Pub Date : 2024-12-09DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106853
Adrien Gosselin-Pali
This paper investigates the effect of migration on the nutritional outcomes of the left behind—individuals who previously co-resided with a migrant. Utilizing longitudinal data from Ghana and employing a combination of kernel matching and difference-in-differences, I find that internal migration negatively impacts the nutritional status of left-behind individuals, particularly children. Although remittances do not reliably offset these negative effects, they can potentially contribute to improved outcomes for left-behind children in the long run. The primary channel driving the adverse nutritional impact on left-behind children is the short-term disruptive effect caused by migration, which may lead to a negative income shock. This shock could have lasting consequences for children’s growth trajectories.
{"title":"Migration and nutrition of the left behind: Evidence from Ghana","authors":"Adrien Gosselin-Pali","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106853","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106853","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the effect of migration on the nutritional outcomes of the left behind—individuals who previously co-resided with a migrant. Utilizing longitudinal data from Ghana and employing a combination of kernel matching and difference-in-differences, I find that internal migration negatively impacts the nutritional status of left-behind individuals, particularly children. Although remittances do not reliably offset these negative effects, they can potentially contribute to improved outcomes for left-behind children in the long run. The primary channel driving the adverse nutritional impact on left-behind children is the short-term disruptive effect caused by migration, which may lead to a negative income shock. This shock could have lasting consequences for children’s growth trajectories.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106853"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-07DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106888
Lisset Pérez-Marulanda , Martin Rudbeck Jepsen , Augusto Castro-Nunez
Sustainable land-use systems (SLUS), such as agroforestry cocoa, implemented using organic fertilization, prescribed post-harvest practices and rainwater irrigation, can potentially increase farm productivity, while reducing pressure on natural resources by decreasing deforestation, providing legitimate incomes for rural households and helping farmers to adapt to extreme weather events. SLUS also contributes to peacebuilding by providing sustainable income sources and enhancing social cohesion and contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation and reduce climate vulnerability. SLUS can contribute to agroecology transition through a cumulative process, boosting adoption rates and encouraging farmers to remain committed to a sustainable process. Despite evidence of their potential and global efforts to promote their use, SLUS adoption rates remain low. Building on traditional ex-post generic adoption studies, we identify the enabling factors for farm-level transitions to SLUS in Colombia to propose policy design that will boost SLUS adoption in areas that are conflict affected and exposed to deforestation. We surveyed a sample of 922 cocoa producers in conflict-affected areas prone to deforestation. To reveal SLUS adoption factors, we (i) classified farmers according to number of sustainable practices applied; (ii) estimated an ordered probit econometric model; and (iii) assessed existing policies to promote cocoa production systems in Colombia, comparing their alignment with the adoption factors identified. We find a mismatch between farm-level adoption factors and policies promoting SLUS in Colombia. The principal factors enabling farm-level adoption of sustainable cocoa production system depend on: (i) cocoa plantation age; (ii) technical assistance provided; (iii) social organization membership; and (iv) farmer-to-farmer interaction, while national policies to promote sustainable cocoa are mostly oriented towards (i) renewing and rehabilitating established farming areas (directly related to crop age); (ii) expanding cocoa agroforestry systems; and (iii) establishing zero-deforestation cocoa production agreements. Our results indicate that to achieve wide-scale SLUS adoption, policies should focus on: (i) capacity building through technical assistance and strengthening farmers’ associations; (ii) strengthening farmer’s social organizations, social interactions, and knowledge sharing between producers to generate cascading information (iii) land-use conversion instead of expansion, for example from pastures to cocoa.
