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Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation?

Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation?
Author: Tan, Zhibo
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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Facing scarcity of a production factor, a firm can develop technologies to either substitute the scarce factor (price effect) or complement the more abundant factors (market size effect). Whether the market size effect or the price effect dominates largely depends on the elasticity of substitution among factors according to the theory of directed technical change. However, it is a great challenge to empirically test the theory because factor prices are often endogenously determined. In this paper, we use imbalanced sex ratios across Chinese provinces as a source of identification strategy to test how female labor scarcity affects corporate innovation based on the matched dataset of annual surveys of industrial firms in China and the national patent database. In regions with a large male population, female-intensive industries face more serious problems finding female workers than their male-intensive counterparts. We find that such female shortages have spurred firms in female-intensive industries to innovate more. The pattern is much more evident in industries with low substitution between female and male workers than in those with high substitution, consistent with the predictions of directed technical change theory.


Limits to green revolution in rice in Africa

Limits to green revolution in rice in Africa
Author: Ragasa, Catherine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2016-09-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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This paper examines closely the constraints in productivity improvements and evaluates available rice technologies looking at the heterogeneity of irrigated and rainfed ecologies in 10 regions in Ghana. Employing yield response models, profitability analysis, and adoption models, results show various practices contribute to yield improvements in irrigated and rainfed systems including chemical fertilizer use, use of certified seed of improved varieties, transplanting, bunding, leveling, use of a sawah system, seed priming, and row planting. Evidence also shows that extension services on rice production are limited and that intensifying extension services can contribute to increases in rice yield.


Using cognitive interviewing to improve the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index survey instruments

Using cognitive interviewing to improve the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index survey instruments
Author: Malapit, Hazel J.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2016-10-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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This paper describes the cognitive interviews undertaken in Bangladesh and Uganda in 2014 as part of the second round of pilots intended to refine the original version of the Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (WEAI). The WEAI is a survey-based tool that assesses gendered empowerment in agriculture. Baseline data were collected in 19 countries following the WEAI’s launch in 2012, but implementers reported a number of problems, such as confusion among both respondents and enumerators regarding the meaning of abstract concepts in the autonomy sub-module and difficulties recalling the sequence and duration of activities in the time-use sub-module. In our cognitive interviews, we asked detailed follow-up questions such as, “Did you think this question was difficult, and if so, why?” and “Can you explain this term to me in your own words?” The results revealed potential problems with the survey questions and informed the revision of the WEAI, now called the Abbreviated WEAI (or A-WEAI), which has less potential for response errors.


Using zero tillage to ameliorate yield losses from weather shocks

Using zero tillage to ameliorate yield losses from weather shocks
Author: Khan, Md. Tajuddin
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 28
Release: 2016-10-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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Zero tillage (ZT) for wheat is one of the most widely adopted resource-conserving technologies in the rice-wheat systems in northern India. In areas of Haryana with rice-wheat systems, 36.5 percent of all farmers practice ZT on 35 percent of their wheat area. Yet the literature measuring the impact of ZT on farmers’ fields is scarce. This study fills this gap by using the data collected from a random sample of 717 farmers from 50 villages in 10 districts of Haryana. It applies the difference-in-differences method to five-year recall data on wheat yields in ZT and conventionally tilled plots of land to quantify the crop loss due to unseasonal rains right before wheat harvests in March 2015. The results reveal significantly lower wheat yield losses in the ZT plots than in the conventionally tilled plots. On average, farmers suffered yield losses ranging between 3.73 and 4.53 quintals per hectare in 2015 due to unseasonal rains. The loss was lower by 1.05–1.10 quintals per hectare in ZT plots. The analysis clearly shows that adoption of ZT helped in reducing crop loss in wheat by 24–28 percent, valued at 1,523–1,595 Indian rupees (Rs.) per hectare (approximately US$22.50 per hectare). The loss avoided due to ZT is nearly equal to the prevailing rental rate of the ZT machine (Rs. 1,500 per hectare) in Haryana. Climate models suggest that the incidence of short-duration acute hydro meteorological events is likely to increase in years to come. Such events are hard to predict and prepare for, and dealing with them hinges mainly on disaster relief. However, our results show that adoption of ZT is one possible way to reduce potential loss from some of these weather events and that ZT is therefore well characterized as a climate-smart technology.


