Suchergebnisse

This paper provides evidence of effectiveness for performance pay among government caregivers to improve child health in India. In a controlled study of 160 daycare centers serving over 4,000 children, we randomly assign individual workers to receive either fixed bonuses or incentive payments based on the weight‐for‐age nutritional status of children in their care, and also collect data from a control group receiving only their standard salary. Mothers of children in all three study arms receive nutrition information. We find that performance pay reduces the prevalence of underweight by about 5 percentage points over 3 months, and height improves by about one centimeter. Impacts are sustained in the medium term when incentives are renewed but fade when they are discontinued. Fixed bonuses lead to smaller effects. Both treatments appear to improve worker effort and communication with mothers, who in turn feed a more calorific diet to their children at home.

"This paper describes how governments and philanthropic donors could drive innovation through a new kind of technology contest. We begin by reviewing the history of technology prizes, which operate alongside private intellectual property rights and public R&D to accelerate and guide productivity growth towards otherwise-neglected social goals. Proportional "prize rewards" would modify the traditional winner-take-all approach, by dividing available funds among multiple winners in proportion to measured achievement. This approach would provide a royalty-like payment for incremental success. The paper provides concludes with a specific example for how such prizes could be implemented to reward and help scale up successful innovations in African agriculture, through payments to innovators in proportion to the value created by their technologies after adoption. " --from authors' abstract ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Subtheme 9.2; GRP31 ; ISNAR

This chapter begins with a brief summary of economic growth and structural changes in the region since the 1950s and of agricultural and other economic policy developments as they affected the farm sector at the time of and in various stages after independence from colonial powers. The chapter then summarizes estimates of the nominal rate of assistance (NRA) and the relative rate of assistance (RRA) to farmers delivered by national farm and nonfarm policies over the past several decades, as well as the impact of these policies on the consumer prices of farm products, using the project's methodology (Anderson et al. 2008). The final sections point to what the author have learned and draw out implications of the findings, including for poverty and inequality and for possible future directions of policies affecting agricultural incentives in Africa.

This research uses field-level data from Burkina Faso to ask what determines farmers' investment in two well-known soil and water conservation techniques: field bunds (barriers to soil and water runoff), and microcatchments (small holes in which seeds and fertilizers are placed). Survey data for 1993 and 1994 are used to estimate Tobit functions, compute elasticities of adoption and intensity of use, perform robustness tests and estimate alternative models. Controlling for land and labor abundance and other factors we find that those who have more ownership rights over farmland, and who do more controlled feeding of livestock, tend to invest more in both technologies. The result suggests that responding to land scarcity with clearer property rights over cropland and pasture could help promote investment in soil conservation, and raise the productivity of factors applied to land.

Intro -- Preface -- You Know More Than You Think, but This Book Offers Surprising New Insights -- Acknowledgments -- Praise for food economics -- This Book in Verse -- Why Are Kiwis So Cheap? -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 From Farming to Eating, Research and Teaching -- 1.1.1 Using Food Economics, for Professional Life and as Consumers and Citizens -- 1.1.2 The Origins of This Book -- 1.1.3 Supplementary Materials -- 1.2 Why Study Food Through Economics, and Economics Through Food? -- 1.2.1 Learning Objectives of the Book -- 1.2.2 Why Study Food Through Economics, and Economics Through Food? -- Why Use Economics to Study Food? -- Why Use Food to Understand Economics? -- Economics as a Science -- Economics as a Social Science -- How Economics Differs from Other Social Sciences -- What Economics Is Not -- Questions About Food and Nutrition that Economics Can Answer -- Economic Thinking as a Useful Skill for Any Profession -- 1.2.3 Intended Audiences for This Book -- The Models Used in This Book -- Two-Dimensional Diagrams Show a System of Simultaneous Equations -- How to Learn These Models -- On the Philosophies of Modeling -- Ways of Knowing in This Book -- 1.3 Understanding Charts of Economic Data -- 2 Individual Choices: Explaining Food Consumption and Production -- 2.1 Consumer Choices: Food Preferences and Dietary Intake -- 2.1.1 Motivation and Guiding Questions -- 2.1.2 Analytical Tools -- A Model of Consumer Choices -- Notation and Specification of Variables on Each Axis -- Indifference Curves for Consumption of Each Good -- 2.1.3 Conclusion -- 2.2 Producer Choices: Agriculture and Food Manufacturing -- 2.2.1 Motivation and Guiding Questions -- 2.2.2 Analytical Tools -- The Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF) -- The Input Response Curve (IRC) -- The Isoquant or Input Substitution Curve (ISC).

Food Economics provides a unified introduction to the economics of agricultural production, business decisions, consumer behavior, and the government policies that shape our food system. This open access textbook begins with economic principles derived using graphical techniques to explain and predict observed prices, quantities, and other outcomes as a result of individual choices influenced by market structure and public policies. The second half of the book explores available data globally and for the US, covering a wide range of questions in agriculture and economic development, food marketing, and consumption. Food Economics and its accompanying online resources are designed for advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate courses in agriculture, food, and nutrition policy. The book covers the standard diagrams taught in principles-level courses, with concrete examples and practical insights regarding food production, consumption, and trade. Online resources include data sources, and course materials, including slides, exercises, exams, and answer keys.