World Development最新文献

{"title":"The impact of independence on reported aid performance","authors":"Terence Wood,&nbsp;Stephen Howes","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106829","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106829","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we test whether the reported performance of aid projects changes when the process of producing project appraisals is made more independent. We do this using a dataset of Australian aid appraisals and take advantage of a change that occurred when a more independent process involving the central aid evaluation unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and external contractors was put in place to review appraisals of recently completed projects. Using difference-in-differences and contrasting assessments of ongoing projects, which the appraisal process was not changed for, and completed projects, where the process was changed, we show that introducing more independence led to a substantial fall in how successful projects were deemed to be. We also show that the change probably led to more accurate recording of COVID-19′s impact on Australian aid, as well as more accurate assessments of the quality of Australia’s aid to Papua New Guinea, its largest aid partner. As we do this, we take care to demonstrate that our findings are robust to the types of methodological issues that can affect difference-in-differences studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106829"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142655145","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":"“You need to have this information!”: Using videos to increase demand for accountability on public revenue management","authors":"Christa Brunnschweiler ,&nbsp;Ishmael Edjekumhene ,&nbsp;Päivi Lujala ,&nbsp;Sabrina Scherzer","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106813","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106813","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How can citizens be motivated to demand accountability in the management of public revenues? We carry out a video survey experiment among 2300 Ghanaian respondents to study the impact of information provision and encouragement messages by a politician and a civil society leader on attitudes and demand for accountability in the management of petroleum revenues. We find that providing information significantly increases knowledge about current revenue management, satisfaction with the way revenues are handled and spent, and the intention to demand more accountability. The encouragement messages have an additional effect: they increase the sense that citizens can influence how petroleum revenues are used and the intention to contact media to ensure better accountability. However, a follow-up survey two years later shows that these impacts do not last. The experiment suggests that providing relevant information affects attitudes and intended behavior in the short term and that role models can give valuable encouragement for behavioral change, but this is not enough to influence engagement with revenue management in the longer term.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106813"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142655144","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":"Does Household Electrification Empower Rural Boys and Girls Alike? Evidence from Brazil","authors":"Yeonbin Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106788","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106788","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of government-supported household electrification on the human capital of children in rural Brazil, which is relatively marginalized compared to urban sectors, between 1980 and 2010. The study focuses on gender heterogeneity. Using Brazilian census data and instrumented electricity measures, I estimate the effects of household electrification on school attendance and work in the short run and educational progression in the long run. Household electrification positively affects children’s educational human capital in the short and long run, but the effects are stronger for boys. In terms of its impact on work, it reduces the likelihood of girls doing housework but increases the likelihood of them doing paid work. In contrast, it significantly reduces the likelihood of boys doing unpaid work in family farms and businesses, with no causal effect on paid work and housework. I also propose mechanisms to explain this heterogeneity. These results show gender gaps in the impact of household electrification on the accumulation of educational human capital in both the short and long run. They also demonstrate gender differences in the impact on work. The conclusive implication is that boys may benefit more from the increased educational opportunities enabled by household electrification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106788"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142655143","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":"Climate change and energy poverty: Evidence from China","authors":"Shu Wu ,&nbsp;Fangfang Hu ,&nbsp;Zhijian Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106826","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106826","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change, characterized by fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, presents significant challenges to household welfare. This study offers novel insights into how climate change influences household energy poverty. Leveraging data from the 2015 and 2018 China General Social Survey, we apply clustering analysis and a pseudo-panel data model to investigate the effects of temperature and precipitation variations on both the incidence and intensity of household energy poverty, as well as the mechanisms driving these outcomes. Our findings reveal that climate change, manifested in widening temperature deviations and increasing precipitation, significantly heightens both the incidence and intensity of household energy poverty. Specifically, urban households and those in southern regions demonstrate greater vulnerability to amplifying temperature fluctuations, whereas rural households, northern residents, and low- to middle-income groups are more susceptible to the impacts of precipitation changes. Rising temperature deviations exacerbate energy poverty by driving up energy demand, while increased precipitation intensifies it by augmenting off-farm labor transfers. However, temperature and precipitation changes can also mitigate poverty by boosting crop yields. This study is the first to incorporate precipitation changes into the energy poverty discourse. The findings underscore the critical need to account for climate change when devising policies aimed at addressing household welfare loss and alleviating energy poverty.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106826"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142655142","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":"Can donors prevent aid misallocations? Evidence from Chinese and World Bank aid","authors":"Pierre André ,&nbsp;Paul Maarek ,&nbsp;Fatoumata Tapo","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106811","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106811","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We estimate the extent to which international aid projects are subject to favoritism using differences in differences and RDD estimates based on presidential transition dates. We compare two different sources of aid, China and the World Bank, and two different types of favoritism based on the president’s region of birth or ethnic group. Consistent with the literature, we find that Chinese aid is massively targeted to the region of birth of new presidents. However, we also find evidence of a less visible and less intense form of favoritism in World Bank aid: it targets areas that are co-ethnic with a new president, without following major regional administrative boundaries. This is consistent with a better control of the World Bank aid. Moreover, the political economy of World Bank aid favoritism appears to be more complex: World Bank aid favoritism is more intense in dictatorships, when Chinese aid is more abundant, and in countries that have historically received more World Bank aid.