Suchergebnisse

Natural disasters can be extremely disruptive to farmers and to others whose incomes depend on a successful crop. Society can gain from more efficient sharing of crop and natural disaster risks. However, the costs associated with traditional agricultural risk programs have historically exceeded the gains from improved risk sharing. This paper explores government intervention in agricultural risk markets and discusses new approaches to risk sharing with limited government involvement. In particular, we build the case for introducing negotiable state-contingent contracts settled on area crop yield estimates or locally appropriate weather indices. These instruments could replace traditional crop insurance at a lower cost to government while meeting the risk management needs of a wider clientele. ; IFPRI3 ; EPTD ; Non-PR

This paper analyses government instruments in terms of reducing market inequality. Government redistribution, realized through public spending and taxation, could be considered as a key element in order to ensure a more equal distribution of income between households. The first part of the paper focuses on the study, from a more theoretical perspective, of the role of the different types of tools that can be used by governments: social transfers (pensions, family benefits and unemployment benefits), taxation, conditional cash transfers (more common in developing countries), instruments of fiscal consolidation and the expenditure modifications that a government can carry out during a period of crisis. The second part of the paper entails a series of empirical analyses, based on LIS data, including some in-depth analyses with a specific focus on five countries that experienced a period of crisis: United States, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Brazil. For each country the analysis focuses on the effect of the transfers, taxation and public pensions on inequality.

Mentre il mondo si avvicina alla scadenza fi ssata nel 2015 per il raggiungimento degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo del Millennio (MDG, Millennium Development Goals) - tra i quali rientra il dimezzamento della percentuale di persone che soffrono la fame - l'Indice Globale della Fame (GHI, Global Hunger Index) 2010 offre una utile fotografi a pluridimensionale della fame nel mondo. Il GHI 2010 mostra alcuni miglioramenti rispetto al GHI 1990, essendo diminuito di un quarto. Cionononostante, l'indice della fame nel mondo resta a un livello "grave". Questo risultato non sorprende se si pensa che il numero complessivo di persone affamate ha superato il miliardo nel 2009. I punteggi più elevati di GHI a livello regionale si registrano in Asia meridionale e Africa subsahariana, ma l'Asia meridionale ha fatto molti più progressi rispetto al 1990. In Asia meridionale, tra i principali fattori che contribuiscono a un'alta prevalenza dei bambini sottopeso in età compresa tra 0 e 5 anni, ci sono lo scarso accesso delle donne a una nutrizione ed educazione adeguate e il loro basso status sociale. In Africa subsahariana, invece, la scarsa effi cienza dei governi, i confl itti, l'instabilità politica e gli alti tassi di HIV e AIDS sono tra i principali fattori responsabili dell'alta mortalità infantile e dell'alta percentuale di persone che non possono soddisfare il proprio fabbisogno calorico. Alcuni paesi hanno fatto passi avanti signifi cativi in termini assolutinel miglioramento del proprio GHI. I progressi più evidenti tra il GHI 1990 e il GHI 2010 si sono registrati in Angola, Etiopia, Ghana, Mozambico, Nicaragua e Vietnam. Ventinove paesi hanno comunque ancora livelli di fame "estremamente allarmanti" o "allarmanti". I paesi con punteggi di GHI 2010 "estremamente allarmanti" - Burundi, Ciad, Repubblica Democratica del Congo e Eritrea - sono in Africa subsahariana. La maggior parte dei paesi con punteggi di GHI "allarmanti" sono in Africa subsahariana e in Asia meridionale. Il più grave deterioramento dei livelli di GHI si è registrato nella Repubblica Democratica del Congo, in gran parte a causa dei confl itti e dell'instabilità politica. Prestazioni economiche e fame sono inversamente correlate. I paesi con alti livelli di reddito nazionale lordo (RNL) pro capite - un'importante misura dell'attività economica - hanno tendenzialmente bassi punteggi di GHI 2010, e i paesi con bassi livelli di RNL pro capite hanno tendenzialmente alti punteggi di GHI. Ma questa non è una relazione sempre valida. Confl itti, malattie, disuguaglianze, cattive pratiche di governo e discriminazione di genere sono fattori che possono rendere il livello di fame di un paese più alto di quanto ci si aspetterebbe sulla base del suo reddito. Al contrario, una crescita economica favorevole ai poveri, una solida attività agricola e una crescente parità di genere possono ridurre la fame oltre i livelli attesi sulla base delle entrate procapite. L'alta prevalenza della denutrizione infantile è uno dei fattori maggiormente responsabili della persistenza della fame. A livello generale, il fattore che più contribuisce al livello di GHI mondiale è l'insuffi cienza di peso tra i bambini. Anche se la percentuale di insuffi cienza di peso nei bambini al di sotto dei cinque anni è solo uno dei tre elementi che compongono il GHI, è responsabile di quasi la metà del punteggio mondiale di GHI. La denutrizione infantile non è uniformemente diffusa nel mondo, ma piuttosto si concentra in pochi paesi e regioni. Oltre il 90% dei bambini al mondo che soffrono di ritardi nella crescita (bambini la cui statura è inadeguata in rapporto all'età) vivono in Africa e in Asia, dove i tassi di ritardo nella crescita sono rispettivamente al 40 e al 36%. Per migliorare i rispettivi punteggi di GHI, ai paesi servono progressi più rapidi nella riduzione della denutrizione infantile. Dati recenti mostrano che l'intervallo utile per migliorare l'alimentazione del bambino va dai -9 ai +24 mesi (ovvero i mille giorni che intercorrono tra il momento del concepimento e il secondo compleanno). È in questa fase che i bambini hanno maggior necessità di adeguate quantità di cibo nutriente, di assistenza sanitaria preventiva e curativa, e di cure adatte alla loro età che favoriscano uno sviluppo sano; inoltre è il momento in cui gli interventi hanno più probabilità di prevenire l'insorgere di uno stato di malnutrizione. Dopo i due anni di età, gli effetti della sottonutrizione sono in gran parte irreversibili. Per ridurre la malnutrizione infantile, i governi dovrebbero investire in interventi alimentari effettivi diretti alle madri e ai fi gli durante i primi mille giorni. Questi interventi dovrebbero concentrarsi sul miglioramento dell'alimentazione materna durante la gravidanza e l'allattamento, promuovendo un corretto allattamento al seno e pratiche alimentari integrative, fornendo i micronutrienti essenziali, praticando la iodurazione del sale e garantendo al contempo appropriate vaccinazioni. Un'elevata copertura di questi interventi potrebbe comportare un rapido miglioramento dell'alimentazione della prima infanzia. I governi dovrebbero anche adottare strategie in grado di affrontare con più ampio respiro le cause alla radice della sottonutrizione, come l'insicurezza alimentare, la mancanza di accesso ai servizi sanitari e le cattive pratiche nutrizionali e di cura del bambino: problemi resi ancor più gravi dalla povertà e dalla disparità di genere. Le strategie di riduzione della povertà basate sulla riduzione delle disuguaglianze sono quindi parte della soluzione dei problemi di alimentazione nella prima infanzia, così come le politiche mirate al miglioramento della salute, dell'alimentazione e dello status sociale delle bambine e delle donne. ; PR ; IFPRI1; GRP24 ; COM; DGO; PHND

