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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Disrupted Service Delivery? The Impact of Conflict on Antenatal Care Quality in Kenya
(Frontiers Media, 2021-02-28) Wong, Kerry L.M.; Chukwuma, Adanna; Ekhator-Mobayode, Uche Eseosa
African countries facing conflict have higher levels of maternal mortality. Understanding the gaps in the utilization of high-quality maternal health care is essential to improving maternal survival in these states. Few studies have estimated the impact of conflict on the quality of health care. In this study, we estimated the impact of conflict on the quality of health care in Kenya, a country with multiple overlapping conflicts and significant disparities in maternal survival. Our study demonstrates the importance of designing maternal health policy based on the context-specific evidence on the mechanisms through which conflict affects health care. In Kenya, deterioration of equipment and infrastructure does not appear to be the main mechanism through which conflict has affected ANC quality. Further research should focus on better understanding the determinants of the gaps in process quality in conflict-affected settings, including provider motivation, competence, and incentives.
The Political Economy of Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement: A Comparative Analysis of Mexico and Uganda
(Taylor and Francis, 2020-03-11) Cuesta, Jose; Biggeri, Mario; Hernandez-Licona, Gonzalo; Aparicio, Ricardo; Guillen-Fernandez, Yedith
As part of the 2030 Agenda, much effort has been exerted in comparing multidimensional child poverty measures both technically and conceptually. Yet, few countries have adopted and used any of these measures in policymaking. This paper explores the reasons for this absence from a political economy perspective. It develops an innovative political economy framework for poverty measurement and a hypothesis whereby a country will only produce and use reliable and sustainable multidimensional child poverty (MDCP) measures if and only if three conditions coalesce: consensus, capacity and polity. We explore this framework with two relevant case studies, Mexico and Uganda. Both countries satisfy the capacity condition required to measure MDCP but only Mexico satisfies the other two conditions. Our proposed political economy framework is normatively relevant because it identifies the conditions that need to change across multiple contexts before the effective adoption and use of an MDCP measure becomes more likely.
Education is Forbidden: The Effect of the Boko Haram Conflict on Education in North-East Nigeria
(Elsevier, 2019-11) Bertoni, Eleonora; Di Maio, Michele; Molini, Vasco; Nistico, Roberto
This paper quantifies the impact of the Boko Haram conflict on various educational outcomes of individuals living in North-East Nigeria during the period 2009–2016. Using individual panel fixed-effects regressions and exploiting over-time and cross-village variation in conflict intensity, we show that conflict reduces school enrollment. The negative effect is larger for children who are no longer of mandatory school age. We do not find differential effects by gender, religion, or type of residential location. Additional results from a difference-in-differences estimation strategy indicate that conflict reduces the years of education completed.
Leaving, Staying or Coming Back? Migration Decisions During the Northern Mali Conflict
(Taylor and Francis, 2019-10) Hoogeveen, Johannes G.; Rossi, Mariacristina; Sansone, Dario
This paper uses a unique data set to analyse the migration dynamics of refugees, returnees and, internally displaced people from the Northern Mali conflict. Individuals were interviewed monthly using mobile phones. Our results cast light on the characteristics of these three groups before and after displacement. In addition, we test how employment and security were related to migration status, as well as the willingness to go back home. Individuals who were employed while displaced were less willing to go back to the North, while those who owned a gun were more likely to plan to go back. Additional indicators of personal safety played a lesser role.
Health Service Delivery and Political Trust in Nigeria
(Elsevier, 2019-04) Bossert, Thomas J.; Chukwuma, Adanna; Croke, Kevin
Do improvements in health service delivery affect trust in political leaders in Africa? Citizens expect their government to provide social services. Intuitively, improvements in service delivery should lead to higher levels of trust in and support for political leaders. However, in contexts where inadequate services are the norm, and where political support is linked to ethnic or religious affiliation, there may be weak linkages between improvements in service delivery and changes in trust in political leaders. To examine this question empirically, we take advantage of a national intervention that improved health service delivery in 500 primary health care facilities in Nigeria, to estimate the impact of residence within 10 km of one or more of the intervention facilities on trust in the president, local councils, the ruling party, and opposition parties. Using difference-in-difference models, we show that proximity to the intervention led to increases in trust in the president and the ruling party. By contrast, we find no evidence of increased trust in the local council or opposition parties. Our study also examines the role of ethnicity and religious affiliation in mediating the observed increases in trust in the president. While there is a large literature suggesting that both the targeting of interventions, and the response of citizens to interventions is often mediated by ethnic, geographic or religious identity, by contrast, we find no evidence that the intervention was targeted at the president's ethnic group, zone, or state of origin. Moreover, there is suggestive evidence that the intervention increased trust in the president more among those who did not share these markers of identity with the president. This highlights the possibility that broad-based efforts to improve health services can increase trust in political leaders even in settings where political attitudes are often thought to be mediated by group identity.