{"title":"Boosting the adoption of sustainable land-use systems for achieving Colombian land-based climate action and peacebuilding goals","authors":"Lisset Pérez-Marulanda , Martin Rudbeck Jepsen , Augusto Castro-Nunez","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106888","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106888","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sustainable land-use systems (SLUS), such as agroforestry cocoa, implemented using organic fertilization, prescribed post-harvest practices and rainwater irrigation, can potentially increase farm productivity, while reducing pressure on natural resources by decreasing deforestation, providing legitimate incomes for rural households and helping farmers to adapt to extreme weather events. SLUS also contributes to peacebuilding by providing sustainable income sources and enhancing social cohesion and contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation and reduce climate vulnerability. SLUS can contribute to agroecology transition through a cumulative process, boosting adoption rates and encouraging farmers to remain committed to a sustainable process. Despite evidence of their potential and global efforts to promote their use, SLUS adoption rates remain low. Building on traditional ex-post generic adoption studies, we identify the enabling factors for farm-level transitions to SLUS in Colombia to propose policy design that will boost SLUS adoption in areas that are conflict affected and exposed to deforestation. We surveyed a sample of 922 cocoa producers in conflict-affected areas prone to deforestation. To reveal SLUS adoption factors, we (i) classified farmers according to number of sustainable practices applied; (ii) estimated an ordered probit econometric model; and (iii) assessed existing policies to promote cocoa production systems in Colombia, comparing their alignment with the adoption factors identified. We find a mismatch between farm-level adoption factors and policies promoting SLUS in Colombia. The principal factors enabling farm-level adoption of sustainable cocoa production system depend on: (i) cocoa plantation age; (ii) technical assistance provided; (iii) social organization membership; and (iv) farmer-to-farmer interaction, while national policies to promote sustainable cocoa are mostly oriented towards (i) renewing and rehabilitating established farming areas (directly related to crop age); (ii) expanding cocoa agroforestry systems; and (iii) establishing zero-deforestation cocoa production agreements. Our results indicate that to achieve wide-scale SLUS adoption, policies should focus on: (i) capacity building through technical assistance and strengthening farmers’ associations; (ii) strengthening farmer’s social organizations, social interactions, and knowledge sharing between producers to generate cascading information (iii) land-use conversion instead of expansion, for example from pastures to cocoa.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106888"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-07DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106858
Jean Ensminger , Jetson Leder-Luis
Corruption is a major problem in development aid, in part because areas with the greatest need for development assistance often have weak governance. In these environments, traditional anti-fraud measures such as audits or criminal enforcement are limited in their effectiveness. Moreover, aid organizations face incentives to downplay bad outcomes for fear of alienating donors, which has led to the suppression of negative findings related to development aid fraud.
In this paper, we develop new statistical tests to uncover strategic data manipulation consistent with fraud, which can help identify falsified data and facilitate monitoring in difficult-to-audit circumstances. We apply this method to a World Bank community driven development project in Kenya. Our statistical tests rely on the fact that human-produced digits and naturally occurring digits have different digit patterns: unmanipulated digits follow the Benford’s Law distribution. We improve upon existing digit analysis techniques by being sensitive to the value of digits reported, which helps distinguish between intent to defraud and error, and by improving statistical power to allow for finer partitioning of the data. We also produce simulations that demonstrate the superiority of our new tests to the standards in the field, and we provide a new R package for conducting our statistical tests.
Our study finds substantial evidence of fraud, validated by qualitative data, a forensic audit conducted by the World Bank, and replication with a separate dataset for external validity. We uncover higher levels of fraud in a Kenyan election year when graft also had political value and in harder to monitor sectors. This methodology also has broad applications to many forms of data beyond those encountered in development aid.