"This series started in 1981 with the Erice Seminars when the danger of a nuclear East-West confrontation was menacing the world. The volumes reproduce the crucial steps, from the Nuclear Winter to the Strategic Defense Initiative. After the collapse of the U.S.S.R., new emergencies are now to be faced such as the danger of proliferation of Weapons for Mass Destruction (WMD), the North-South confrontation on ecological problems and the new deal for Science and Technology to help developing countries in their struggle for a better standard of life. The Erice Seminars have attracted the attention of world leaders in Science, Technology and Culture."--Publisher's website

This paper develops an analytical model to calculate the amount by which individuals are expected to modify their values (the relationship between lifestyle and happiness, as measured by subjective well-being, SWB) and to adopt innovative technologies (to increase the sustainability of production and consumption, measured by the ecological footprint, EF) to allow current and future generations to achieve sustainable happiness (the pursuit of happiness that does not exploit other people, the environment, or future generations). The paper also examines the dependence of these changes on an individual's concern for future generations and on their country's current state of economic development. Individuals in developed countries can change their values by showing greater concern for future generations as well as by adopting new technologies, thereby reducing the required change in values and achieving sustainability at a high SWB. In contrast, individuals in developing countries must rely solely on technological innovation (and to a greater extent than in developed countries), and their concern for future generations is less relevant, with sustainability achieved at a low SWB. Finally, maximising the concern for future generations will make individuals in developing and developed countries coincide in terms of their potential to substitute values for technologies or vice versa, but not in terms of their potential to achieve sustainable happiness.

