Journal of International Development最新文献

This paper investigates the impact of integrating climate change interventions in informal community-based institutions called savings groups. By integrating climate-related activities into these groups, the aim is to simultaneously strengthen the group's financial activities as well as improve knowledge and investment capacity in climate adaptation. We find that the introduction of the training increases meeting attendance rate and average loan sizes, suggesting that members can access larger sums for investment to implement the knowledge acquired during the training. We provide evidence that there are opportunities for economies of scope and for a larger positive impact on the livelihoods of the populations at the bottom of the pyramid by combining financial services offered in the savings groups and climate-related interventions.

This study analysed the effects of flush toilet use on health and non-health expenditures incurred by rural Chinese. The instrumental-variable-based Tobit and endogenous treatment regression models were used to analyse the 2016 China Labour Force Dynamics Survey data while addressing the selection bias inherent in flush toilet use. The results showed that by improving rural residents' physical and mental health, flush toilet use reduced per capita health expenditure while increasing non-health expenditure. Furthermore, using flush toilets had positive spillover effects, reducing the health expenditures of even those who did not use them. Factors affecting flush toilet use were also analysed.

Factors influencing spice income in Tanzania are assessed, exploring household effects of spice diversification, socio-economic and land characteristics on spice income. Spice diversification, household size, age and gender of the household head, non-spice crops and off-farm activities are factors influencing spice income. Results indicate that successful farmers can negotiate higher prices for most spices. This suggests that policymakers should encourage farmers to diversify production and supplement their income with non-spice crops. Promoting cooperation among farmers, improving marketing infrastructure and implementing education programs could equip farmers with the necessary knowledge and skills to negotiate prices and reduce income differences among farmers.

This study examines the relative deprivation in the mental health, henceforth referred to as ‘social and emotional well-being (SEWB)’, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The study uses the multidimensional deprivation methodology to quantify the deprivation in SEWB. The results show wide variation in the relative deprivation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people between the dimensions of SEWB. This study finds robust evidence that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience lower SEWB and higher economic insecurity than the rest and the gap refuses to narrow over time.

Promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in particular, fiscal austerity measures have been extensively implemented across the world in the last decade as a policy prescription to address the impacts of economic shocks. Consequently, the implementation of austerity has engendered a vast body of austerity impact assessment literature in the Global North, in particular. Although austerity measures have been equally implemented (and longer) in Global South contexts, the same level of intellectual curiosity has not been dedicated to understanding the human and social costs of austerity in the Global South. To help fill this gap, this paper examines the implications of fiscal austerity for the delivery of two complementary programmes linked to Ghana's conditional cash transfer (CCT) — the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme. The paper adopts a qualitative design where semi-structured interviews are conducted with (a) two LEAP officers, (b) two headteachers and (c) 35 LEAP beneficiaries in northern Ghana. The findings show that within the current context of fiscal austerity, mainly mediated through the government's commitment to “cut expenditures to the bone”, the two complementary services have been unfunded and thus do not exist in practice. The non-existence of complementary services has dire consequences for children's education as well as undermines Ghana's poverty reduction attempts through the implementation of the LEAP programme.

Youth empowerment has become a growing concern for achieving sustainable development worldwide. Yet, there is limited evidence on which domains of empowerment are important for youth and how they can be operationalized with indicators for measurement. We propose four domains of youth empowerment with corresponding indicators and use a well-established methodology for constructing a composite index. Using data from a household survey in Tunisia, we assess youth empowerment in the proposed domains and explore their relation to youth well-being. The proposed approach can help monitor youth empowerment in various contexts and evaluate the effectiveness of youth interventions.

This paper examines spatial heterogeneity in the impacts of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban household incomes in Ethiopia and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Combining new panel household surveys with spatial data, the fixed-effects regression analysis for Ethiopia finds that households in large and densely populated towns were more likely to lose their labour incomes in the early phase of the pandemic and afterwards than other households. Disadvantaged groups, such as females, low-skilled, self-employed and poor, particularly suffered in those towns. In Kinshasa, labour income-mobility elasticities are higher among workers—particularly female and low-skilled workers—who live in areas that are located farther from the city core area. The between- and within-city evidence from two Sub-Saharan African countries points to the spatial heterogeneity of COVID-19 impacts, implying the critical role of mobility and accessibility in urban agglomerations.

This paper investigates the effect of financial inclusion on inclusive human development in a panel of 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the years 2011, 2014 and 2017 from a gender perspective. Different methods, including fixed effect and random effect models, Tobit and quantile regressions, are used for the estimates. We find that financial inclusion improves inclusive human development. In addition, the effect of women's financial empowerment is stronger than that of men. Moreover, we find a complementary effect of financial account ownership and mobile money usage in the achievement of inclusive human development. Furthermore, the increasing effects of financial inclusion are greater in countries with lower inclusive human development than those with higher inclusive human development. African governments should therefore improve financial inclusion, particularly female financial inclusion, to achieve higher inclusive human development.

ASEAN organizations play a vital role in sustaining bilateral trade between China and ASEAN countries. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced disruptions to global bilateral trade. Therefore, research should investigate the impact of ASEAN organizations on the trade between China and ASEAN nations, particularly during the pandemic. This study aims to address the effectiveness of ASEAN organizations in managing bilateral trade during the pandemic and gauging their influence. The study's sample includes nine ASEAN countries, and the data span from 2016 to 2021. The analysis uses the difference-in-differences model, with the parallel trend test verifying the differences between investigated variables. The results demonstrate that the influence of the ASEAN organization is significant on trade activities between China and the ASEAN member countries, positively impacting bilateral trade during the COVID-19 period. These findings not only contribute to our understanding of bilateral trade during a special period but also offer insights for enhancing the efficacy of the ASEAN organization and governments to promote bilateral trade.

This paper evaluates the impact of a rural community-driven development programme in Myanmar, which promoted village-level microfinance for income generation. Utilizing a three-round household survey consisting of 100 treatment and 50 comparison villages with approximately 8500 households per round, we employ difference-in-differences and two-stage least squares estimations. Our analysis shows three key findings. First, the programme significantly increased access to microfinance, primarily for production. Second, formal and informal finance were substituted in part with village-level microfinance. As a result, treated households were less likely to borrow money from formal banks or informal lenders such as their relatives, friends or neighbours. Third, the village-level microfinance nudged rural households to harvest, yield and sell their products more, which led to increase in seasonal income. Our study suggests that microfinance targeted for productive investment can significantly improve income of rural households in developing economies.