{"title":"Land allocation and industrial agglomeration: Evidence from the 2007 reform in China","authors":"Wenjia Tian , Zhi Wang , Qinghua Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103351","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103351","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper highlights the crucial role of land allocation mechanisms in fostering industrial agglomeration by examining China's 2007 industrial land market reform. By introducing transparency into the land-selling process, the reform facilitated more buyers to compete for land (as evidenced by increased land sale prices), enabling local governments to allocate land to the most suitable users. Utilizing comprehensive data sets that include information on initial local industrial structure, new industrial establishments, and industrial land transactions, the empirical analysis finds that the reform significantly increased the entry of firms from industries aligned with local specialization, particularly in regions that implemented the reform more strictly. Industries characterized by substantial unrealized agglomeration economies or highly localized spillover effects experienced amplified effects. A well-functioning capital market further enhanced the land market reform's impact. Supporting evidence demonstrates the reform's positive effect on economic growth (as evidenced by changes in nighttime luminosity), potentially through increasing local firms' TFP.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103351"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141951032","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}
Andrea Berlanda , Matteo Cervellati , Elena Esposito , Dominic Rohner , Uwe Sunde
{"title":"Corrigendum to Medication against conflict [Journal of Development Economics (2024) Volume 170, September 2024, 103306]","authors":"Andrea Berlanda , Matteo Cervellati , Elena Esposito , Dominic Rohner , Uwe Sunde","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103347","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103347","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103347"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387824000968/pdfft?md5=7189b05c53b452ac647252d8bb78aa6c&pid=1-s2.0-S0304387824000968-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141850616","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}
{"title":"Measuring sex-selective abortion: How many women abort?","authors":"Aditi Dimri , Véronique Gille , Philipp Ketz","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103342","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103342","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper demonstrates that sex-selective abortion induces a correlation between birth interval length and the sex of the next-born child. Using a statistical model, we show that shorter birth intervals for next-born girls indicate <em>repeated</em> sex-selective abortions between consecutive births. Analyzing data from India, we find evidence of repeated sex-selective abortions at birth order 2 when the first child is a girl, and strong evidence at birth order 3 when the first two children are girls. To quantify the extent of repeated abortions, we propose a maximum likelihood estimator that provides the number of women who abort and their likelihood of performing repeated abortions. Our estimation results reveal significant heterogeneity across birth orders, sibling compositions, and socio-demographic and geographic groups. Notably, literate and urban women who first had a girl rarely abort a second time, whereas women in northern India who first had two girls show a 13% likelihood of repeated sex-selective abortion. In this group, the estimated number of aborted female fetuses—the standard measure of sex-selective abortion—is 50% higher than the number of women who abort.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103342"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387824000919/pdfft?md5=fb33c31b30b404295118259e82eb526f&pid=1-s2.0-S0304387824000919-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141785686","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}
{"title":"Communist propaganda and women’s status","authors":"Ruoyu Qian","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103341","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103341","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines how communist propaganda affects gender norms and behavior in China. Improving women’s status and promoting gender equality were significant themes of revolutionary propaganda in China from the 1950s to the 1970s. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation resulting from topography, I find that exposure to radio broadcasts during the Cultural Revolution improved educational gender equality, and such effects were stronger in areas with weaker Confucian norms. Using individual-level census data, I also find positive effects of radio exposure on women’s family-related and career-related outcomes. I explore the possible mechanisms using data from two surveys on gender norms, and my evidence is consistent with rational updating. The significant persuasion effects disappear when more recent data are employed, implying temporary communist influences on entrenched social norms.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103341"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141847983","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}
{"title":"Supporting small firms in a fragile context: Comparing matching and cash grants in Burkina Faso","authors":"Michael Grimm , Sidiki Soubeiga , Michael Weber","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103344","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103344","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We used a randomized controlled trial to compare matching grants earmarked for technical training and consulting services with more flexible cash grants and with a control group. The experiment was implemented in a semi-urban and rural fragile setting where subsidizing innovative activities might be particularly important. Firms were selected on the basis of a business plan competition. After two years, beneficiaries of cash grants showed higher survival rates, improved business practices, a higher degree of formalization, and more activities for innovation relative to recipients of matching grants and the control group, but we saw no effects on profits, sales, and employment. Across all outcomes, beneficiaries of cash grants performed better than beneficiaries of matching grants, for them the treatment effects are smaller and often insignificant, though implementation costs were higher. Recipients of cash grants also increased their capital stock more and were more resilient to the COVID-19 crisis.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103344"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387824000932/pdfft?md5=012080f314a949751eb797974836f59a&pid=1-s2.0-S0304387824000932-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141852300","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}
