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Development Effects of Electrification: Evidence from the Geologic
- Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil. CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP8427
, 2011
"... Expansions of electricity grids reflect both cost considerations (where is it cheapest to generate electricity?) and demand-side concerns (where are firms and people located, and where is demand for power likely to grow most?). Demand evolves simultaneously with power generation, and complicates eff ..."
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Expansions of electricity grids reflect both cost considerations (where is it cheapest to generate electricity?) and demand-side concerns (where are firms and people located, and where is demand for power likely to grow most?). Demand evolves simultaneously with power generation, and complicates efforts to estimate the effects of electrification. This paper attempts to isolate the portion of the variation in grid expansions in Brazil that is attributable to “exogenous ” engineering cost considerations to estimate the development effects of electrification between 1950 and 2000. Brazil relies almost exclusively on hydropower, and hydro-power generation requires intercepting water at high velocity. A portion of the spatial variation in the expansion of the electricity grid in Brazil during this period is therefore driven by river gradients suitable for hydro-power generation. We predict hydropower plant placement based on geologic characteristics (river gradient and water flow) of locations throughout Brazil and then develop a cost-minimizing “engineering model ” to predict the expansions of transmission lines from each of those predicted hypothetical stations every decade. The model generates maps of hypothetical electricity grids for Brazil in each decade which show what the grid would have looked like had infrastructure investments been made based solely on geologic
Poverty and the Environment: Investment Poverty and the Role of Assets in Generating Welfare for Farmer Households in the Province of Herrera, Panama.
"... farmers have been blamed for environmental degradation in developing countries. Struggling to survive, they have been claimed to overexploit their natural resource base; but empirical testing has provided confusing evidence. To clarify the discourse, Thomas Reardon and Steven Vosti proposed the conc ..."
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farmers have been blamed for environmental degradation in developing countries. Struggling to survive, they have been claimed to overexploit their natural resource base; but empirical testing has provided confusing evidence. To clarify the discourse, Thomas Reardon and Steven Vosti proposed the concept of investment poverty. It identifies the potentially large group of households that are not poor by traditional welfare poverty measures, but that are too poor in that their surplus above the welfare poverty line is too small to allow them to make investments for the conservation of their natural resource base. They also emphasize the role of assets in generating welfare for rural households, thus affecting production and investment decisions. This research pursues two questions: How can investment poverty be conceptualised and measured? And, which are the welfare-enhancing effects of household assets?
Spatial poverty traps
, 2010
"... Results of ODI research presented in preliminary form for discussion and critical comment ..."
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Results of ODI research presented in preliminary form for discussion and critical comment
Human Development Network Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network
"... The increase in food prices represents a major crisis for the world’s poor. This paper aims to review the evidence on the potential impact of higher food prices on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the extent to which policy responses will benefit the poor. The paper shows that rising food ..."
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The increase in food prices represents a major crisis for the world’s poor. This paper aims to review the evidence on the potential impact of higher food prices on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the extent to which policy responses will benefit the poor. The paper shows that rising food prices are likely to lead to higher poverty in sub-Saharan Africa as the negative impact on net poor consumers outweighs the benefits to poor producers. A recent survey shows that the most common policy response in sub-Saharan African countries is reducing taxes on food while outside the region price controls or targeted consumer subsidies are the most popular measure. Sub-Saharan African countries also have a higher prevalence of food-based safety net programs
1 Corresponding authorUnpacking the Meaning of “Market Access”
, 2011
"... Improving farmers ’ access to markets is widely recognized as a major development challenge. A review of the literature suggests that indicators of market access may bear little relationship to the specific processes of interest and hence provide misguided evidence of the impacts of improved market ..."
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Improving farmers ’ access to markets is widely recognized as a major development challenge. A review of the literature suggests that indicators of market access may bear little relationship to the specific processes of interest and hence provide misguided evidence of the impacts of improved market access. This paper attempts to “unpack ” the dimensions of market access and, in the process, uses farm survey data from Kenya to investigate changes in multiple indicators during the post‐liberalization period. Findings show that market access conditions experienced by rural Kenyans exhibit considerable variation across time, space, and indicator type. We suggest ways in which structured hypothesizing and sensitivity analysis may strengthen empirical treatments of market access issues in applied research.
Internet: www.worldbank.org
"... A copublication of the Agence Française de Développement and the World BankThis booklet contains the Overview as well as a list of contents from the forthcoming book ..."
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A copublication of the Agence Française de Développement and the World BankThis booklet contains the Overview as well as a list of contents from the forthcoming book
Determinants of Time Allocation to Rural Non-Farm Activities in Central America: The Role of Infrastructure and Education
"... We estimate a bivariate Tobit model to find the main determinants of time allocation to rural nonfarm employment (RNFE) among rural households in four Central American countries: El ..."
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We estimate a bivariate Tobit model to find the main determinants of time allocation to rural nonfarm employment (RNFE) among rural households in four Central American countries: El