{"title":"Detecting Corruption: Evidence from a World Bank project in Kenya","authors":"Jean Ensminger , Jetson Leder-Luis","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106858","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106858","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Corruption is a major problem in development aid, in part because areas with the greatest need for development assistance often have weak governance. In these environments, traditional anti-fraud measures such as audits or criminal enforcement are limited in their effectiveness. Moreover, aid organizations face incentives to downplay bad outcomes for fear of alienating donors, which has led to the suppression of negative findings related to development aid fraud.</div><div>In this paper, we develop new statistical tests to uncover strategic data manipulation consistent with fraud, which can help identify falsified data and facilitate monitoring in difficult-to-audit circumstances. We apply this method to a World Bank community driven development project in Kenya. Our statistical tests rely on the fact that human-produced digits and naturally occurring digits have different digit patterns: unmanipulated digits follow the Benford’s Law distribution. We improve upon existing digit analysis techniques by being sensitive to the value of digits reported, which helps distinguish between intent to defraud and error, and by improving statistical power to allow for finer partitioning of the data. We also produce simulations that demonstrate the superiority of our new tests to the standards in the field, and we provide a new <em>R</em> package for conducting our statistical tests.</div><div>Our study finds substantial evidence of fraud, validated by qualitative data, a forensic audit conducted by the World Bank, and replication with a separate dataset for external validity. We uncover higher levels of fraud in a Kenyan election year when graft also had political value and in harder to monitor sectors. This methodology also has broad applications to many forms of data beyond those encountered in development aid.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106858"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-06DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106881
Amitrajeet A. Batabyal , Karima Kourtit , Peter Nijkamp
This paper introduces a model of political competition under distinct institutional regimes to trace the economic performance of what we call “techno-creative places.” Specifically, we analyze how political competition in high-tech places that are creative in the sense of Richard Florida affects fiscal (tax) policy and consequent economic outcomes. There are three stylized groups of actors in our analysis: laborers or workers, techno-creative class members or entrepreneurs, and the elites who make the political decisions. We study two broad institutional-economic scenarios. In the first (second) scenario, the likelihood of political power shifting permanently from the elites to entrepreneurs is an increasing (decreasing) function of the net income of a representative techno-creative entrepreneur. Our study addresses the institutional implications of both scenarios and then comments on the implications of these two scenarios for the welfare of the elites and the techno-creative entrepreneurs.
{"title":"Political competition, fiscal policy, and economic performance in techno-creative places","authors":"Amitrajeet A. Batabyal , Karima Kourtit , Peter Nijkamp","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106881","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106881","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper introduces a model of political competition under distinct institutional regimes to trace the economic performance of what we call “techno-creative places.” Specifically, we analyze how political competition in high-tech places that are creative in the sense of Richard Florida affects fiscal (tax) policy and consequent economic outcomes. There are three stylized groups of actors in our analysis: laborers or workers, techno-creative class members or entrepreneurs, and the elites who make the political decisions. We study two broad institutional-economic scenarios. In the first (second) scenario, the likelihood of political power shifting permanently from the elites to entrepreneurs is an increasing (decreasing) function of the net income of a representative techno-creative entrepreneur. Our study addresses the institutional implications of both scenarios and then comments on the implications of these two scenarios for the welfare of the elites and the techno-creative entrepreneurs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106881"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-05DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106827
Aubin Vignoboul
While the consequences of natural disasters are relatively well studied, little is known about their macroeconomic impact on inequality. Following Yang (2008), we use an exogenous hurricane index, considering the average “affectedness” of individuals, based on meteorological data. Our empirical approach uses local projection (Jordà, 2005) to measure the cumulative impact of hurricanes on pre- and post-transfer Gini indices (Solt, 2020) five years after the hurricane event for a sample of 114 countries from 1995 to 2014. We find that the impact of hurricanes on inequality, is conditional on the level of a country’s per capita GDP. In particular, the poorest countries tend to experience a reduction in disposable inequality following a hurricane. This study highlights the possible presence of a Schumpeterian effect in high income countries, where they experience a decline in the pre-redistribution Gini in the first few years as capital at the top of the income distribution is destroyed. Subsequently, the pre-tax and transfer Gini rises, reflecting a possible “build-back-better” mechanism as individuals at the top of the income distribution increase their income from capital via reconstruction. In the case of the post-redistribution Gini, we observe a decrease in the first years after a hurricane, underlining the positive impact of redistribution. We identify potential channels such as ODA, remittances and subsidies through which hurricanes may reduce inequality in these countries.