Armed Conflict and Maternal Health Care Utilization: Evidence from the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria
(Elsevier, 2019-04) Chukwuma, Adanna
Retention in maternal health care is essential to decreasing preventable mortality. By reducing access to care, armed conflicts such as the Boko Haram Insurgency (BHI), contribute to the high maternal mortality rates in Nigeria. While there is a rich literature describing the mechanisms through which conflict affects health care access, studies that estimate the impact of conflict on maternal health care use are sparse and report mixed findings. In this study, we examine the impact of the BHI on maternal care access in Nigeria. We spatially match 52,675 birth records from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) with attack locations in the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset (ACLED). We define BH conflict area as NDHS clusters with at least five attacks within 3000, 5000 and 10,000 m of BH activity during the study period and employ difference-in-differences methods to examine the effect of the BHI on antenatal care visits, delivery at the health center and delivery by a skilled professional. We find that the BHI reduced the probability of any antenatal care visits, delivery at a health center, and delivery by a skilled health professional. The negative effects of the BHI on maternal health care access extended beyond the Northeastern region, that is the current focus of humanitarian programs. Systematic efforts to identify and address the mechanisms underlying reductions in maternal health care use due to the BHI, and to target the affected populations, are essential to improving maternal health in Nigeria.
Gendered Incidence and Impact of Tenure Insecurity on Agricultural Performance in Malawi’s Customary Tenure System
(Taylor and Francis, 2019) Deininger, Klaus; Holden, Stein
Malawi’s recent passage of Land Acts provide an opportunity to clarify different aspects of the country’s land tenure in an integrated way. To assess whether doing so might be economically justified, we explore incidence and impact of tenure insecurity among smallholders. Insecurity is not only widespread with 22 per cent of land users being concerned about losing their land but is also associated with a productivity loss of 12 per cent for female operators, equivalent to US$ 14 million per year at the national level, enough to pay for a nation-wide tenure regularization program in two to three years.
The Child Health Effects of Terrorism: Evidence from the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria
(Taylor and Francis, 2018-08-25) Ekhator, Uche Eseosa; Asfaw, Abraham Abebe
This study examines the effect of terrorism on height-for-age z-scores, weight-for-age z-scores, weight-for-height z-scores, stunting, and wasting. Using the Boko Haram Insurgency, it compares outcomes in Boko Haram high-active and low-active areas. A difference-in-difference and regression model identifies the extensive and intensive margin effects respectively. The study uses data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and the Global Terrorism Database. The results suggest that the Boko Haram Insurgency reduces weight-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores and increases the probability of wasting. The evidence suggests that policies targeting healthcare services may mitigate the long-term impacts of the Boko Haram Insurgency on human capital production.
Formalization without Certification?: Experimental Evidence on Property Rights and Investment
(Elsevier, 2018-01-03) Goldstein, Markus; Kondylis, Florence; O'Sullivan, Michael; Selod, Harris
We present evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization program. We examine the link between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in the mapping and attribution of land rights; cornerstones marked parcel boundaries and offered lasting landmarks. The tenure security improvement through demarcation induces a 23 to 43 percent shift toward long-term investment on treated parcels. We explore gender and parcel location as relevant dimensions of heterogeneity. We find that female-managed landholdings in treated villages are more likely to be left fallow—an important soil fertility investment. Women respond to an exogenous tenure security change by shifting investment away from relatively secure, demarcated land and toward less secure land outside the village to guard those parcels.
Does Inducing Informal Firms to Formalize Make Sense?: Experimental Evidence from Benin
(Elsevier, 2018-01) Benhassine, Najy; McKenzie, David; Pouliquen, Victor; Santini, Massimiliano
Efforts to bring informal firms into the formal sector are often based on a view that this will bring benefits to the firms themselves, or at least benefit governments through increasing the tax base. A randomized experiment based around the introduction of the entreprenant legal status in Benin is used to test these assumptions, along with supplementary efforts to enhance the presumed benefits of formalizing to firms. Few firms register when just given information about the new regime, but our full package of supplementary efforts boosts formalization by 16.3 percentage points. However, this formalization does not bring firms higher sales or profits, and the cost of formalizing these firms exceeds the added taxation they will pay over the next decade. We show how better targeting of these policies towards firms that look more like formal firms to begin with can increase the formalization rate and improve cost-effectiveness.