EconStor Collection:
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39867
2024-03-29T07:57:55ZEconomics and the Survivor Peasant
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39893
Title: Economics and the Survivor Peasant
Authors: Pinto, Flavio
Abstract: Peasants are survivor actors: they allocate all their resources and deploy refined strategies for securing a smooth horizon of consumption. Their stylized behavior is irrational only if development is the goal the peasant should follow. Subsistence as expression for describing rural economies is inadequate, since it doesn't connote the risk of starvation or death that peasants face. The survivor actor poses descriptive demands and normative implications. At a descriptive level, peasant's risk behavior is not ruled by inner preferences only, but depends on his expectations for securing a smooth consumption during the crop cycle. The utility model is apt for describing the survivor actor. Yet the exponent that defines the curvature of the utility includes a component that captures the aversion to uncertainty and a component that grasps the expectations about the chances to secure the horizon of consumption. This component defines a function of risk behavior, a counterpart of the Arrows-Pratt function of risk aversion. A normative for the survivor actor has to consider what is feasible, not what is desirable; what could be, not what should be.2008-01-01T00:00:00ZIncome Diversification and Poverty in a Growing Agricultural Economy: The Case of Ghana
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39907
Title: Income Diversification and Poverty in a Growing Agricultural Economy: The Case of Ghana
Authors: |aLay, Jann|i123270502; Schüler, Dana
Abstract: This paper analyses changes in income portfolios of rural households and its determinants for the case of Ghana in the 1990s. Our analysis shows that, contrary to common beliefs, rural Ghana has seen major economic transformation, as households increasingly diversify their livelihoods by both increased migration and more local non-farm employment. These diversification decisions seem to be driven to a large extent by desperation rather than new opportunities, in particular with regard to migration. Low-income households increase their income share in particular from local non-farm activities through more participation while returns to diversifying activities stagnate or even decrease. Therefore households with a low non-labour asset-base are increasingly diversified and poor. In contrast, asset-rich households are more successful at either diversifying or specialising in those activities the household is relatively good at. They also tend to benefit more from agricultural growth.2008-01-01T00:00:00ZAnd What About the Family Back Home? International Migration and Happiness
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39889
Title: And What About the Family Back Home? International Migration and Happiness
Authors: Borraz, Fernando; Pozo, Susan; Rossi, Máximo
Abstract: In this study we use data on subjective well being and migration in Cuenca, one of the Ecuador's largest cities. We examine the impact of migration on the happiness of the family left behind. We use the propensity score matching estimator to take into account the endogeneity of migration. Our results indicate that migration reduces the happiness of those left behind. We also find that the monetary inflows (remittances) that accompany migration do not increase happiness levels among recipients. These results suggest that the family left behind cannot be compensated, for the increase in unhappiness that it sustains on account of the emigration of loved ones, with remittances from abroad.2008-01-01T00:00:00ZThe African Growth Gap and the Realization of the MDGs
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39875
Title: The African Growth Gap and the Realization of the MDGs
Authors: Knedlik, Tobias; Reinowski, Eva
Abstract: Earlier literature on economic growth models identified Africa specific determinates of economic growth. In standard models of economic growth Africa dummies were significant. A more resent strand of literature attributes the significance of Africa dummies to inappropriate estimation techniques. If growth models were appropriately estimated, the Africa dummy would disappear. The analysis of this paper reproduces the Systems-GMM approach, which was found to be appropriate, with an extended sample. It turns out that an Africa dummy appears to be significant. The analysis is extended by the search for potential explanations of an Africa dummy. The analysis finds that infrastructure, access to high tech, R&D, and business environment are factors that explain part of the anomaly of African growth processes. The MDGs reflect the specifics of African growth processes only partially. They should therefore not be the sole focus of growth oriented economic policy.2008-01-01T00:00:00Z