Publication: Managing Risk to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Poverty
Loading...
Files in English
389 downloads
Date
2008
ISSN
Published
2008
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Uninsured risks remain extensive in agriculture and rural life--and unabated, they have substantial efficiency and welfare costs. They perpetuate rural poverty and are a continuing source of new poor. Indeed, they remain a major cause of under-investment and mis-investment in agriculture. While there is a wide range of highly innovative new approaches, these are largely untested. More experimentation and systematic evaluation of innovations such as risk-reducing technology, privately-provided market insurance and safety net programs remain a priority in using agriculture for development.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Alderman, Harold. 2008. Managing Risk to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Poverty. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9165 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Reducing the Incidence of Low Birth Weight in Low-Income Countries Has Substantial Economic Benefits(Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2006-01-12)Reducing the incidence of low birth weight not only lowers infant mortality rates but also has multiple benefits over the life cycle. This study estimates the economic benefits of reducing the incidence of low birth weight in low-income countries, both through lower mortality rates and medical costs and through increased learning and productivity. The estimated economic benefits, under plausible assumptions, are fairly substantial, at about $510 per infant moved from a low-birth-weight status. The estimated gains are primarily from increases in labor productivity (partially through more education) and secondarily from avoiding costs due to infant illness and death. Thus there may be many interventions to reduce the incidence of low birth weight that are warranted purely on the grounds of saving resources or increasing productivity.Publication Brazil : Trade Policies to Improve Efficiency, Increase Growth, and Reduce Poverty(Washington, DC, 2004-02-20)This comprehensive report-actually four compartmentalized reports in one-- focuses on policies to improve Brazil's trade performance. Specifically, three questions are addressed: What are the merits of alternative trade liberalization or integration options ? What domestic policies should be adopted to enhance Brazil's export response to trade openness? What policy options in the area of international services trade negotiations can improve access to foreign markets and enhance the value of overall trade reforms? In Part 1, Chapter 1examines regional, multilateral, and unilateral trade policies. Chapter 2 overviews export performance, surveys the overall policy environment facing potential and actual exporters, and identifies the main areas where policies could be improved to help enhance export performance. Lastly, Chapter 3 discusses how regional and multilateral negotiations can be used to support domestic reform and improve access to foreign markets. Part 2 provides quantitative estimates to answer questions about the efficacy of unilateral liberalization and multilateral trade agreements. After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 describes the model and data. Chapter 3 presents and explains the policy results for Brazil, the implications for the distribution of income, and the reallocation of output among sectors. Results for other countries in the model are also explained. The impact on partner and excluded countries of the regional arrangements are also evaluated and compared to the impact under multilateral trade liberalization. Chapter 4 examines how the various trade policy options may be combined to optimize the outcome for Brazil. The conclusions are in Chapter 5. In Part 3, Chapter 1 briefly discusses overall macroeconomic context and the arguments for fostering greater export growth. Chapter 2 provides an overview of export performance in recent years. This is followed in Chapter 3 by an examination of the government institutional environment for policy-making related to exports. Chapter 4--the main section in this part-discusses the policies affecting export behavior. An emphasis has been placed on the results of interviews conducted with exporting firms. The final section--Chapter 5--provides some suggestions and recommendations for policies. In Part 4, Chapter 1 provides a backdrop to this section. Chapter 2 describes the pattern of Brazil's trade in services, drawing upon balance of payments statistics and data on foreign direct investment inflows. Chapter 3 reviews Brazil's services trade and investment policy in services. Chapter 4 examines Brazil's export interests. Chapter 5 provides an economic analysis of the choice Brazil faces between regional and multilateral approaches to liberalization of trade in services. Chapter 6 offers a critical review of the rules of existing international agreements on trade in services that are most relevant to Brazil. Finally, Chapter 7 seeks to synthesize the insights emerging from Chapters 2-6.Publication Republic of Haiti - Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review (PEMFAR) : Improving Efficiency of the Fiscal System and Investing in Public Capital to Accelerate Growth and Reduce Poverty(Washington, DC, 2008-01)After the lost decade 1994-2004, marked by political instability and economic decline, Haiti has reformed significantly and revived growth, especially in the past three years. Macroeconomic policies implemented since mid-2004 helped restart economic growth, reestablish fiscal discipline, reduce inflation and increase international reserves. Financial sector stability has been maintained though weaknesses have emerged. Significant progress was also achieved in the implementation of economic governance measures, mainly in the area of legal framework, core public institutions and financial management processes and procedures. Notably, basic budget procedures were restored, the public procurement system strengthened, and anti-corruption efforts stepped up. Efforts were also made to improve efficiency and transparency in the management of public enterprises. These recent political and economic developments open a window of opportunity to break with Haiti's turbulent past and create the sound foundations for strong and sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. In such an environment, the development challenge of more dynamic growth in order to reduce poverty requires bold policy actions across a broad spectrum covering various areas of Government interventions to: (i) improve security; (ii) expand and improve the quality of the infrastructure base; (iii) expand the economic base and (iv) enhance human capital. But because of Haiti's scarce resources, prioritizing Government interventions is critical to ensure that public resources are allocated to their