyango on

This paper estimates the association between innovation and employment growth among manufacturing firms in Africa. The paper uses a cross-sectional World Bank Enterprise Survey dataset in which innovation is categorised as product innovation and process innovation. Results from the pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation are more efficient compared to IV 2SLS.

Energy

Are embankments a good flood control strategy? A case study on the Kosi river

Submitted by Vidisha Chowdhury on
EfD Authors:

Whether embankments should be used to control floods is a question of great importance in the eastern Gangetic plain, where embankment breaches cause severe flood damage every year and huge damage due to major breaches every few years. Critics of the embankment policy have called for a strategy of living with floods by building dispersed infrastructure to cope with floods. However, no cost–benefit analysis of alternative strategies is available. This paper makes a first pass at evaluating embankments.

Water

Water demand in the Chilean manufacturing industry: Analysis of the economic value of water and demand elasticities

Submitted by César Salazar on

In this article, we estimate both the economic value of water and own-price and cross-price elasticities of water for the Chilean manufacturing industry using the production function approach. Estimating the production function allows us to estimate the marginal productivity of water which corresponds to its economic value. Our estimations are based on panel data obtained from the National Industrial Survey for the period 1995–2014, accounting for more than 10,000 industrial plants.

Climate Change, Conservation, Policy Design, Water

Semi‐Parametric Generalized Additive Vector Autoregressive Models of Spatial Basis Dynamics

Submitted by César Salazar on
EfD Authors:

An extensive line of research has examined linkages among spatially‐distinct markets. We apply semi‐parametric, generalized additive vector autoregressive models to a consideration of basis linkages among North Carolina corn and soybean markets. An extensive suite of linearity tests suggests that basis and price relationships are nonlinear. Marginal effects, transmission elasticities, and generalized impulse responses are utilized to describe patterns of adjustment among markets.

Agriculture

Collective Share Quotas and the Role of Fishermen’s Organizations in Ex-Vessel Price Determination

Submitted by César Salazar on
EfD Authors:

This article examines the collective bargaining efforts of atomized fishermen with a monopsony-like buying sector. Government allocation of collective share quotas to fishermen’s organizations triggered the voluntary formation of cooperative fishermen’s bargaining associations, while a highly concentrated processing sector started behaving as a countervailing monopsony. This drove ex-vessel price determination into region-specific bilateral monopoly price bargaining.

Fisheries, Policy Design

Ocean Acidification, Consumers' Preferences, and Market Adaptation Strategies in the Mussel Aquaculture Industry

Submitted by César Salazar on

Ocean acidification (OA) is one of the largest emerging and significant environmental threats for the aquaculture industry, jeopardizing its role as an alternative for supporting food security. Moreover, market conditions, characterized by price volatility and low value-added products, could exacerbate the industry's vulnerability to OA.

Climate Change, Fisheries, Policy Design

Smallholder rice farmers’ post-harvest decisions: preferences and structural factors

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on

We study post-harvest decisions among Tanzanian rice farmers. Risk and time preference experiments are used to understand post-harvest decisions. In particular, we investigate storage and processing decisions, which according to our study can increase income by more than 50 per cent, but also introduce risk and time delays. Experimentally elicited risk and time preferences are statistically significant in explaining these post-harvest decisions. Impatient farmers are less likely to store paddy, and risk-averse farmers are less likely both to process and store paddy for future sales.

Agriculture, Experiments