Pamela Jakiela , Owen Ozier , Lia C.H. Fernald , Heather A. Knauer
{"title":"Preprimary education and early childhood development: Evidence from government schools in rural Kenya","authors":"Pamela Jakiela , Owen Ozier , Lia C.H. Fernald , Heather A. Knauer","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103337","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103337","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We provide evidence on the link between enrollment in public preschool and child vocabulary, a critical precursor to early literacy. We measure early childhood development among both in-school and out-of-school children in Kenya, allowing us to examine the association between preschool enrollment and cognitive outcomes. Children in our sample are more likely to start school at age three rather than age four if they live within a few hundred meters of the nearest primary school. Three-year-olds living closer to the school also have stronger vocabulary skills, though a similar pattern does not exist among older children. Using proximity to school as an instrument for preprimary enrollment, we find that preprimary enrollment raises mother tongue receptive vocabulary by more than one standard deviation at age three, but does not impact vocabulary at later ages.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103337"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141844638","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}
{"title":"When beer is safer than water: Beer availability and mortality from waterborne illnesses","authors":"Francisca M. Antman , James M. Flynn","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103343","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103343","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We investigate the impact of beer on mortality during the Industrial Revolution in 18th century England. Due to the brewing process, beer represented an improvement over available water sources during this period prior to the widespread understanding of the link between water quality and human health. Using a wide range of identification strategies to derive measures of beer scarcity driven by tax increases, weather events, and soil quality, we show that beer scarcity was associated with higher mortality, especially in the summer months when mortality was more likely to be driven by waterborne illnesses related to contaminated drinking water. We also leverage variation in inherent water quality across parishes using two proxies for water quality to show that beer scarcity resulted in greater deaths in areas with worse water quality. Together, the evidence indicates that beer had a major impact on human health during this important period in economic development.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103343"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141842076","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}
{"title":"Pollution-induced trips: Evidence from flight and train bookings in China","authors":"Ruochen Dai , Dongmei Guo , Yajie Han , Yu Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Utilizing a novel database including nearly 2.2 billion booking records in China, we examine whether people escape from pollution by traveling to “cleaner” places. Combining an instrumental variable approach with high-dimensional fixed effects, we find a 50-unit increase in the AQI gap between a city pair leads to a 1.30% (1.33%) increase in train and airline ticket bookings from the origin to the destination city departing within one day (2–7 days). In addition, the destination of such pollution-induced trips is more likely to be an intra-province city with more tourist attractions. We also measure willingness to pay for clean air.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103340"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141850536","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}
{"title":"Childhood migration and educational attainment: Evidence from Indonesia","authors":"Hanna Schwank","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103338","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103338","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Millions of families migrate every year in search of better opportunities. Whether these opportunities materialize for the children brought with them depends on the quality of the destination that their parents selected. Exploiting variation in the age of migration, I analyze the impact of destination quality on the educational outcomes of childhood internal migrants in Indonesia. Using Population Census microdata from 2000 and 2010, I show that children who spend more time growing up in districts characterized by higher average educational attainment among permanent residents tend to exhibit greater probabilities of completing primary and secondary schooling. Moreover, educational outcomes of migrants converge with those of permanent residents at an average rate of 1.7 to 2.2 percent annually, with children from less educated households benefiting more from additional exposure. My findings suggest substantial heterogeneity of returns to childhood migration with respect to destination.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103338"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387824000877/pdfft?md5=2768191feed6a1929f817955cd9ef755&pid=1-s2.0-S0304387824000877-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141846122","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}
{"title":"Roads, competition, and the informal sector","authors":"Elena Perra , Marco Sanfilippo , Asha Sundaram","doi":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103339","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103339","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We examine the impact of competition from better connectivity to domestic markets on formal and informal firms. Combining geolocalized information on road improvements under a large infrastructure investment programme with data on manufacturing firms in Ethiopia between 2001 and 2013, we show that an increase in competition is associated with higher labour productivity, capital-intensity, investment in physical capital and wages in the formal sector. On the contrary, there is no associated increase in labour productivity or wages in the informal sector. In fact, increased competition results in lower capital-intensity and investment, a shift in composition towards workers without primary education and a lower likelihood of operating in the informal sector. We thus highlight that the benefits of infrastructure improvement programmes may not accrue uniformly in the economy.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Development Economics","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 103339"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387824000889/pdfft?md5=69ea6cfaa713026d30c61bd272d3ee87&pid=1-s2.0-S0304387824000889-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141704500","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}