03. Journals

3,111 items available

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https://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 - 10 of 19

We Forgot the Middle Class! Inequality Underestimation in a Changing Sub-Saharan Africa
(Springer Nature, 2020-01-11) Clementi, F.; Dabalen, A.L.; Molini, V.; Schettino, F.
The creation of national middle classes and the changes in consumption patterns in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries suggest reconsidering the way welfare and consequently inequality is typically measured. Using only consumption to measure welfare can lead to an important loss of information regarding the real welfare of the top 10–20% of the welfare distribution that is generally referred as “middle class” in these countries. This paper proposes a method capable of correcting the middle-class part of the consumption distribution using information coming from the income distribution of the same surveys. Results from 6 SSA countries indicate an increase of about 20% in the Gini index.
The Role of Social Ties in Factor Allocation
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-10) Beck, Ulrik; Bjerge, Benedikte; Fafchamps, Marcel
We investigate whether social structure helps or hinders factor allocation using unusually rich data from the Gambia. Evidence indicates that land available for cultivation is allocated unequally across households; and that factor transfers are more common between neighbors, co-ethnics, and kinship-related households. Does this lead to the conclusion that land inequality is due to flows of land between households being impeded by social divisions? To answer this question, a novel methodology that approaches exhaustive data on dyadic flows from an aggregate point of view is introduced. Land transfers lead to a more equal distribution of land and to more comparable factor ratios across households in general. But equalizing transfers of land are not more likely within ethnic or kinship groups. In conclusion, ethnic and kinship divisions do not hinder land and labor transfers in a way that contributes to aggregate factor inequality. Labor transfers do not equilibrate factor ratios across households. But it cannot be ruled out that they serve a beneficial role, for example, to deal with unanticipated health shocks.
Redistribution and Group Participation: Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-10) Fafchamps, Marcel; Vargas Hill, Ruth
We investigate whether the prospect of redistribution hinders the formation of efficiency-enhancing groups. We conduct an experiment in a Kenyan slum, Ugandan villages, and a UK university town. We test, in an anonymous setting with no feedback, whether subjects join a group that increases their endowment but exposes them to one of three redistributive actions: stealing, giving, or burning. We find that exposure to redistributive options among group members operates as a disincentive to join a group. This finding obtains under all three treatments—including when the pressure to redistribute is intrinsic. However the nature of the redistribution affects the magnitude of the impact. Giving has the least impact on the decision to join a group, while forced redistribution through stealing or burning acts as a much larger deterrent to group membership. These findings are common across all three subject pools, but African subjects are particularly reluctant to join a group in the burning treatment, indicating strong reluctance to expose themselves to destruction by others.
Competing Priorities: Women’s Microenterprises and Household Relationships
(Elsevier, 2019-09) Friedson-Ridenour, Sophia; Pierotti, Rachael S.
Recent studies have suggested that women’s business decisions are influenced by members of their household, especially their spouse, and that these intrahousehold dynamics contribute to gender gaps in entrepreneurship outcomes. This in-depth qualitative study among microentrepreneurs in urban Ghana sought to understand the connections between women’s businesses and their households’ management of economic resources. The findings show that women’s business decisions are influenced by: 1) a desire to reinforce their partner’s responsibilities as a primary provider; 2) attempts to fulfil normative expectations of meeting the daily basic-needs of the family; and 3) a need to prepare for long-term security. To reinforce their husband’s responsibilities as a provider, women hid income and savings, and sometimes explicitly limited business growth. To ensure their ability to smooth household consumption and respond to emergencies, women prioritized savings over business investment. And, to plan for their long-term security, women opted for cautious business investment, instead maintaining pressure on their partner to meet current needs and investing in children and property for the future. Previous studies document gender differences in microenterprise business management. This research builds on those studies by examining how intrahousehold inequalities affect women’s business decisions. The findings demonstrate the contextual importance of social relations for understanding women’s business decisions. More broadly, the findings illustrate that interpersonal interactions concerning the management of economic resources are an integral part of how household members negotiate their rights and responsibilities in relation to each other.
The Devil is in the Detail: Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction in Africa in the Last Two Decades
(Oxford University Press, 2019-08) Clementi, Fabio; Fabiani, Michele; Molini, Vasco
The present paper, starting from evidence of low growth-to-poverty elasticity characterizing Africa, purports to identify the distributional changes that limited the pro-poor impact of the last two decades’ growth. Distributional changes that went undetected by standard inequality measures were not showing a clear pattern of inequality on the continent. By applying a new decomposition technique based on a non-parametric method—the ‘relative distribution’—we found a clear distributional pattern affecting almost all analysed countries. Nineteen out twenty four countries experienced a significant increase in polarization, particularly in the lower tail of the distribution, and this distributional change lowered the pro-poor impact of growth substantially. Without this unfavorable redistribution, poverty could have decreased in these countries by an additional five percentage points.
Dynamics of Child Development: Analysis of a Longitudinal Cohort in a Very Low Income Country
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-02) Galasso, Emanuela; Weber, Ann; Fernald, Lia C.H.
