03. Journals

2,963 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2210

These are journal articles published in World Bank journals as well as externally by World Bank authors.

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Urbanization and Child Nutritional Outcomes

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2020-02) Amare, Mulubrhan ; Arndt, Channing ; Abay, Kibrom A. ; Benson, Todd

The implications of urbanization on child nutritional outcomes are investigated using satellite-based nighttime light intensity data as a marker of urbanization with data from two rounds of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Nighttime light introduces a gradient of urbanization permitting investigation of the implications of urbanization on child nutritional outcomes along an urbanization continuum. Nightlight is found to significantly predict child nutritional outcomes even after controlling for observable covariates known to influence child nutrition. In all specifications, improvements in child nutrition outcomes onset with relatively low levels of light emissions and continue rapidly as nightlight intensity increases before largely leveling off. These nonlinear relationships highlight the value of nightlight as a population agglomeration indicator relative to traditional binary rural-urban indicators. Consistent with other recent work, patterns of urbanization influence welfare outcomes. At least for Nigeria, a pattern that extends the benefits of urban agglomeration to larger shares of the population would speed improvements to child nutritional outcomes.
Psychic versus Economic Barriers to Vaccine Take-Up: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-10) Sato, Ryoko ; Takasaki, Yoshito

This paper experimentally evaluates the relative importance of psychic costs of tetanus vaccination compared to monetary costs among women in rural Nigeria. We compare vaccine take-up between two conditions to receive cash incentives: clinic attendance vs. vaccine take-up. Because the only difference between these two conditions is whether a woman was required to receive a vaccine upon arrival at the clinic, the difference in clinic attendance between these two groups captures the psychic costs of vaccination. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find no evidence for significant psychic costs. Priming about disease severity increases the perceived severity of disease, but not vaccine take-up. Monetary costs strongly affect vaccination decisions.
The Short-Run Impact of Import Bans on Poverty: The Case of Nigeria (2008–2012)

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-06) Dabalen, Andrew ; Nguyen, Nga Thi Viet

The Nigerian government uses food import prohibition as part of policies that seeks to protect existing domestic producers and reduce the country's dependence on imports. This paper argues that such policies have negative effects on net consumers of such products due to higher prices. With 70 percent of poor households' budget spent on food, and about 13 percent of the total budget devoted to products subject to import bans, poor households are vulnerable to such trade policies. Prices of some import prohibited food products are found to be higher than what they would be in the absence of such bans. The elimination of import bans is estimated to reduce national poverty rates by as much as 2.6 percentage points.
Pathways to High and Low Performance: Factors Differentiating Primary Care Facilities under Performance-Based Financing in Nigeria

(Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2018-01) Mabuchi, Shunsuke ; Sesan, Temilade ; Bennett, Sara C.

The determinants of primary health facility performance in developing countries have not been well studied. One of the most under-researched areas is health facility management. This study investigated health facilities under the pilot performance-based financing (PBF) scheme in Nigeria, and aimed to understand which factors differentiated primary health care centers (PHCCs) which had performed well, vs those which had not, with a focus on health facility management practices. We used a multiple case study where we compared two high-performing PHCCs and two low-performing PHCCs for each of the two PBF target states. Two teams of two trained local researchers spent 1 week at each PHCC and collected semi-structured interview, observation and documentary data. Data from interviews were transcribed, translated and coded using a framework approach. The data for each PHCC were synthesized to understand dynamic interactions of different elements in each case. We then compared the characteristics of high and low performers. The areas in which critical differences between high and low-performers emerged were: community engagement and support; and performance and staff management. We also found that (i) contextual and health system factors particularly staffing, access and competition with other providers; (ii) health center management including community engagement, performance management and staff management; and (iii) community leader support interacted and drove performance improvement among the PHCCs. Among them, we found that good health center management can overcome some contextual and health system barriers and enhance community leader support. This study findings suggest a strong need to select capable and motivated health center managers, provide long-term coaching in managerial skills, and motivate them to improve their practices. The study also highlights the need to position engagement with community leaders as a key management practice and a central element of interventions to improve PHCC performance.
Inequality of Educational Opportunity: The Relationship between Access, Affordability, and Quality of Private Schools in Lagos, Nigeria

(Taylor and Francis, 2018) Baum, Donald R. ; Abdul-Hamid, Husein ; Wesley, Hugo T.

Using data from a census of private schools in one of Lagos, Nigeria’s administrative jurisdictions, this paper explores the linkages between a heterogeneous sector of private schools and issues of school access, affordability, quality, and ultimately social mobility for households at the bottom of the income distribution. Although a large private education market has buoyed Lagos’s growth towards near-universal primary enrolment, this heterogeneous school sector appears to be providing socially stratifying paths towards educational attainment. We apply Lucas’s theory of effectively maintained inequality to assess the extent to which access to higher quality education services within the private sector is determined by cost. We find that higher-cost private schools provide students with greater opportunities to study in institutions with higher quality inputs and increased potential for progression within the educational system. As such, it is highly likely that these schools are primarily accessible to students at the upper ends of the income distribution.
Budget Rules and Resource Booms and Busts: A Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Analysis

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2017-02) Devarajan, Shantayanan ; Dissou, Yazid ; Go, Delfin S. ; Robinson, Sherman

This paper develops a dynamic, stochastic, general-equilibrium model to analyze and derive simple budget rules in the face of volatile public revenue from natural resources in a low-income country like Niger. The simulation results suggest three policy lessons or rules of thumb. When a resource price change is positive and temporary, the best strategy is to save the revenue windfall in a sovereign fund and use the interest income from the fund to raise citizens’ consumption over time. This strategy is preferred to investing in public capital domestically, even when private investment benefits from an enhanced public capital stock. Domestic investment raises the prices of domestic goods, leaving less money for government to transfer to households; public investment is not 100 percent effective in raising output. In the presence of a negative temporary resource price change, however, the best strategy is to cut public investment. This strategy dominates other methods, such as trimming government transfers to households, which reduces consumption directly, or borrowing, which incurs an interest premium as debt rises. In the presence of persistent (positive and negative) shocks, the best strategy is a mix of public investment and saving abroad in a balanced regime that provides a natural insurance against both types of price shocks. The combination of interest income from the sovereign fund, transfers to households, and output growth brought about by public investment provides the best protective mechanism to smooth consumption over time in response to changing resource prices.
Health System in Nigeria: From Underperformance to Measured Optimism

(Taylor and Francis, 2016-09-14) Adeyi, Olusoji

The past five decades have seen numerous health policies and development plans in Nigeria, culminating in the National Health Act of 2014.8 The Act provides for a range of responsibilities, instruments, and institutions, covering but not limited to: responsibility for health, eligibility for health services, and establishment of a national health system; financing; health establishments and technologies; rights and obligations of patients and healthcare personnel; national health research and information system; human resources for health; control of blood, blood products, tissue and gametes in humans; and regulations and miscellaneous provisions. It is, potentially, a very consequential Act. To understand what needs to be different for this Act to succeed where prior national policies mostly under-achieved, it is worth examining the context and some key drivers of Nigeria’s health.