Journal articles published externally

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These are journal articles by World Bank authors published externally.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse ...

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Food security and poverty reduction effects of agricultural technologies adoption − a multinomial endogenous switching regression application in rural Zimbabwe
(Elsevier, 2024-05) Amankwah, Akuffo; Gwatidzo, Tendai
Using nationally representative household survey data and the multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) procedure, this study examines the productivity, food security, and poverty reduction effects of adopting improved seed and inorganic fertilizer in rural Zimbabwe. The results show that the joint adoption of improved seed and inorganic fertilizer is facilitated by household ownership of farm mechanization, years of education of the household heads, presence of a wage worker in the household, access to irrigation facilities, and government extension services. The MESR results show that the adoption of improved seed and inorganic fertilizer, as well as their joint usage, have productivity and welfare-enhancing effects on farming households in rural Zimbabwe. More importantly, we find that while the technologies appear to impact food consumption negatively, households using the technologies jointly in production are more food secure and eat more diverse foods. This implies government efforts to promote the joint adoption of the two technologies in rural Zimbabwe are encouraged.
Using Individual-Level Randomized Treatment to Learn about Market Structure
(American Economic Association, 2022-10) Casaburi, Lorenzo; Reed, Tristan
Interference across competing firms in RCTs can be informative about market structure. An experiment that subsidizes a random subset of traders who buy cocoa from farmers in Sierra Leone illustrates this idea. Interpreting treatment-control differences in prices and quantities purchased from farmers through a model of Cournot competition reveals differentiation between traders is low. Combining this result with quasi-experimental variation in world prices shows that the number of traders competing is 50 percent higher than the number operating in a village. Own-price and cross-price supply elasticities are high. Farmers face a competitive market in this first stage of the value chain.
Effectiveness of Fertiliser Policy Reforms to Enhance Food Security in Kenya: A Macro-Microsimulation Analysis
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-02) Boulanger, Pierre; Dudu, Hasan; Ferrari, Emanuele; Mainar, Alfredo J.; Ramos, Maria Priscila
Food security represents a key challenge in most Sub-Saharan African countries and in Kenya in particular where still a relevant share of the population lives below a minimum dietary energy consumption. Kenya addresses this concern with a noteworthy policy mix, aiming at giving to the agricultural sector a leading task in improving food security. This paper evaluates the impacts on food security of expanding fertilizer capacities in Kenya, combined with a set of additional policy changes targeting fertilizer use. In a top-down analysis, a specific Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is linked with a microsimulation approach. Scenarios present overall positive effects on key food security aggregates. The same is true for welfare. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity of households across and within regions suggests that improving input productivity through better market access and service extension are critical to reducing possible discrepancies across farmers, households and regions. The paper concludes on the need for a sound policy mix since increasing fertilizer production alone is not enough to enhance food security evenly. Among accompanying measures, intensifying extension services are essential especially for smallholders in their acquisition of better knowledge on the use of agricultural inputs.
Teacher Satisfaction and Its Determinants: Analysis Based on Data from Nigeria and Uganda
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Nkengne, Patrick; Pieume, Olivier; Tsimpo, Clarence; Ezeugwu, Gilbert; Wodon, Quentin
Teachers who are satisfied with their job are more likely to teach well, which in turn should enable their students to better learn while in school. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a learning crisis, with close to nine out of ten children not able to read and understand a simple text at age 10. This affects all types of schools and students, including students in Catholic and other faith-based schools. Improving working conditions and job satisfaction among teachers is part of the answer to this learning crisis. After a brief discussion of data for Nigeria, this article looks at the level of satisfaction of teachers in Uganda, its determinants, and its impact on the quality teaching. Specifically, four questions are asked: What is the level of teacher job satisfaction in Uganda? How does job satisfaction relate to the characteristics of teachers? What is the impact of teachers’ satisfaction on their performance, as it can be measured through various variables of teacher effort? Finally, what are the main factors affecting satisfaction according to teachers? The answers to these questions have implications for policy and practice in faith-based as well as in other schools.
Koranic Schools in Niger: How Much Can Be Learned from Existing Data?
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Male, Chata; Nayihouba, Ada; Wodon, Quentin
The term Koranic school is often used to describe schools that are not part of the formal education system and typically place a strong emphasis on memorizing the Koran in Arabic, as well as on knowledge of Islamic religious education and practice. Using data from Niger as a case study, this paper provides data on trends in the share of individuals that have a Koranic education, a formal education, or no education at all, as well as a basic profile (univariate and multivariate) of children with Koranic education, formal education, or no education at all. In addition, the potential impacts of Koranic education in comparison to formal education or no education at all on outcomes such as literacy and numeracy, labor market earnings, household consumption, assets and perceptions of well-being, and infant mortality is analyzed.