none ; The problem of inadequate housing and the lack of basic water and sanitation infrastructures is not new but goes back to the formation of the first cities. However nowadays 31,6% of the world urban population lives in slums, in other words one urban citizen out of three lives in an inadequate housing condition. Slums are not anymore marginalized parts of the city, but on the contrary in many developing countries they have become the main type of human settlement. Slums are the physical and spatial manifestation of urban poverty and intra-city inequalities and they are the result of the lack of low cost houses for the urban poor. There is an extensive literature on slums of Developing Countries, however this phenomenon is still not documented or studied in "Developed Countries", where slums are presents but in a smaller extent. The present work wants to document the presence of slums in Rome, which has become the "capital city of the housing crisis". In fact the most vulnerable parts of the population cannot afford to rent or buy a house on the market and they do not receive any support from the State. These people form the "forgotten" housing demand, a part of the housing demands that is not fulfilled by the market or the Welfare State. The hypothesis of this work is that the presence of an unsatisfied demand for low cost houses has forces those excluded from the housing market and abandoned by the State to find informal housing solutions as the slums. However, in Rome this "forgotten" housing demand is very diversified and each segment of this demand has built slums with different characteristics. The work is structured in three parts. The first part contains the theoretical background of the thesis and it presents the slums as a global phenomenon. First of all, the international definition of slum elaborated by UN-Habitat is presented together with the main critics that have been raised by scholars. Secondly the evolution of theories and practices concerning slums is analyzed. Finally an overview of the ...

Tourism, with its related subsectors, is a highly fragmented sector with most tourism organizations being SMEs. Small Tourism Businesses are the backbone of the economy of many countries around the world, and Italy is certainly not an exception. Considering their varied activities, specialized services, and integration in the society, SMEs are certainly the economic lifeblood of the tourism sector, especially in developing countries, rural and remote/unprivileged areas. The aforementioned considerations contribute to explain why SMEs literature have been attracting huge attention from academics working in several disciplines such as business and management, marketing, sociology, anthropology and politics. Despite this, the engagement by academicians in research relating to SMEs in tourism can be still considered to be limited. Many research areas still need to be further investigated and deepened. This special issue was launched to call for research papers aiming to deepen our understanding about the emerging challengesin Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises.

Seizing the energy access gap is a central objective in the international agenda, as it is a required precondition to enable sustainable growth, and is it positively interlinked with all other developmental goals. While rural electrification is steadily progressing in many developing areas, a change of pace is in order to achieve universal access in the next ten years. Alongside grid extension and standalone systems, mini-grids are considered a key technical solution to provide cost-effective, high-quality power to hundreds of thousands of people. Their diffusion is, however, hampered by many barriers and constraining factors, such as the lack of adequate governmental policies and unclear regulatory framework, limited access to financing due to unproven business models, and the high capital and operating costs due to lack of effective, standardized practices in the development and design phase. Academic knowledge production should contribute effectively to this complex scenario, by addressing the multiple governmental and industrial stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of establishing an enabling environment in which investments for rural electrification projects are attractive for private developers without relying on grants. The methodological and technical contributions proposed in this work have therefore the specific objective of helping increase the feasibility of mini-grids for rural electrification. The first challenge faced when setting up this research, was the one of data scarcity, that affects the rural electrification sector at multiple levels and makes difficult to develop academic contributions. Therefore, a first, cross-sectoral objective of the research work has been to overcome these limitations by streamlining data acquisition pathways through field missions in developing countries in East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda) and Central America (Honduras, Costa Rica). This allowed to establish connections not only with rural communities but also with local universities, governmental entities and companies. These multiple-sided interactions between different entities coming both from developed countries and the global south have been part of the research method and entailed much more than one-sided data transfer. Therefore, they have been studied and conceptualized under the Triple Helix framework. As a first application of this approach, a critical analysis of existing business models for decentralized renewable energy solutions in sub-Saharan Africa has been carried out in partnership with non-profit and private actors, making use of actual operating data obtained from 21 mini-grids. Then, load profile estimation and modeling are tackled, as they are pivotal elements in the mini-grid development process, and are suffering from a lack of general understanding, data and tools to perform them. Two complementary approaches are presented, one based on effective field survey methodologies for the energy need assessment of rural communities and the other based on a clusterization and characterization of load profiles, built upon a unique, open-access database created for this purpose. Then, the optimal design of mini-grids integrating advanced, predictive operating strategies is addressed, with a contribution aimed at increasing their viability by reducing their computational requirements. This line of research, despite being conceived for and applied to case studies from developing countries, is relevant for hybrid mini-grids as a technological solution per se. Therefore, to demonstrate the extension of mini-grid application to isolated areas of developing countries, the case study of an hybridization and demand side management proposal for the mediterranean island of Ustica (Italy) is presented.