{"title":"The winds of inequalities: How hurricanes affect inequalities at the macro level","authors":"Aubin Vignoboul","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106827","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106827","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While the consequences of natural disasters are relatively well studied, little is known about their macroeconomic impact on inequality. Following Yang (2008), we use an exogenous hurricane index, considering the average “affectedness” of individuals, based on meteorological data. Our empirical approach uses local projection (Jordà, 2005) to measure the cumulative impact of hurricanes on pre- and post-transfer Gini indices (Solt, 2020) five years after the hurricane event for a sample of 114 countries from 1995 to 2014. We find that the impact of hurricanes on inequality, is conditional on the level of a country’s per capita GDP. In particular, the poorest countries tend to experience a reduction in disposable inequality following a hurricane. This study highlights the possible presence of a Schumpeterian effect in high income countries, where they experience a decline in the pre-redistribution Gini in the first few years as capital at the top of the income distribution is destroyed. Subsequently, the pre-tax and transfer Gini rises, reflecting a possible “build-back-better” mechanism as individuals at the top of the income distribution increase their income from capital via reconstruction. In the case of the post-redistribution Gini, we observe a decrease in the first years after a hurricane, underlining the positive impact of redistribution. We identify potential channels such as ODA, remittances and subsidies through which hurricanes may reduce inequality in these countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106827"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-04DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106882
Charlotte Goodburn
This article examines outcomes of three different modes of in-situ urbanisation in the context of large “Chinese-style” Special Economic Zone (SEZ) development in rural India, arguing that mode of village incorporation has an important impact on development outcomes for local populations. It compares three Indian cases with the early stages of the SEZ “model” in China’s Shenzhen, where urban villages emerged, a thriving rentier economy grew, and structural transition was combined with distinctive infrastructural and governance outcomes. Although much work has examined macro-level economic contributions of India’s SEZs, little attention has been paid to implications for local areas beyond initial protests over dispossession, and none has focused on impacts for those whose rural settlements are enveloped by the new industrial area. Whether India’s new urban villages experience similar structural transformation to their Chinese counterparts is therefore unknown.
Based on in-depth qualitative fieldwork in three SEZs in south, north and west India (2018–2023), as well as earlier fieldwork in Shenzhen (2008), this study assesses shifts in livelihoods, institutions and urbanisation. It argues that the three different approaches to incorporating villages derive from the dynamics of local land politics, and contribute to varying forms and degrees of livelihoods transition, in which their interactions with local institutions of rural governance are highly relevant. The article thus contributes to a re-examination of the relationship between industrialisation and urbanisation in the developing world, highlighting how agrarian societies are shaped and reshaped by processes of urbanisation and industrialisation and vice versa. Overall, while the north Indian SEZ has produced better livelihoods outcomes than the south or west, in all three cases structural transitions are incomplete and inequitable, and none have produced the widespread economic benefits for locals seen in China.