Longitudinal patterns of child development and socioeconomic status are described for a cohort of children in Madagascar surveyed when 3–6 and 7–10 years old. Substantial wealth gradients were found across multiple domains: receptive vocabulary, cognition, sustained attention, and working memory. The results are robust to the inclusion of lagged outcomes, maternal endowments, measures of child health, and home stimulation. Wealth gradients are significant at ages 3–4, widen with age, and flatten out by ages 9–10. For vocabulary and sustained attention, the gradient grows steadily between ages three and six; for cognitive composite and memory of phrases, the gradient widens later (ages 7–8) before flattening out. These gaps in cognitive outcomes translate into equally sizeable gaps in learning outcomes. 12–18% of the predicted gap in early outcomes is accounted for by differences in home stimulation, even after controlling for maternal education and endowments.
Myriad of Health Care Financing Reforms in Zambia: Have the Poor Benefited?
(Taylor and Francis, 2018-11-05) Chitah, Bona Mukosha; Chansa, Collins; Kaonga, Oliver; Workie, Netsanet Walelign; Chansa, Collins
Zambia has implemented a number of financing and organizational reforms since the 1990s aimed at increasing efficiency, enhancing equity, and improving health outcomes. This study reviews the distributional impact of these health reforms on enhancing equity at the regional level and for different socioeconomic groups. Data from three nationally representative household surveys were collected, and a benefit incidence analysis was conducted to determine the distributional impact over the period 2010–2015. The results show that distribution of subsidies and utilization of outpatient services at public health facilities in Zambia has consistently been in favor of urban provinces. Further, distribution of health subsidies across the ten provinces in Zambia does not correspond to reported illnesses in each province. The study also shows that utilization of outpatient services at public (hospitals and health centers) and private health facilities is generally in favor of the rich, and utilization of both inpatient and outpatient services at public and private health facilities benefits the rich more than the poor. And although the results show a pro-poor redistribution of benefits across income groups in 2015 compared to 2010 whereby the poorest two income groups received more than a 20% share of benefits in each quintile, the benefits were still lower than their health needs. This is contrary to the richest two income groups whose share of benefits was higher than their health needs in both 2010 and 2015. The study concludes that Zambia has not yet fully attained its long-term health reform vision of “equity of access to quality health care” despite years of successive health reforms. The study calls for the Zambian government to complement strategies on financial risk protection with deliberate supply- and demand-side actions in order to enhance equity. Improvements in long- and short-term planning and regular monitoring and evaluation are critical.
Progressive Pathway to Universal Health Coverage in Tanzania: A Call for Preferential Resource Allocation Targeting the Poor
(Taylor and Francis, 2018-10-31) Juma, Mariam Ally; Wang, Huihui; Rosemberg, Nicolas; Ulisubisya, Mpoki M.
Universal health coverage (UHC) can be a vehicle for improving equity, health outcomes, and financial well-being. After publication of the World Health Organization’s report in 2010, many countries declared their goal of achieving UHC. A key lesson from research evidence and country experience in implementation of pro-poor UHC is that public budget plays a crucial role in financing the poor. It has long been recognized that if a country wants to reduce the gap between the poor and non-poor, deprived groups should receive preferential allocation of health care resources to achieve more rapid improvements in their health. Based on a technical analysis of public funds allocation mechanisms in Tanzania, we argue that these mechanisms should prioritize the poor more explicitly and give them preferential treatment to close the gap with the non-poor in service utilization and health outcomes.
Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-08) Handa, Sudhanshu; Daidone, Silvio; Peterman, Amber; Davis, Benjamin; Pereira, Audrey; Palermo, Tia; Yablonski, Jennifer
This paper summarizes evidence on six perceptions associated with cash transfer programming, using eight rigorous evaluations conducted on large-scale government unconditional cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa under the Transfer Project. Specifically, it investigates if transfers: 1) induce higher spending on alcohol or tobacco; 2) are fully consumed (rather than invested); 3) create dependency (reduce participation in productive activities); 4) increase fertility; 5) lead to negative community-level economic impacts (including price distortion and inflation); and 6) are fiscally unsustainable. The paper presents evidence refuting each claim, leading to the conclusion that these perceptions—insofar as they are utilized in policy debates—undercut potential improvements in well-being and livelihood strengthening among the poor, which these programs can bring about in sub-Saharan Africa, and globally. It concludes by underscoring outstanding research gaps and policy implications for the continued expansion of unconditional cash transfers in the region and beyond.
All that Glitters is not Gold: Polarization Amid Poverty Reduction in Ghana
(Elsevier, 2018-02) Clementi, Fabio; Molini, Vasco; Schettino, Francesco
Ghana is an exceptional case in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) landscape. Together with a handful of other countries, Ghana offers the opportunity to analyze the distributional changes in the past two decades, since four comparable household surveys are available. In addition, unlike many other countries in SSA, Ghana’s rapid growth translated into fast poverty reduction. A closer look at the distributional changes that occurred in the same period, however, suggests less optimism. The present paper develops an innovative methodology to analyze the distributional changes that occurred and their drivers, with a high degree of accuracy and granularity. Looking at the results from 1991 to 2012, the paper documents how the distributional changes over time hollowed out the middle of the Ghanaian household consumption distribution and increased the concentration of households around the highest and lowest deciles; there was a clear surge in polarization indeed. When looking at the drivers of polarization, household characteristics, educational attainment, and access to basic infrastructure all tended to increase over time the size of the upper and lower tails of the consumption distribution and, as a consequence, the degree of polarization.