International audience ; The idea of disarmament for development was particularly explored in the early 1980s, at the initiative of the UN. It highlighted the economic burden of the great powers' arms race, while development aid was proving to be highly insufficient. Within the framework of international agreements, it was a question of the highly militarised developed countries reducing the financing of their armaments and providing part of these savings to support the development of Third World countries. Three main questions were then asked. Is armament a brake on development? Does disarmament only have positive effects on the national economies of developed countries? Does the transfers of resources from developed to developing countries be realized without perverse effects? ; L'idea del disarmo per lo sviluppo è stata particolarmente studiata all'inizio degli anni '80, su iniziativa delle Nazioni Unite. Ha evidenziato il peso economico della corsa agli armamenti delle grandi potenze, mentre gli aiuti allo sviluppo si stavano dimostrando altamente insufficienti. Nell'ambito degli accordi internazionali, si trattava che i paesi sviluppati molto militarizzati riducessero il finanziamento dei loro armamenti e fornissero parte di questi risparmi per sostenere lo sviluppo dei paesi del terzo mondo. Sono state quindi poste tre domande principali. L'armamento è un freno allo sviluppo? Il disarmo ha solo effetti positivi sulle economie nazionali dei paesi sviluppati? Il disarmo può essere facilmente accompagnato da trasferimenti di risorse dai paesi sviluppati a quelli in via di sviluppo?

International audience ; The idea of disarmament for development was particularly explored in the early 1980s, at the initiative of the UN. It highlighted the economic burden of the great powers' arms race, while development aid was proving to be highly insufficient. Within the framework of international agreements, it was a question of the highly militarised developed countries reducing the financing of their armaments and providing part of these savings to support the development of Third World countries. Three main questions were then asked. Is armament a brake on development? Does disarmament only have positive effects on the national economies of developed countries? Does the transfers of resources from developed to developing countries be realized without perverse effects? ; L'idea del disarmo per lo sviluppo è stata particolarmente studiata all'inizio degli anni '80, su iniziativa delle Nazioni Unite. Ha evidenziato il peso economico della corsa agli armamenti delle grandi potenze, mentre gli aiuti allo sviluppo si stavano dimostrando altamente insufficienti. Nell'ambito degli accordi internazionali, si trattava che i paesi sviluppati molto militarizzati riducessero il finanziamento dei loro armamenti e fornissero parte di questi risparmi per sostenere lo sviluppo dei paesi del terzo mondo. Sono state quindi poste tre domande principali. L'armamento è un freno allo sviluppo? Il disarmo ha solo effetti positivi sulle economie nazionali dei paesi sviluppati? Il disarmo può essere facilmente accompagnato da trasferimenti di risorse dai paesi sviluppati a quelli in via di sviluppo?

International audience ; The idea of disarmament for development was particularly explored in the early 1980s, at the initiative of the UN. It highlighted the economic burden of the great powers' arms race, while development aid was proving to be highly insufficient. Within the framework of international agreements, it was a question of the highly militarised developed countries reducing the financing of their armaments and providing part of these savings to support the development of Third World countries. Three main questions were then asked. Is armament a brake on development? Does disarmament only have positive effects on the national economies of developed countries? Does the transfers of resources from developed to developing countries be realized without perverse effects? ; L'idea del disarmo per lo sviluppo è stata particolarmente studiata all'inizio degli anni '80, su iniziativa delle Nazioni Unite. Ha evidenziato il peso economico della corsa agli armamenti delle grandi potenze, mentre gli aiuti allo sviluppo si stavano dimostrando altamente insufficienti. Nell'ambito degli accordi internazionali, si trattava che i paesi sviluppati molto militarizzati riducessero il finanziamento dei loro armamenti e fornissero parte di questi risparmi per sostenere lo sviluppo dei paesi del terzo mondo. Sono state quindi poste tre domande principali. L'armamento è un freno allo sviluppo? Il disarmo ha solo effetti positivi sulle economie nazionali dei paesi sviluppati? Il disarmo può essere facilmente accompagnato da trasferimenti di risorse dai paesi sviluppati a quelli in via di sviluppo?