Catholic and Faith-Based Schools in Africa: Introduction to the Special Issue
(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-28) Grace, Gerald; Wodon, Quentin
Africa is the region of the world where Catholic and other faith-based schools have the largest footprint. One in nine students in a primary school in Africa is enrolled in a Catholic school, and students from the region account for more than half of all students in Catholic primary schools globally. Through the role it plays in Africa, the Catholic Church is at the forefront of providing educational opportunities in low-income countries, but challenges abound. In particular, learning poverty defined as the inability of 10-year-old children to read and understand an age-appropriate text, affects nine in ten children in sub-Saharan Africa. Students in Catholic schools are not immune to this crisis. This article introduces a framework from the World Bank on how we could end the learning crisis and summarizes the contributions of the articles included in this issue in terms of that framework.
Factors Associated with Educational and Career Aspirations of Young Women and Girls in Sierra Leone
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-09-05) Allmang, Skye; Rozhenkova, Veronika; Khakshi, James Ward; Raza, Wameq; Heymann, Jody
Empirical data on the aspirations of young women and girls in post-conflict settings are scarce. This article analyses the factors associated with the educational and career aspirations of 2,473 young women and girls in Sierra Leone. Findings indicated that over three-quarters of our sample aspired to continue their studies up to the university level, and two-thirds aspired to obtain a formal sector job requiring an education. These findings are important for discussions of aid which can accelerate economic advances and opportunities within advanced economies for both women and men.
Cereal Prices and Child Undernutrition in Ethiopia
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-07-06) Brenton, Paul
This paper looks at how changing cereal prices affect child undernutrition in Ethiopia. It derives height for age (stunting) and weight for height (wasting) as indicators of child undernutrition from the two most recent years of the Livings Standards Measurement Survey and utilizes market prices for key cereals, teff, wheat, and maize at the enumeration area across all regions of the country. Using a panel data fixed effects model, the analysis finds that, contrary to previous studies, rising cereal prices are positively associated with improved child stunting rates for children between ages 6 months and 5 years. There is no evidence to suggest that cereal prices have a significantly greater impact on height for age for children that come from households who are net sellers of these crops. Cereal prices do not appear to be associated with wasting, which is a shorter-term negative health outcome.
Looking into the performance-based financing black box: Evidence from an impact evaluation in the health sector in Cameroon
(Oxford University Press, 2021-07) de Walque, Damien; Saidou, Hamadou; Sorgho, Gaston; Steenland, Maria
Performance-based financing (PBF) is a complex health systems intervention aimed at improving the coverage and quality of care. Several studies have shown a positive impact of PBF on health service coverage, often coupled with improvements in quality, but relatively little is known about the mechanisms driving those results. This article presents results of a randomized impact evaluation in Cameroon designed to isolate the role of specific components of the PBF approach with four study groups: (i) PBF with explicit financial incentives linked to results, (ii) direct financing with additional resources available for health providers not linked to performance, (iii) enhanced supervision and monitoring without additional resources and (iv) a control group. Overall, results indicate that, when compared with the pure control group, PBF in Cameroon led to significant increases in utilization for several services (child and maternal vaccinations, use of modern family planning), but not for others like antenatal care visits and facility-based deliveries. In terms of quality, PBF increased the availability of inputs and equipment, qualified health workers, led to a reduction in formal and informal user fees but did not affect the content of care. However, for many positively impacted outcomes, the differences between the PBF group and the group receiving additional financing not linked to performance are not significant, suggesting that additional funding rather than the explicit incentives might be driving improvements. In contrast, the intervention group offering enhanced supervision, coaching and monitoring without additional funding did not experience significant impacts compared to the control group.
Assessing Gender Gaps in Employment and Earnings in Africa: The Case of Eswatini
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-07) Brixiova Schwidrowski, Zuzana; Imai, Susumu; Kangoye, Thierry; Yameogo, Nadege Desiree
Persistent gender gaps characterize labor markets in many African countries. Utilizing Eswatini’s first three labor market surveys (conducted in 2007, 2010, and 2013), this paper provides first systematic evidence on the country’s gender gaps in employment and earnings. We find that women have notably lower employment rates and earnings than men, even though the global financial crisis had a less negative impact on women than it had on men. Both unadjusted and unexplained gender earnings gaps are higher in self-employment than in wage employment. Tertiary education and urban location account for a large part of the gender earnings gap and mitigate high female propensity to self-employment. Our findings suggest that policies supporting female higher education and rural-urban mobility could reduce persistent inequalities in Eswatini’s labor market outcomes as well as in other middle-income countries in southern Africa.