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106811"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142655141","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":"Gender imbalance and temporary migration: Evidence from rural China","authors":"Huiqiong Duan,&nbsp;Weici Yuan,&nbsp;Thomas Snyder","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106832","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106832","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how sex ratio imbalance (more males than females) affects individual temporary migration decisions and broad migration trends at the county level in China. Due to the country’s one-child policy, strong son preference, and prenatal sex selection, rural areas have a surplus of unmarried males, leading to intensified competition for marriage partners. To enhance their attractiveness for marriage, unmarried males and households with unmarried sons have incentives to migrate to urban areas and accumulate wealth. Using data from a nationally representative Chinese household income survey and population census, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the local sex ratio raises rural unmarried males’ likelihood of temporary migration by 3.6 percentage points. Additionally, county-level evidence suggests that the increase in the local sex ratio can account for about 25% of the increase in temporary rural–urban migration during 2000–2010.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106832"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142587135","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":"Benefit or procedure? Determinants of perceived distributive fairness in rural China","authors":"Cai Zuo ,&nbsp;Xian Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106821","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106821","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although distributive fairness significantly affects a wide range of political attitudes, such as legitimacy perceptions, our understanding of the determinants of individuals’ fairness judgments in countries without competitive elections, which adopt deliberative practices in lieu of popular elections in decision-making, remains inadequate. Using original survey data about the Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program in rural China, we find that the awareness of public deliberation in poverty identification is a dominant determinant of individuals’ fairness judgments about TPA. Moreover, this procedural awareness dampens, rather than promotes, the positive effect of material benefits on perceived fairness, meaning that the awareness boosts individuals’ fairness judgments, especially among non-beneficiaries. The findings suggest that the poor segment of Chinese rural citizenry does care about the procedure through which the allocational decisions are made other than instrumental or substantive outcomes. Procedural justice functions as an equalizer that maintains the consent of non-beneficiaries or economic “losers”. Our study enhances the understanding of distributive fairness beyond Western advanced economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106821"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142587047","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":"A qualitative examination of microfinance and intimate partner violence in India: Understanding the role of male backlash and household bargaining models","authors":"Annabel Dulhunty","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106805","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106805","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The relationship between microcredit and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has been explored in numerous quantitative studies. These alternately claim that microcredit exacerbates, reduces or has no impact on IPV. These contrasting findings are problematic, however, particularly as hundreds of billions of dollars continue to be invested in microcredit and women’s economic empowerment programs. This article, by contrast, uses qualitative methods to examine the perceptions of both female microcredit users and their male partners in West Bengal, India, drawing on 34 focus group discussions and 29 one-to-one interviews. This study analyses women’s and men’s understanding of IPV and the impact they see that a microcredit program has had on violence. It reviews these perspectives and seeks to understand the contradictory studies on microcredit and IPV through drawing on feminist economic and sociological theories of violence. This paper illustrates the importance of male backlash models, especially at the beginning stages of a program, but indicates that after time, a household bargaining model also holds relevance. This highlights the significant temporal dimensions in the relationship between microcredit and IPV and demonstrates the importance of six key factors for a household bargaining model to hold.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106805"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142573281","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":"Indigenous forest destroyers or guardians? The indigenous Batwa and their ancestral forests in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DRC","authors":"Fergus O’Leary Simpson ,&nbsp;Kristof Titeca ,&nbsp;Lorenzo Pellegrini ,&nbsp;Thomas Muller ,&nbsp;Mwamibantu Muliri Dubois","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106818","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106818","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper makes a significant empirical contribution to our understanding of the complex relations between indigenous people and nature. It builds on the literature on environmental narratives to show how for some policy actors, indigenous populations are seen as ‘forest destroyers’, and for others as ‘forest guardians’. It argues that these narratives are based on ideal-type constructions, which frame indigenous agency as a central defence against or factor in environmental destruction. By doing so, they rationalize different roles for the state and indigenous peoples in conservation governance. On a surface level, the narratives appear as competing and incompatible. Yet, on closer inspection, they are stabilized within and reinforce a shared common sense: namely, that the fate of nature ultimately hinges upon indigenous peoples. Through an in-depth study of an indigenous group known as the Batwa in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Kahuzi-Biega National Park, the paper challenges this viewpoint. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, including satellite imagery, it shows how the ideal-type narratives ultimately divert attention from a broader political economy of violent resource extraction, which is fundamental. In doing so, they account for policies that fail people and nature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"186 ","pages":"Article 106818"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142573282","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":"Infrastructure Services and Early Childhood Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Water, Sanitation, and Garbage Collection","authors":"Lenin H. Balza ,&nbsp;Jorge Cuartas ,&nbsp;Nicolas Gomez-Parra ,&nbsp;Tomás Serebrisky","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106817","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106817","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Access to essential infrastructure services such as water, sanitation, and garbage collection can considerably affect children’s environment and may play a significant role in shaping early childhood developmental and health outcomes. Using data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), we show a significant positive association between access to water and sanitation and early childhood development, as well as reduced instances of stunting. In addition, we identify a negative association between access to improved garbage collection services and the rates of stunting among children under five. Our findings are robust after using alternative measures for access and controlling for individual, maternal, and household factors, alongside considerations of household wealth, caregiver’s stimulation activities and behaviors, and local community spillovers. Similarly, the economic relevance of the relationship is highlighted by the substantial gap relative to the size of the vulnerable groups, persisting even after adjusting for confounding variables. Our results also suggest that households may be able to lessen the potential impact of pollutants through mitigation measures such as treating water to make it safe for consumption, using handwashing cleansers, and storing household trash in lidded containers. The current findings underscore the importance of investing in basic infrastructure services as a critical component of comprehensive strategies to enhance early childhood development and health in low- and middle-income countries. We emphasize the importance of considering the quality and type of infrastructure services alongside their availability. Future research should incorporate more complete and detailed data to improve understanding of the causal relationship between water, sanitation, and garbage collection and early childhood development, as well as the mechanisms underlying the observed associations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 106817"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142561049","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}