Person:
Yamauchi, Futoshi
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Agriculture and food security; economics of education; education, skills development, and the labor market
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Agriculture and Rural Development Unit, Development Research Group, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Futoshi Yamauchi is Senior Economist at the Agriculture and Rural Development unit of Development Research Group. His specializations include human capital formation, the labor market, agriculture, rural development, social learning, and governance issues in developing countries. He has extensive field experience in Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Thailand, and Zambia. Recently, Futoshi has conducted analytical works to support the education sector in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. His papers were published in major journals such as
Journal of Development Economics,
Economic Development and Cultural Change,
Journal of Development Studies,
World Development,
Demography,
Economics of Education Review, and others. Prior to the Bank, Futoshi was a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, and has taught at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Yokohama National University, and Kyoto University. Born in Japan, Futoshi received his B.A. in law and M.A. in economics from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Publication Search Results
1 - 8 of 8
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Publication
Prenatal Seasonality, Child Growth, and Schooling Investments : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
(Taylor and Francis, 2012-07-05)This article examines the impacts of prenatal conditions on child growth using recent data from Indonesia. There is seasonality in birthweight: this measure is significantly higher immediately after the main rice harvest in the country. The empirical results show that an increase in birthweight improves child growth outcomes as measured by the height and weight z-scores, as well as schooling performance as measured by age at start of schooling and number of grades repeated. The interactions of ecological variations affect early childhood human capital formation and can have long-term impacts on children's outcomes. -
Publication
Population Pressures, Migration, and the Returns to Human Capital and Land : Insights from Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02)Rapid population growth in many developing countries has raised concerns regarding food security and household welfare. To understand the consequences of population growth in a general equilibrium setting, this paper examines the dynamics of population density and its impacts on household outcomes. The analysis uses panel data from Indonesia combined with district-level demographic data. Historically, Indonesia has adapted to land constraints through a mix of agricultural intensification, expansion of the land frontier, and nonfarm diversification, with public policies playing a role in catalyzing all of these responses. In contemporary Indonesia, the paper finds that human capital determines the effect of increased population density on per capita household consumption expenditure. On the one hand, the effect of population density is positive if the average educational attainment is high (above junior high school), while it is negative otherwise. On the other hand, farmers with larger holdings maintain their advantage in farming regardless of population density. The paper concludes with some potential lessons for African countries from Indonesia's more successful rural development experiences. -
Publication
Wage Growth, Landholding, and Mechanization in Agriculture : Evidence from Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02)This paper uses farm panel data from Indonesia to examine dynamic patterns of land use, capital investments, and wages in agriculture. The empirical analysis shows that an increase in real wages has induced the substitution of labor by machines among relatively large farmers. Large farmers tend to increase the scale of operation by renting in more land when real wages increase. Machines and land are complementary if the scale of operation is greater than a threshold size. In contrast, such a dynamic change was not observed among relatively small holders, which implies a divergence in the movement of the production frontier between Java and off-Java regions given that the majority of small farmers are concentrated in Java. -
Publication
Long-term Impacts of Global Food Crisis on Production Decisions : Evidence from Farm Investments in Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-05)Did the rise in food prices have a long-term impact on agricultural production? Using household-level panel data from seven provinces of Indonesia, this paper finds that the price shock created a forward-looking incentive to invest, which can dynamically enhance productivity in agriculture. It also finds that the impact of the price shock on investment behavior differs by initial wealth. In response to price increases, wealthy farmers invested more in productive assets, while poor farmers increased their financial savings as well as consumption. Price spikes relax liquidity constraints, which increases investments among the richer while do so savings and consumptions among the poor, possibly leading to diverging income inequality in the long run. -
Publication
Roads, Labor Markets, and Human Capital : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-12)This paper uses household panel data from rural Indonesia to examine the impact of road quality on labor supply and wages. First, road projects are found to increase transportation speed. Second, the empirical results from intra-village variations of household endowments and labor market behavior show that an increase in transportation speed raised wages in nonagricultural and agricultural employment, and was associated with a decline in working time in agricultural employment, for households whose members are relatively educated. The findings support potential complementarity between road quality and education. -
Publication
The Effects of Improved Roads on Wages and Employment Evidence from Rural Labor Markets in Indonesia
(Taylor and Francis, 2016-03-30)This paper examines the impact of road quality on labour supply and wages using household panel data from rural Indonesia. The analysis uses fixed-effect instrumental variable estimation by first differencing two-round panel data. First, road projects are found to increase the transportation speed. Second, the empirical results from intra-village variations of household endowments and labour-market behaviour show that an increase in transportation speed raised wages in both non-agricultural and agricultural employment, and was associated with a decline in working time in agricultural employment, for the households whose members are relatively educated. The findings support potential complementarity between road quality and education, implying that the government’s public investments in roads and education should be coordinated to capture cross-augmenting positive impacts in the long run. -
Publication
Long-Term Impacts of an Unanticipated Risk Event: The 2007/08 Food Price Crisis and Child Growth in Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-04)Unanticipated spikes in food prices can increase malnutrition among the poor, with lasting consequences; however, livelihood strategies that include producing food for home consumption are expected to offer a measure of protection. Using anthropometric and consumption data from Indonesia collected before and after the 2007/08 food price crisis, this paper finds evidence of both effects. Based on standardized height and weight measures, the results indicate that soaring food prices had a significant and negative impact on child growth among non-farming households. A corresponding effect was undetectable for food-producing households. The results remain robust when income effects from increased commercial sales and possible attritions through migration and fostering are considered. Further, local food price changes were uncorrelated with the share of non-farming village households and the initial average child nutrition status in the village, suggesting that the observed outcomes are directly attributable to market events and livelihood strategies. Interestingly, gender differences were not detected. The findings imply that the food price crises can have negative impacts on children, potentially leading to lifelong income inequality among those affected at a vulnerable stage of life. -
Publication
Long-term Impacts of Global Food Crisis on Production Decisions: Evidence from Farm Investments in Indonesia
(Taylor and Francis, 2016-05-12)This paper estimates farmers’ investment response to food price spikes using household panel data collected before and after the 2007/08 food price crisis in Indonesia. We found that an increase in farmers’ terms-of-trade allowed relatively large crop-producing farmers to increase their investments at both extensive and intensive margins. Food price spikes had a significant income effect among farmers whose production surplus is large for market sales. During the food price crisis, large farmers particularly increased machine investments, which saved some labour inputs, pointing to the importance of complementarities between land and machine investments.