http://repub.eur.nl/res/col/9741/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39064/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Despite its widely recognized importance, electricity is not yet available everywhere, and there are many areas of the globe which still depend on alternative sources of energy such as wood, charcoal and kerosene. In contrast, the USA was the first country to be fully electrified. This article explores the current challenges faced by developing countries, presents the historical evidence from the USA and compares these experiences discussing the policy relevance of the comparison. Far from being a smooth process, the electrification process in the USA was a long and complex transition. The article analyses the challenges and policy responses that characterized the US electrification process. One of the outstanding features of these policies is that they are quite comprehensive and include subsidies and credit schemes, house ownership policies, mass media campaigns, the provision of adequate repair service and the direct involvement of women. Tasciotti, L. Pellegrini, L. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39172/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z The rational choice approach has put forward two competing hypotheses that explain civil war in developing countries: greed and grievance; see Murshed (2010, ch. 3) for a survey where it is suggested that although these may be necessary conditions for the outbreak of large- scale violence, they are not, however, suffi cient. There must be other factors at work, related to the institutional failure to resolve confl ict peacefully. Addison and Murshed (2006) label these mechanisms as the ‘social contract’. Thus, even when capturable resource rents constitute a sizeable prize (greed), violent confl ict is unlikely to take hold in states with a framework of widely agreed rules, formal and informal, that govern resource allocation and the peaceful settlement of grievances. Such a viable social contract can be suffi cient to restrain confl ict, and following its collapse on the road to war, reconstructing a new social contract is key to long- term confl ict resolution. Murshed, S.M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38561/ 2012-11-10T00:00:00Z This response to “Declining Child Sex Ratio and Sex Selection in India: A Demographic Epiphany”? (EPW, 18 August 2012) argues that contrary to the assertion in that article, state and non-governmental organisation interventions seem to have played an important role in reversing the decline in the 0-6 sex ratio in Tamil Nadu. Srinivasan, S. Bedi, A.S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39067/ 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z A well-known feature of demographic trends in several East and South Asian countries is the continuing decline in the proportion of females to males, which is evocatively captured in the phrase ‘missing’ women as coined by Sen (1990).1 In contrast to the female-male population ratio in Europe and the United States which is about one, and the sex ratio at birth which typically lies between 944 and 962 females per 1000 males, unusually low female-male population and sex ratios at birth have been recorded in Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and South Korea (United Nations 2004). Bedi, A.S. Srinivasan, S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37225/ 2012-09-04T00:00:00Z This article explores the determinants of road traffic crash fatalities in India. In addition to income, the analysis considers the sociodemographic population structure, motorization levels, road and health infrastructure and road rule enforcement as potential factors. An original panel data set covering 25 Indian states is analyzed using multivariate regression analysis. Time and state fixed-effects account for unobserved heterogeneity across states and time. The rising motorization, urbanization and accompanying increase in the share of vulnerable road users, that is, pedestrians and two-wheelers, are the major drivers of road traffic crash fatalities in India. Among vulnerable road users, women form a particularly high-risk group. Higher expenditure per police officer is associated with a lower fatality rate. The results suggest that India should focus, in particular, on road infrastructure investments that allow the separation of vulnerable from other road users on improved road rule enforcement and should pay special attention to vulnerable female road users. Grimm, M. Treibich, C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32423/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z The informal sector is typically characterized as being very heterogeneous and possibly composed of two clearly distinct segments, sometimes called the lower and upper tiers. However, empirical evidence shows that even among lower tier entrepreneurs profitability can be quite high. We combine these findings and develop an innovative approach to identify what we call " constrained gazelles" , next to the well-known survivalists in the lower tier and growth-oriented top-performers in the upper tier. Our sample of informal entrepreneurs in seven West-African countries allows to link the relative size of these three groups to the structural and macroeconomic environment in these countries. Grimm, M. Knorringa, P. Lay, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38741/ 2012-03-01T00:00:00Z This article explores the consequences of financial liberalization policy on the banking sector in Bangladesh. Following a motivating portfolio selection theor-etical model on the impact of liberalization, it applies time series techniques with annual banking sector data for the period 1981-2008. The study suggests that the main objective of financial liberalization to promote domestic private savings by raising real interest rates has not worked. No significant positive correlation is observed between domestic private savings and the real deposit interest rate. Murshed, S.M. Robin, I.A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34753/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z The food crisis encountered in 2002 in Malawi was arguably one of the worst in the recent history of the country. The World Food Programme estimated that between 2.1 and 3.2 million people were threatened by starvation. Despite this assumed severity, not much research on the actual consequences of the crisis has been carried out so far. In order to fill this gap, this paper aims to identify the effects of the 2002 food crisis on the health status of the very young children exposed to it. Given the lack of longitudinal data and data collected during the crisis, assessing the potential impact of the 2002 events and the emergency aid that followed is challenging. We rely on representative data collected before and after the crisis and various methods from the impact evaluation literature to create a counterfactual in order to assess the implications of the crisis. Our analysis indicates that the net impact of the crisis was surprisingly low. Under-five excess mortality must have been below the 10,000 crisis-induced deaths suggested by some NGOs.Moreover, we also do not find any general and lasting