Publication: Does Urbanization Affect Rural Poverty? Evidence from Indian Districts
Loading...
Files in English
4,867 downloads
Published
2013-06
ISSN
Date
2014-12-30
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Although a high rate of urbanization and a high incidence of rural poverty are two distinct features of many developing countries, there is little knowledge of the effects of the former on the latter. Using a large sample of Indian districts from the 1983–1999 period, we find that urbanization has a substantial and systematic poverty-reducing effect in the surrounding rural areas. The results obtained through an instrumental variable estimation suggest that this effect is causal in nature and is largely attributable to the positive spillovers of urbanization on the rural economy rather than to the movement of the rural poor to urban areas. This rural poverty-reducing effect of urbanization is primarily explained by increased demand for local agricultural products and, to a lesser extent, by urban-rural remittances, the rural land/ population ratio, and rural nonfarm employment.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Cali, Massimiliano; Menon, Carlo. 2013. Does Urbanization Affect Rural Poverty? Evidence from Indian Districts. World Bank Economic Review. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21003 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
No results found.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Liberia : Strategic Policy Options for Medium Term Growth and Development(Washington, DC, 2012-03-15)This paper explores Liberia's policy options in support of the development of a Medium-Term Growth and Development Strategy (MTGDS) for 2013-2017 and its national vision, Liberia Rising 2030. At issue is the mismatch between available fiscal space and the enormous development needs that the government must resolve as it prepares to transform the economy into a middle-income country by 2040. This dilemma calls for the new administration to make trade-offs among various priorities if it is to achieve its aspirations. For this purpose, a Liberian version of a single-country Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, MAMS (Maquette for Millennium Development Goal, or MDG simulations), was developed and informed by analytical studies as well as sector strategies prepared in support of Liberia's MTGDS. This paper examines the likely impacts on macroeconomic and social indicators of alternate strategic policy scenarios. A base scenario (designed to represent a central case for the evolution of Liberia's economy up to 2030) was first established, and thereafter a set of different assumptions were introduced for the mining sector, government spending on infrastructure and human development, and foreign borrowing. The paper is organized into five sections including this introduction. Section two presents the basic features of MAMS. The simulation analysis, which is the focus of the paper, is covered in the next two sections: the base scenario in section three and a set of alternative scenarios, which are contrasted with the base scenario, in section four. The final section summarizes the main findings and conclusion. Appendices one and two include a set of figures with selected simulation results and a brief discussion of the Liberian database for MAMS, respectively.Publication EdTech in Developing Countries(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2021-08-02)The emergence of educational technology (“EdTech”) in developing countries has been received as a promising avenue to address some of the most challenging policy questions within educational systems. In this paper, I review and synthesize all existing studies with credible causal identification frameworks of EdTech interventions in developing countries. While other studies review the evidence for EdTech interventions in developed countries, there is currently no equivalent study for developing contexts, in spite of the rising number of studies being produced. I classify studies into four thematic categories based on the type of EdTech intervention analyzed: Access to technology; technology-enabled behavioral interventions; improvements to instruction; and self-led learning. I find that EdTech interventions centered around self-led learning and improvements to instruction are the most effective forms of EdTech at raising learning outcomes. Similarly, technology-enabled behavioral interventions are less promising for generating large effects but highly cost-effective given their typically low marginal costs. Although expanding access to technology alone is not sufficient to improve learning, it is a necessary first step for some other types of interventions. More broadly, the overall success of interventions rests on the thoughtful customization of the EdTech solution to the policy constraints at hand. Finally, EdTech interventions across all thematic areas can and should act as complements by leveraging their respective comparative advantages to address deficiencies within educational systems in developing countries.Publication The Calm Before the Storm(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-02-25)The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought forward an unprecedented economic contraction. Recessions, in turn, have typically been accompanied by an increase in the number of firms using the insolvency system. This note explores the early impact the pandemic has had on business insolvency filings, based on information from a newly created dataset. Contrary to early expectations, most economies surveyed have experienced a decline in the number of business insolvencies relative to Q2 and Q3 of 2019. shows that legal reasons may have played a key role in this decline as almost all economies covered introduced emergency measures making it more difficult to push a debtor into insolvency. Looking forward, the note explores evidence from previous crisis together with underlying factors -such as lower sales, higher unemployment, firm liquidity challenges, and heightened corporate vulnerabilities- to investigate whether the risk of a wave of insolvencies has disappeared. The analysis suggests that a rise in insolvency filings is likely to have just been postponed, renewing the calls to strengthen insolvency frameworks in EMDEs.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Review of Community-Managed Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems in Indonesia(World Bank, Washington, Dc, 2013-06)Effective management of sanitation and wastewater is a growing challenge in dense urban settlements. Rapidly increasing urbanization and, along with that, rising settlement densities in low-income urban and peri-urban areas highlight the need for sanitation technologies and management systems that are robust and affordable, and which lessen the pollution load on local water sources. In many developing countries, centralized sewerage and wastewater treatment systems cover only a portion of larger urban areas, and are often not yet planned for smaller towns and densely populated, low-income areas of cities. On-site sanitation is often inappropriate in the denser settlements and slum areas, thus requiring intermediate and complementary solutions. Decentralized wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) connected to simplified sewer systems or communal sanitation centers have the potential to close the gap between on-site and centralized systems. Community-managed DEWATS offer the possibility of swift sanitation improvements in high priority neighborhoods that communities can manage themselves, where local government does not yet provide a full sanitation service. This review explores Indonesia's experience in implementing community-managed DEWATS on a growing scale, and more specifically, whether community-managed DEWATS are a viable urban sanitation option for serving poor households in dense settlements.