best uses. This calls for reforms to improve efficiency of public spending. However, public expenditure reforms would not be enough to decisively put Haiti on a strong and sustained growth path unless they are complemented by revenue-enhancing measures. This implies that the country design a comprehensive fiscal reform package. Major policy lesson from this experiment is that strong and sustainable growth depends on the scope and quality of the fiscal reforms. Fiscal reforms should target a broad-based fiscal package, which aims at expanding the fiscal space and improving efficiency in the allocation of public spending. This package would combine: (a) an increase in total public investment; (b) a reallocation of public spending to investment; (c) a crease in the effective indirect tax rate; (d) an increase in direct tax rate; (e) an increase in security spending; and (f) a reduction in collection costs. The Haiti macro-model shows that the fiscal package tends to have positive impact on growth and poverty over time. Foreign aid could play a catalytic role to foster fiscal reforms and help accelerate growth in the short and medium-term.Publication Reducing Child Malnutrition in Tanzania : Combined Effects of Income Growth and Program Interventions(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04)Malnutrition is associated with an inadequate diet, poor health and sanitation services, and insufficient care for young children. A combination of income growth and nutrition interventions are therefore suggested to adequately tackle this issue, yet evidence to support this claim is often not available, especially for African settings. The authors evaluate the joint contribution of income growth and nutrition interventions toward the reduction of malnutrition. Using a four-round panel data set from northwestern Tanzania they estimate the determinants of a child's nutritional status, including household income and the presence of nutrition interventions in the community. The results show that better nutrition is associated with higher income, and that nutrition interventions have a substantial beneficial effect. Policy simulations make clear that if one intends to halve malnutrition rates by 2015 (the Millennium Development Goals objective), income growth will have to be complemented by large-scale program interventions.Publication Reducing Child Malnutrition : How Far Does Income Growth Take Us?(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-01)How rapidly will child malnutrition respond to income growth? This article explores that question using household survey data from 12 countries as well as data on malnutrition rates in a cross-section of countries since the 1970s. Both forms of analysis yield similar results. Increases in income at the household and national levels imply similar rates of reduction in malnutrition. Using these estimates and better than historical income growth rates, the article finds that the millennium development goal of halving the prevalence of underweight children by 2015 is unlikely to be met through income growth alone. What is needed to accelerate reductions in malnutrition is a balanced strategy of income growth and investment in more direct interventions.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Market Study for Vietnam(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09-28)Vietnam's public and private sector stakeholders are increasingly active in addressing plastics waste. The Vietnam Government has set ambitious national plastics waste management goals to combat the economic and environmental consequences of mismanaged plastics waste nationally. This study uses a plastics value chain approach to evaluate Vietnam’s plastics recycling industry and its role in supporting a circular economy.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Assistive Technologies for Children with Disabilities in Inclusive and Special Schools in Indonesia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-25)This empirical study of the Indonesian context aims to rigorously examine availability and usage of AT for children with disabilities. It reviews key challenges and support needed in both inclusive and special schools, focusing on teachers in primary and secondary education in Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT). Key questions included: 1) What is the availability and use of AT for students with disabilities in schools in Indonesia? 2) In what ways can teachers, schools, and local and national stakeholders work together to promote equitable and quality learning through AT for children with disabilities? To answer these questions, this study employed a mixed method to enhance the validity and quality of evidence based analysis of AT for children with disabilities in Indonesia, including a national level teacher survey with over 2,000 teachers who participated voluntarily, focus group discussions with teachers, school principals and policy makers as well as an international review of practices on AT for children with disabilities to address the lack of previous studies in Indonesia.Publication An Overview of Agricultural Pollution in Vietnam(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017)Vietnamese agriculture has experienced remarkable growth over the past twenty years. Today, however, Vietnamese agriculture is edging toward the limits of a growth model rooted more in the intensification of production systems featuring heavy use of labor, chemicals, and natural resources than in efficiency or value addition gains. Agricultural growth is decelerating and Vietnam’s competitiveness as a provider of bulk, undifferentiated commodities is flagging as the agricultural sector faces rising competition for labor, land, and other resources. The environmental fallout from intensification has also begun to adversely impact productivity and the position of Vietnam’s commodities in international markets. If it is to fulfill its ambitions and remain a motor of economic development, Vietnam’s agriculture will need to start producing More from Less. In this regard, tackling agricultural pollution represents a key challenge for Vietnam. Pollution has started to take a toll on the sector’s own resource base, potentially impacting soil fertility and yields, the effectiveness of chemicals in combating pests and disease, farmer health and productivity, environmental health, and the safety of food. Growing evidence and public concern about pollution have led the Vietnamese government to adopt a new outlook and to take measures to address the problem. The research upon which this summary report is based represents the first attempt to assemble existing evidence on the nature and magnitude of agricultural pollution in Vietnam, looking across the livestock, aquaculture, and crops subsectors. It is also an attempt to shed light on the socioeconomic impacts and drivers of agricultural pollution, including the shortcomings of existing policies and programs to reign in the problem.