{"title":"Urbanising the Villages: Three modes of village incorporation and the implications for structural transition in India’s “Chinese-style” special economic zones (SEZs)","authors":"Charlotte Goodburn","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106882","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106882","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines outcomes of three different modes of <em>in-situ</em> urbanisation in the context of large “Chinese-style” Special Economic Zone (SEZ) development in rural India, arguing that mode of village incorporation has an important impact on development outcomes for local populations. It compares three Indian cases with the early stages of the SEZ “model” in China’s Shenzhen, where urban villages emerged, a thriving rentier economy grew, and structural transition was combined with distinctive infrastructural and governance outcomes. Although much work has examined macro-level economic contributions of India’s SEZs, little attention has been paid to implications for local areas beyond initial protests over dispossession, and none has focused on impacts for those whose rural settlements are enveloped by the new industrial area. Whether India’s new urban villages experience similar structural transformation to their Chinese counterparts is therefore unknown.</div><div>Based on in-depth qualitative fieldwork in three SEZs in south, north and west India (2018–2023), as well as earlier fieldwork in Shenzhen (2008), this study assesses shifts in livelihoods, institutions and urbanisation. It argues that the three different approaches to incorporating villages derive from the dynamics of local land politics, and contribute to varying forms and degrees of livelihoods transition, in which their interactions with local institutions of rural governance are highly relevant. The article thus contributes to a re-examination of the relationship between industrialisation and urbanisation in the developing world, highlighting how agrarian societies are shaped and reshaped by processes of urbanisation and industrialisation and vice versa. Overall, while the north Indian SEZ has produced better livelihoods outcomes than the south or west, in all three cases structural transitions are incomplete and inequitable, and none have produced the widespread economic benefits for locals seen in China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106882"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-04DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106885
Indra de Soysa
The idea that inequality and inequities drive climate change forms a strong discourse in environmental politics. Reducing inequality is promoted as a win–win solution for reducing greenhouse gases. Others view egalitarian processes as a potential threat since increasing the consumption possibilities of the bottom-rungs of society relative to the top would drive up higher overall emissions. Using the latest available data on greenhouse gas emissions and the adoption of green energy technology measured over three decades, this study finds that a variety of measurements of vertical and horizontal inequality and inequitable access to political resources correlate with lower emissions per capita and greater adoption of green energy technologies. Inequality works in the opposite way than often thought. Per capita income levels, contrarily, are robustly and consistently associated with higher emissions, results that support the view that it is overall wealth (consumption) that drives climate change, not its distribution. Reducing inequality and poverty poses a moral and practical conundrum because levelling up incomes within and between countries, given current levels of technology, will worsen the climate crisis. The basic results hold up to a barrage of robustness tests, such as alternative estimating methods, models, and data, and to formal tests of omitted variables bias. Understanding how emissions might be reduced while addressing questions of equity demands calls for much harder thinking, and potentially fewer slogans, such as “eco-social contracts” and “new green deals” that peddle win–win solutions to a ‘wicked problem.’
{"title":"Green with envy? The effects of inequality and equity within and across social groups on greenhouse gas emissions, 1990–2020","authors":"Indra de Soysa","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106885","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106885","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The idea that inequality and inequities drive climate change forms a strong discourse in environmental politics. Reducing inequality is promoted as a win–win solution for reducing greenhouse gases. Others view egalitarian processes as a potential threat since increasing the consumption possibilities of the bottom-rungs of society relative to the top would drive up higher overall emissions. Using the latest available data on greenhouse gas emissions and the adoption of green energy technology measured over three decades, this study finds that a variety of measurements of vertical and horizontal inequality and inequitable access to political resources correlate with <em>lower</em> emissions per capita and <em>greater</em> adoption of green energy technologies. Inequality works in the opposite way than often thought. Per capita income levels, contrarily, are robustly and consistently associated with <em>higher</em> emissions, results that support the view that it is overall wealth (consumption) that drives climate change, not its distribution. Reducing inequality and poverty poses a moral and practical conundrum because levelling up incomes within and between countries, given current levels of technology, will worsen the climate crisis. The basic results hold up to a barrage of robustness tests, such as alternative estimating methods, models, and data, and to formal tests of omitted variables bias. Understanding how emissions might be reduced while addressing questions of equity demands calls for much harder thinking, and potentially fewer slogans, such as “eco-social contracts” and “new green deals” that peddle win–win solutions to a ‘wicked problem.’</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 106885"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143168364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-02DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106879
Nana Akua Anyidoho , Max Gallien , Michael Rogan , Vanessa van den Boogaard
The common assumption that informal economies are untaxed has underpinned arguments that they represent an ‘untapped goldmine’ for government coffers. However, there has been limited empirical engagement with this assumption. While some studies have highlighted that many informal businesses pay both formal and informal taxes, there has been little systematic accounting of these payments. Using a novel dataset of 2,700 informal enterprises in the Accra metropolitan area in Ghana, this article presents the first geographically representative account of the nature, distribution and impact of taxation in an urban informal sector. We find that the majority of informal sector operators in this context pay a range of taxes and fees, which together amount to a significant burden, especially for low earners. Two key findings emerge in relation to the structure of these taxes. First, the incidence and burden of tax payments is highly uneven and strongly correlated with visibility to the state, suggesting that taxation is driven more by patterns of state enforcement than the choices of informal operators. Second, taxes and fees are highly regressive, with lower-earning operators paying significantly more in relation to their earnings. These findings have important implications for both our conception of informal businesses and efforts to tax informal businesses in low- and middle-income countries.
