Suchergebnisse

This article presents causal evidence on the impact of fertility on women's subjective well-being using quasi-experimental variation due to preferences for a mixed sibling sex composition (having at least one child of each sex). Based on a large sample of women from 35 developing countries, I find that having children increases mothers' life satisfaction and happiness. I further establish that the positive impact of fertility on subjective well-being can be explained by related increases in mothers' satisfaction with family life, friendship, and treatment by others.

ABSTRACTDrawing on several rounds of nationally representative household survey data for Indonesia, this article shows that poverty rates among the elderly are substantially higher than those of the rest of the population. Using sensitivity checks on adult equivalence scales and economies of scale, the author demonstrates that the gap in poverty rates between the elderly and non‐elderly population would increase even further if moderate changes to the per‐consumption expenditure assumption were made. Additional panel data evidence reveals that about one‐third of the elderly population is currently vulnerable to poverty. While the findings do not show gender differences in old‐age poverty rates, they do highlight important differences in living arrangements across gender, with the majority of elderly women being widows while the majority of men are still married at all ages.

Old age poverty is to become one of the most pressing issues in the coming decades given the demo-graphic trends forecasted. This paper investigates the main instrument to fight old age poverty: Social, non-contributory pension systems. A new comprehensive data set on 172 countries over the 2001-2013 period on the provision of social pension across the world allows us to investigate recent trends in social pension implementation and test internal and external political economy drivers of the process. By using a first order Markov transition model to account for the state dependence inherent in public pension provision, we find that demand factors such as demographic trends drives the decision to reform internally. External actors can support the continuance of social pension especially in developing countries. Thus, international influence seems to be effective in enhancing the instruments to fight old-age poverty.

Comparing DHS data from 235 regions in 29 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, we find that the combination of low levels of malnutrition together with dramatically high rates of mortality, encountered in Kenya's Lake Victoria territory, is unique for Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper explores the causes of this phenomenon in the Kenyan context. Our identification strategy consists of two parts. First of all, we apply multilevel regression models to control simultaneously for family and community clustering of the observed malnutrition and mortality outcomes. Secondly, to address unobserved but correlated factors, we exploit information from GIS and malaria databases to construct variables that capture additional components of children's geographic, political and cultural environment. Our analysis reveals that beneficial agricultural conditions and feeding practices lead to the observed sound anthropometric outcomes around Lake Victoria. In contrast, high mortality rates rest upon an adverse disease environment (malaria prevalence, water pollution, HIV rates) and a policy neglect (underprovision of health care services). Even after controlling for these factors, a significant effect of the local ethnic group, the Luo, on mortality remains.

Exploiting DHS data from 235 regions in 29 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, we find that the combination of low levels of malnutrition together with dramatically high rates of mortality, encountered in Kenya's Lake Victoria territory, is unique for Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper explores the causes of this paradox for the Kenyan context. Our identification strategy consists of two parts. First of all, we apply multilevel regression models to control simultaneously for family and community clustering of the observed malnutrition and mortality outcomes. Secondly, to address unobserved but correlated factors, we exploit information from GIS and malaria databases to construct variables that capture additional components of children's geographic, political and cultural environment. Our analysis reveals that beneficial agricultural conditions and feeding practices lead to the observed sound anthropometric outcomes around Lake Victoria. In contrast, high mortality rates rest upon an adverse disease environment (malaria prevalence, water pollution, HIV rates) and a policy neglect (underprovision of health care services). Nonetheless, a significant effect of the local ethnic group, the Luo, on mortality remains.

Exploiting DHS data from 235 regions in 29 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, we find that the combination of low levels of malnutrition together with dramatically high rates of mortality, encountered in Kenya's Lake Victoria territory, is unique for Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper explores the causes of this paradox for the Kenyan context. Our identification strategy consists of two parts. First of all, we apply multilevel regression models to control simultaneously for family and community clustering of the observed malnutrition and mortality outcomes. Secondly, to address unobserved but correlated factors, we exploit information from GIS and malaria databases to construct variables that capture additional components of children's geographic, political and cultural environment. Our analysis reveals that beneficial agricultural conditions and feeding practices lead to the observed sound anthropometric outcomes around Lake Victoria. In contrast, high mortality rates rest upon an adverse disease environment (malaria prevalence, water pollution, HIV rates) and a policy neglect (underprovision of health care services). Nonetheless, a significant effect of the local ethnic group, the Luo, on mortality remains.

Abstract
We investigate whether experiencing a disability incidence in the household affects economic risk preferences in Vietnam leveraging: (i) ten years of individual-level panel data and (ii) data from a lab-in-the-field experiment. We find that individuals who experience a disability event in the household behave in a more risk-averse manner than individuals without such an experience. Examining potential underlying mechanisms, we demonstrate that a household disability shock leads to lower wealth, which in turn is related to higher levels of risk aversion. Furthermore, we provide evidence that cognitive mechanisms – fearful emotions and the updating of beliefs (becoming more pessimistic about the future) – are another, perhaps even more important channel through which disability shocks affect risk preferences.

Teacher evaluations are conducted to inform employment decisions and teacher professional development with the ultimate goal to create beneficial student learning environments. The effectiveness and feasibility of teacher evaluations, particularly in high-stakes contexts (hiring, firing, promotion, pay-for-performance schemes), crucially depends on the support these evaluations receive from the various education stakeholders involved. While many governments around the world, including the Government of Indonesia, are interested in reforming and expanding their current teacher evaluation systems, often little is known about how principals, teachers, parents, and students perceive these evaluations. This paper uses data from a recent large-scale opinion survey in Indonesia to examine and provide rare insights into the attitudes of key education stakeholders towards teacher performance evaluations. Four key insights are identified. First, many principals and teachers agree with existing evaluation schemes employed in Indonesia, such as the teacher competence test (ujian kompetensi guru (UKG)) and the teacher performance evaluation (penilaian kinerja guru (PKG)) and are also open to reforms and the introduction of new schemes. Second, pay-for-performance schemes are generally popular among principals and teachers, and preferred over seniority-linked pay systems. Third, teachers in urban areas are more favorable towards pay-for-performance schemes than teachers in semi-urban areas. Finally, all stakeholders generally support the concept of principals, teachers, and parents fulfilling performance evaluator roles.