New modalities for managing drought risk in rainfed agriculture

New modalities for managing drought risk in rainfed agriculture
Author: Ward, Patrick S.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2016-10-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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In this paper we explore the potential for a new approach to managing drought risk among rainfed rice producers in Odisha, India. Droughts have historically been a serious constraint to agricultural production in rainfed agricultural systems, with droughts resulting in significant reductions in both yields and cultivated area, in turn leading to significant impacts on rural livelihoods and food security. Scientists and policy makers have proposed various strategies for managing risks, with limited success. In this study we consider two such strategies, specifically drought-tolerant rice and weather index insurance. While neither drought-tolerant cultivars nor weather index insurance products are perfect solutions for adequately managing drought risk in and of themselves, there is scope to exploit the benefits of each and bundle them into a complementary risk management product, specifically through proper index calibration and an optimized insurance design. In this study, we explore preferences for such a complementary risk management product using discrete choice experiments in Odisha, India. We are able to estimate the added value that farmers perceive in the bundled product above and beyond the value associated with each of the independent products. We also show that valuations are sensitive to the basis risk implied by the insurance product, with farmers less enthusiastic about risk management products that leave significant risks uninsured.


Women in Soviet Society

Women in Soviet Society
Author: Gail Warshofsky Lapidus
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2023-11-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520321804

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This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.


Future Right

Future Right
Author: Donald T. Critchlow
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2016-05-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1250087597

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Contrary to those who argue that demographics are political destiny, social trends are transforming identity categories of race, gender, and youth - all of which provide rich opportunities for Republicans to create a new majority. To accomplish this, Republicans will need imagination and political acumen if they are to win over those constituencies that have become the base of the Democratic Party: minorities, young women, and millennials. Behind the reality of current voting patterns, which without doubt presents a gloomy future for the Republican Party, social trends and a deeper analysis of political attitudes reveal there is much room for Republican optimism. In this critical, data-driven book, Future Right, Donald Critchlow explores strategies for the right that will help them succeed where Democrats are floundering: how to speak to the new population of a rising and successful minority class and how to reform the salacious alliance between the government and the one percent. It is time for Republicans to adapt to societal trends for the creation of a new, transformative politics that will not only help them win the future elections, but revive a system long overrun by outmoded, top-heavy politics.


Do beliefs about agricultural inputs counterfeiting correspond with actual rates of counterfeiting?

Do beliefs about agricultural inputs counterfeiting correspond with actual rates of counterfeiting?
Author: Ashour, Maha
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2016-08-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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Adoption of productivity- and income-enhancing agricultural technologies is conspicuously low in Africa south of the Sahara. Farmers’ beliefs regarding the authenticity of agricultural inputs are important for explaining technology adoption: if farmers do not believe that inputs are genuine, they are unlikely to invest in them. The degree of alignment between beliefs about and actual counterfeiting can help explain both the social costs of the “lemons” problem, and low rates of adoption. This is the first paper to explore whether farmer beliefs regarding counterfeiting align with actual rates of counterfeiting, and we do so across a very large geographic area serving tens of thousands of farmers in Uganda using a more precise measure of counterfeiting than many previous studies. We examine the relationship between beliefs and counterfeiting using quantitative measures of farmer beliefs regarding the authenticity of herbicide in their local market as well as a large random sample of laboratory-tested herbicide samples to measure counterfeiting rates in local markets. We report evidence of considerable counterfeiting of herbicides in local markets, with nearly one in three bottles containing less than 75 percent of the labeled concentration of active ingredient. We find evidence that farmers’ beliefs regarding the extent of counterfeiting of herbicide are significantly associated with measures of the actual prevalence of counterfeiting in local markets. These results indicate that farmers are at least partly informed about the “market for lemons” problem in local input markets. However, the results also suggest that although better informed farmers imply a lower social cost of counterfeiting, the high rate of counterfeiting and the relative accuracy of farmer information contributes to low adoption of agricultural inputs in Africa.


The economic value of seasonal forecasts stochastic economywide analysis for East Africa

The economic value of seasonal forecasts stochastic economywide analysis for East Africa
Author: Rodrigues, Joao
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2016-08-05
Genre: Science
ISBN:

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There is growing interest within the climate change and development community in using seasonal forecast information to reduce the losses to agriculture resulting from climate variability, especially within food-insecure countries. However, forecast systems are expensive to establish and maintain, and therefore gauging the potential economic return to investments in forecast systems is crucial. Most studies that evaluate seasonal forecasts focus on developed countries and/or overlook agriculture’s economywide linkages. Yet forecasts may be more valuable in developing regions such as East Africa, where climate is variable and agriculture has macroeconomic importance. We use computable general equilibrium and process-based crop models to estimate the potential economywide value of national seasonal forecast systems in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Stochastic seasonal simulations produce value distributions for forecasts of varying accuracy and varying levels of farm coverage. A timely and accurate forecast adopted by all farmers generates average regional income gains of US$113 million per year. Gains are much higher during extreme climate events and are generally pro-poor. The forecast value falls when forecast skill and farm coverage decline. National economic and trading structures, including the importance of agricultural exports, are found to be major determinants of forecast value. Economywide approaches are therefore needed to complement farm-level analysis when evaluating forecast systems in low-income agrarian economies.