{"title":"The taxed informal economy: Fiscal burdens and inequality in Accra","authors":"Nana Akua Anyidoho , Max Gallien , Michael Rogan , Vanessa van den Boogaard","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106879","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106879","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The common assumption that informal economies are untaxed has underpinned arguments that they represent an ‘untapped goldmine’ for government coffers. However, there has been limited empirical engagement with this assumption. While some studies have highlighted that many informal businesses pay both formal and informal taxes, there has been little systematic accounting of these payments. Using a novel dataset of 2,700 informal enterprises in the Accra metropolitan area in Ghana, this article presents the first geographically representative account of the nature, distribution and impact of taxation in an urban informal sector. We find that the majority of informal sector operators in this context pay a range of taxes and fees, which together amount to a significant burden, especially for low earners. Two key findings emerge in relation to the structure of these taxes. First, the incidence and burden of tax payments is highly uneven and strongly correlated with visibility to the state, suggesting that taxation is driven more by patterns of state enforcement than the choices of informal operators. Second, taxes and fees are highly regressive, with lower-earning operators paying significantly more in relation to their earnings. These findings have important implications for both our conception of informal businesses and efforts to tax informal businesses in low- and middle-income countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 106879"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-30DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106851
Olivier B. Bargain , Rose Camille Vincent , Emilie Caldeira
Decentralization, championed by international institutions, has been one of the most prominent public sector reforms of the last decades, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, few studies propose a quasi-experimental evaluation of its capacity to contribute to local development. We exploit the phase-in of decentralization at the commune level in Burkina Faso. We use satellite information on night-time light density as a proxy for local development levels, which has the advantage of being measured and comparable over time and space. The communes that were decentralized first can be compared to the others after the reform relative to the pre-reform situation. The difference-in-difference approach includes commune fixed effects and inverse propensity score reweighting to account for time-varying differences across communes. We find a positive impact of decentralization on the night-light intensity trends of the early-decentralized communes. This is supported by alternative measures (remote sensing of built-up settlements and a welfare index), which shows the possibly broader scope of decentralization gains. We show that decentralization did not lift all boats: only the communes with the ability to generate own-source revenues benefited from effective decentralization.
{"title":"Shine a (night)light: Decentralization and economic development in Burkina Faso","authors":"Olivier B. Bargain , Rose Camille Vincent , Emilie Caldeira","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106851","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106851","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Decentralization, championed by international institutions, has been one of the most prominent public sector reforms of the last decades, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, few studies propose a quasi-experimental evaluation of its capacity to contribute to local development. We exploit the phase-in of decentralization at the commune level in Burkina Faso. We use satellite information on night-time light density as a proxy for local development levels, which has the advantage of being measured and comparable over time and space. The communes that were decentralized first can be compared to the others after the reform relative to the pre-reform situation. The difference-in-difference approach includes commune fixed effects and inverse propensity score reweighting to account for time-varying differences across communes. We find a positive impact of decentralization on the night-light intensity trends of the early-decentralized communes. This is supported by alternative measures (remote sensing of built-up settlements and a welfare index), which shows the possibly broader scope of decentralization gains. We show that decentralization did not lift all boats: only the communes with the ability to generate own-source revenues benefited from <em>effective</em> decentralization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 106851"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142746384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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