loss in weight or height of children below the age of five. Nevertheless, if we disaggregate our sample population further by age and gender, we do find some nutritional impacts, both positive and negative. The positive effects identified seem to be the result of the combined influence of selective mortality and effective aid and policy interventions responding to the crisis. Hartwig, R. Grimm, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34778/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Joan Martinez-Alier has been Professor of Economic History and Institutions at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona since 1975. He was Director of the Doctoral Programme in Environmental Sciences at ICTA-UAB between 1997 and 2009, where he helped to create a strong international group on ecological economics and political ecology. He studied economics as an undergraduate at the Universitat de Barcelona and agricultural economics as a graduate student at the University of Oxford. He received his PhD from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. During his career, he has been Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and has held visiting positions at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Sao Paulo), Freie Universit¨at Berlin, Stanford University, the University of California (Davis), FLACSO (Ecuador) and Yale University. He was a founding member, member of the board and president of the International Society for Ecological Economics. Professor Martinez-Alier is member of the editorial board of Ecological Economics, Environmental Values, Journal of Agrarian Change and Journal of Peasant Studies. He is the author of numerous renowned books and articles (see the selected list below) that have contributed to illuminating the relationship between economic systems, resources (materials and energy) and social issues. A foundational contributor to the development of ecological economics, he has also engaged with social movements at the local and international scale. Pellegrini, L. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34820/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract. An equitable distribution of health care use, distributed according to people’s needs instead of ability to pay, is an important goal featuring on many health policy agendas worldwide. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which this principle is violated across socio-economic groups in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). We examine cross-country comparative micro-data from eighteen SSA countries and find that (a) considerable inequalities in health care use exist and vary across countries, but that (b) identifying the extent to which these inequalities are unfair, i.e. do not correspond to inequalities in need, is not straightforward to ascertain with the conventional tools. These tools include rank-based measures such as the concentration index and the index of inequity. The two main concerns when using conventional tools to measure equity are (i) the reporting heterogeneity in self-reported health variables across socio-economic groups and (ii) the weak relationship between need and use. We show that the use of subjective self-reports of health leads to much lower measured degrees of socio-economic inequalities than those obtained using more objective indicators. This leads to an underestimation of the degree of inequity when using self-reported health measures. The observed weak relationship between indicators of ill-health and use of health care does not appear to provide an estimate of the adequate response to needs, which further puts a downward bias on equity measures. In all countries, apart from the more developed Mauritius, health care use is distributed according to wealth rather than to need. A better match of needs and use is realized in those countries with better governance and more physicians but, perhaps surprisingly, not those with greater urbanization. Given the importance of equity in many health policies worldwide, it is vital to develop more robust equity measures relevant to low income settings. Bonfrer, I.E.J. None Van de Poel, E. Grimm, M. Doorslaer, E.K.A. van http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38423/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z We investigate the returns to capital and capital accumulation using panel data of Peruvian micro enterprises (MEs). Marginal returns to capital are found to be very high at low levels of capital, but rapidly decreasing at higher levels. The dynamic analyses of capital accumulation in MEs suggest that credit constraints explain a major part of the variation in firm growth. We find a very large positive effect of household non-business wealth on capital stocks of MEs. We also show a sizable effect of risk on accumulation and pronounced interactions between wealth and risk. The presented evidence is consistent with poorly endowed entrepreneurs who operate in imperfect capital markets and a very risky environment. Grimm, M. Göbel, K. Lay, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38426/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Newman, S.A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38557/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract Bolivia is part of the left-turn that Latin America has seen since the end of the 1990s. The country was traditionally ruled by a conservative establishment and political instability characterized a decade of conflicts that culminated in the ascendency of the Movement towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) and, in 2006, of the first indigenous president -Evo Morales. The election of Morales and the subsequent changes to the Bolivian state have been praised by some scholars as revolutionary, while others have argued that these changes essentially consist of a continuation and re-constitution of neo-liberal regimes. This paper highlights the changes in compensation and redistribution policies that have accompanied the nationalization of hydrocarbons and the institutionalization of consultation processes for indigenous peoples affected by hydrocarbons activities. In this context, we analyse an oil exploration project that took place in the north of the La Paz Department. In particular, focus is on how the compensation and consultation frameworks debilitated opposition to the project. We conclude that the government's priorities are intertwined with the continuation of the extractive economic model. In these circumstances questioning extractive projects is not an option. Pellegrini, L. Ribera Arismendi, M.O. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38560/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract. Inspired by Narayana (2008), published in this journal, this comment revisits the conclusion of a policy-driven decline in daughter elimination in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu using recently released data from Census 2011. Consistent with Narayana's work we find evidence to support the conclusion that government and NGO interventions have played a role in reducing gender differences in survival. Srinivasan, S. Bedi, A.S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39061/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in developing countries are typically considered to be severely credit constrained. Additionally, high business risks may partly explain why the capital stocks of MSEs remain low. This article analyzes the determinants of the capital stocks of MSEs in poor economies focusing on credit constraints and risk. The analysis is based on a unique, albeit cross‐sectional but backward‐looking, micro data set on MSEs covering the economic capitals of seven West‐African countries. The main result is that capital market imperfections indeed seem to explain an important part of the variation in capital stocks in the early lifetime of MSEs. Furthermore, the analyses show that risk plays a key role in capital accumulation. Risk‐averse individuals seem to adjust their initially low capital stocks upwards when enterprises grow older. MSEs in risky activities owned by wealthy individuals even seem to over‐invest when they start their business and subsequently adjust capital stocks downwards. As other firms simultaneously suffer from capital shortages, such behaviour may imply large inefficiencies. Grimm, M. Lange, S. Lay, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39062/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Building on the literature on multidimensional poverty, we propose stochastic dominance tests for multiperiod poverty that allow poverty orderings to be established over time and space that are robust to the chosen poverty measure, poverty line, and aggregation procedure. These tests imply the creation of dominance surfaces for different time spans and testing for significant differences. We elaborate the method first for the bi-dimensional case, using as the dimensions income observed over two periods: One at the beginning and another at the end of a time span. Subsequently, we extend it to the case, where incomes are observed over n periods. We illustrate our approach by performing poverty comparisons by using data for Indonesia and Peru. The discussion is embedded in the literature on chronic poverty. Gräb, J. Grimm, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39393/ 2011-11-01T00:00:00Z The liberal peace emphasizes the importance of commercial ties and shared norms—of which shared democratic institutions have received most attention—for peaceful interstate relations. Ever since the creation of India and Pakistan in 1947, political relations between the two states have been tense and witnessed six military confrontations. The enduring rivalry has undoubtedly limited contacts between the two countries. The political elites have only intermittently supported direct diplomatic engagement, and there are severe restrictions on trade and travel between ordinary citizens. Further, India is generally seen as a succesful democracy in a developing country, while for large parts of its history Pakistan has been an autocracy. India-Pakistan can therefore be considered as a worst-case scenario for the liberal peace with continued high levels of hostility likely. It is noteworthy, however, that over the same period India and Pakistan have become increasingly involved with the world community. We provide evidence suggesting that these indirect links can be seen to have functioned as (partial) substitutes for direct ties. Further, we analyze the relevance of indirect ties for diplomatic efforts to address three conflict issues: the Kashmir conflict, the Indus water basin and the nuclear programmes. Murshed, S.M. Dorussen, H. Ward, H. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32961/ 2011-10-01T00:00:00Z In this paper, we focus on participation in the main planning documents produced in Bolivia in the first decade of the 2000s: the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the National Development Plan (PND). We analyze how these planning instruments have been able to capture popular participation through diverse mechanisms and how these practices fit in the current mainstream participation discourse. Special attention is paid to natural resources because of the predominant role they have in the Bolivian economy and because of their substantial contribution to the state budget. The Bolivian experience shows an apparent paradox: while the process leading to the PRSP followed participatory guidelines and the PND did not, the resulting PRSP failed to include the most pressing demands of social movements, while the PND succeeded in including them. This case shows how the articulation of political processes escapes simplistic characterizations and the application of ‘out of the textbook’ participation might result in highly exclusionary outcomes. It also shows that the voice of social movements can take unexpected paths and have a profound influence on political events that go well beyond the possibility of standardized participatory processes. Pellegrini, L. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32964/ 2011-09-10T00:00:00Z Even an idealist philosopher like Immanuel Kant (1795) considered war to be the natural state of man. In that respect, he shared the perspective of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1651). According to Hobbes, the state of nature was characterised by anarchy akin to perpetual war ; each man taking what he could with no basis for right or wrong. Life was: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. Consequently, it was in the interest of individuals to surrender their individual freedom of action to an absolute ruler in return for personal security and rule based interactions in society. Kant was concerned more with preventing war between nations. That would require the simultaneous adoption of a republican constitution by all nations, which inter alia would check the war-like tendencies of both monarchs and the citizenry; the cosmopolitanism that would emerge among the comity of nations would preclude war, implying a confederation amongst such nation states (foedus pacificum). Kant’s notion of cosmopolitanism is also applicable within nation states. Both thinkers were concerned with mechanisms that would engender peace. In other words, peace has to be achieved through deliberate design; this is what Galtung (1964) described as the negative peace (the absence of war). Murshed, S.M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32703/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z This article examines the impact of Argentina's Plan Jefes, an unemployment assistance program, on the probability of transiting to employment between the period May 2002 and May 2003. While the program does seem to have had positive effects and the existing work highlights the role of the Plan in terms of providing a safety net, this article complements the literature by focusing on the effect of the Plan on influencing the probability of finding a job in the wider labor market. While Argentina has a variety of passive and active labor market interventions to protect unemployed workers, at the moment, the two main programs are a passive unemployment insurance (UI) program and Plan Jefes, an unemployment assistance (UA) program. The UI system was introduced in 1991 and provides monthly income support to unemployed workers previously engaged in the formal sector. Iturriza, A. Bedi, A.S. Sparrow, R.A.