Este texto caracteriza a situação das mulhres migrantes na União Européia. Na Europa, em 2006, havia um contingente de 18.5 milhões de migrantes procedentes de países do Terceiro Mundo, 54% dos quais eram mulheres. As mulheres migrantes sofrem vulnerabilidades ligadas ao trabalho, participação política e social, maior exposição às violências e sexismo. As autoras apresentam a legislação atual referente à migração no perído de 2000 a 2007, apontando alguns programas e políticas de integração e enfatizando o respeito aos direitos humanos fundamentais." ; This text characterizes the situation of (im)migrating women in the European Union. In Europe, in 2006, there was a contingent of 18.5 million (im)migrants coming from Developing Countries, 54% of which were women. (Im)Migrating women suffer vulnerabilities linked to work, to lower political and social participation, higher exposition to violence and sexism. The authors present the current legislation concerned to (im)migration in the 2000-2007 period, showing some integration programs and policies and highlighting the respect to basic human rights.

The health crisis generated by the pandemic spread of the Covid-19 virus in spring 2020 had an impact not only on people's values and lifestyles, economic growth and social reorganization, but also on international relations among states: the European Union appeared weak and fragmented; the US attacked China for having kept silent about the risk of contagion and accused it of producing the virus in a laboratory; developing countries were abandoned in a situation of serious shortage of health facilities and the World Health Organization has shown that it did not have the decision-making and financial instruments to act. In this context and in the midst of a health emergency, the author administered an online questionnaire from which he extrapolated, for this contribution, only the answers of the youth sub-sample. These were submitted to an analysis of the principal components and the results related to some socio-attitudinal variables: sex and political orientation. The data reveal, on the one hand, within the European Union, the perception of the spread of Euro-scepticism and populism and the increase of isolation and competitiveness among the states, to be responded to with new goals and mechanisms for the functioning of the Union; on the other hand, the need for post-emergency management in solidarity with developing countries, with greater investment in research and health systems and greater recognition of the WHO. ; La crisi sanitaria generata dalla diffusione pandemica del virus Covid-19 nella primavera del 2020 ha avuto un impatto non solo sui valori e sugli stili di vita delle persone, sulla crescita economica e sulla riorganizzazione sociale, ma anche sulle relazioni internazionali tra gli stati: l'Unione europea è apparsa debole e fram-mentata al suo interno; gli Usa hanno attaccato la Cina per aver taciuto del rischio contagio e accusandola di aver prodotto il virus in laboratorio; i paesi in via di sviluppo sono stati abbandonati in una situazione di grave carenza delle strutture sanitarie e l'Organizzazione mondiale della sanità ha mostrato di non possedere gli strumenti decisionali e finanziari per operare, dimostrandosi anche indecisa sul da farsi. In questo contesto e in piena emergenza sanitaria, l'autore ha somministrato un questionario online da cui ha estrapolato per questo contributo le sole risposte del sub-campione dei giovani. Queste sono state sottoposte all'analisi delle componenti principali e le risultanze incrociate con alcune variabili socio-attitudinali: sesso e orientamento politico. I dati fanno emergere da un lato, all'interno dell'Unione europea, la percezione della diffusione dell'euroscetticismo e del populismo e dell'aumento dell'isolamento e della competitività tra gli stati, a cui rispondere con nuovi obiettivi e meccanismi di funzionamento dell'Unione; dall'altro lato, la necessità di una gestione solidale del post-emergenza nei confronti dei paesi in via di sviluppo con maggiori investimenti nella ricerca e nei sistemi sanitari e un maggior riconoscimento dell'Oms.

Research on economic growth and development in developing countries has often highlighted the role of liberalisation policies (economic and political) in improving economic performance in the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, efforts at fostering economic growth and development have not only resulted in the adoption of these policies, but have also led to the proliferation of regional economic integration (include monetary unification). Nonetheless, the impact of these policies on economic performance continues to be a subject of debate among policy makers, development partners, academic researchers, and the international community at large. This debate has become increasingly important in light of the challenges facing the aforementioned agents in helping to improve the economic performance of these countries. This thesis focuses on this topic providing empirical evidence for sub-Saharan African countries. The first chapter uses post-liberalisation data on Ghana and focuses on the extent to which trade openness and foreign aid inflows impact on economic growth. Ghana, being one of the forerunners to adopt liberalisation policies in sub-Saharan Africa, has received commendations from the international community for its post-liberalisation economic growth performance. This has increased government commitment in recent years to open the economy to international competition. Moreover, foreign aid inflows over the period have been relatively large. The study, which employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration, provides empirical findings, which clearly indicate that the impact of both trade openness and foreign aid on Ghana's post-liberalisation economic growth is positive and statistically significant in both the short-run and the long run, although this is somewhat reduced by their interaction. In addition, the study reveals long run economic growth benefits of Ghana's political system whilst government spending and labour force performance retarded economic growth over the study period. The empirical findings and policy recommendations are relevant for Ghana's long-term economic growth policy reforms. The second chapter, taken cognisance of the fact that sub-Saharan Africa has been characterised by low-income levels for decades, analyses the impact of economic globalisation and democracy on income levels in the area using panel cointegration techniques. The study considers a composite indicator for economic globalisation and several indicators of democracy and highlights the essence of the simultaneous adoption of economic globalisation and democracy for sub-Saharan African countries. The empirical results, based on a sample of 31 countries over the period 1980-2005, clearly indicate that, whilst the total long run impact of economic globalisation on income levels has been beneficial, the total long run impact of democracy has been the bane of the level of income in sub-Saharan Africa. The study concludes that policy reforms should be aimed at improving democratic institutions in sub-Saharan Africa for its potential benefits to be realised The third chapter focuses on the implications of trade openness, foreign aid and democracy for the fulfilment of Wagner's law in West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) countries. Although the impact of trade openness, foreign aid and democracy on government expenditure in developing countries has been emphasised in the literature in recent decades most recent studies of Wagner's law have often neglected the increasing role played by these policy variables. The study provides an empirical analysis of the long run implications of trade openness, foreign aid and democracy for the fulfilment of Wagner's law in WAMZ countries using panel data techniques for the period 1980-2008. The study finds the existence of Wagner's law in WAMZ countries, but only when the role of these policy variables has been catered for. The analysis concludes that, if these countries are to meet the fiscal convergence criteria and ensure the sustainability of a single currency area, explicit sets of restraint on the national authorities and innovative and efficient ways of domestic revenue generation necessary to ensure that government revenue keep pace with its expenditure become crucial, because the monetary union by itself may not necessarily ensure fiscal discipline. The fourth chapter focuses on the relationship between democracy, government spending, and economic growth. Although, economic theory predicts that various core functions of governments are growth enhancing, its spending in non democratic countries often goes beyond these core functions, namely into rent-seeking and non-productive activities. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration to investigate the extent to which democracy and government spending have had an impact on economic growth in Ghana over the period 1960-2008. The empirical results obtained are encouraging, revealing support for the high efficiency of government spending in democracies hypothesis. The study demonstrates that democracy and government spending go hand in hand in providing a complementary role to impact positive on economic growth in Ghana in both the long-and short-run. The fifth chapter investigates the impact of trade openness on economic growth and development for a sample of 85 middle-income countries over the period 1970-2009. The study employs non-stationary heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques that take into consideration the impact of cross-section dependence. The analysis reveals four important findings. Firstly, that trade openness has been one of the main drivers of the level of development, but not of economic growth in middle-income countries. Secondly, that trade openness is both a cause and a consequence of the level of development in middle-income countries. Thirdly, that neglecting the impact of cross-section dependence overestimates the coefficient linked to the long-run relationship between trade openness and development. Lastly, and most importantly, that these results are consistent for all the 20 middle-income sub-Saharan African countries included in the sample.

Lowering the number of injuries and deaths due to traffic accidents represents a priority in both developed and developing countries. While most national governments implemented policies oriented at discouraging risky behaviors in the population of existing drivers, little emphasis has been posed on how individuals select into the pool of drivers. This analysis focuses precisely on the selection mechanism behind the decision to start driving – that is, to earn a driving permit – and, specifically, on the role of economic downturns and policy interventions targeting new drivers. We study the case of Italy during the years 2011-2013, a period characterized by a deep decline in employment opportunities and household spending. Furthermore, in 2011 a reform deeply modified the written driving test and imposed a power-ban on new drivers, who are no longer allowed to drive high- and middle-power cars during the first year of their license. We find a substantial decrease in the number of licenses issued, whose number dropped by 20% between 2011 and 2014. This drop is more pronounced in areas with a higher population, with limited heterogeneity arising when looking at the regions which were hit the most by the crisis. Our findings have important policy implication, as they shed light on the mechanisms through which young people – who represent the group of road users exhibiting the highest mortality rate – select into the pool of drivers.