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An integrated analysis of the syntax and semantics of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in a group of West African languages is presented. With data from Dagaare and closest relatives, a structural definition for SVCs is developed (two or more lexical verbs that share grammatical categories within a clause), establishing SVCs as complex predicates. Based on syntactic theories, a formal phrase structure is adapted for representation of SVCs, interpreting each as a product of a series of VP adjunctions. Within this new, non-derivational, pro-expansionary approach to grammar, several principles are developed to license grammatical information flow and verbal ordering priority. Based on semantic theories, a functional account of SVCs is developed: that the actions represented by the verbs in the SVC together express a single, complex event. A new model of event structure for all constructional transitions is proposed, and it is illustrated how two types of these transitions, West African SVCs and Scandinavian small clause constructions (SCCs), conform to this proposed event structure. Further, SVCs and SCCs are used to propose a parameter of variation between serializing and non-serializing languages. A survey of the general structure of the Mabia languages is also presented. (MSE)

This dissertation focuses on microeconomic topics in the fields of public, labor and education. Particularly, this dissertation evaluates state policies in higher education and develops a global measure for job quality. Chapter 1 studies how state merit aid programs affect undergraduate degrees earned in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. State merit aid (SMA) programs have grown in popularity in recent decades as a mechanism to improve college attainment and reduce state out-migration by allocating awards based on student grade point average. A potential unintended consequence of SMA programs is substitution away from majors with traditionally lower GPAs to majors with traditionally higher GPAs. Using data from the American Community Survey, I estimate event study models that use variation in the timing of SMA implementation to identify the effect of SMA programs on the production of undergraduate STEM degrees. I find that SMA programs reduce the likelihood of graduating in a STEM degree by 1.18 percentage points or 5.9%, on average. A back of the envelope calculation suggests that SMA programs reduced the stock of STEM graduates by about 39,000 in the 2018-2019 academic year. The effect is stronger for females where the average reduction in STEM degree production is 10.3% compared to 3.5% for males. Chapter 2 studies how state merit aid programs affect homeownership. SMA programs may work as a substitute for debt, affording recipients the financial flexibility to purchase a home earlier in their life cycle. Using data from the American Community Survey, I estimate event study models that use variation in the timing of SMA implementation to identify the effect of SMA programs on the proportion of individuals that own a home. I find that SMA programs have statistically and economically insignificant impacts on homeownership. Chapter 3 is joint work with colleagues at the World Bank, and in this paper we measure the quality of employment across developing countries. Measuring job quality has been challenging due to data availability constraints within countries, and comparability constraints across countries. As a result, much work relies on proxy-indicators of job quality, such as formality or wages. This paper contributes to the policy discussion by proposing a global measure of job quality for wage employment. We assemble a harmonized dataset of labor force and household surveys, across 40 developing countries, and create a measure of job quality across four dimensions: income, employment benefits, stability, and working conditions. Results show there is significant variation in job quality across countries, economic sectors, and demographic characteristics. Countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean region have relatively higher levels of job quality, while countries in Sub-Saharan Africa display the lowest levels of job quality. Most workers in the finance and business services, public administration, and utilities sectors have, on average, better quality jobs. Higher education matters for securing job quality in earnings, benefits, and job stability. Finally, the average job quality of wage employment is relatively similar between males and females in all dimensions but income. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This paper provides a skeleton of a one-year course in Asian and African civilizations intended for upper school students. The curricular package consists of four parts. The first part deals with the basic shape and content of the course as envisioned. The remaining three parts develop a specific unit on classical India with a series of teacher notes, a set of student readings that can be used according to individual needs, and a prose narrative of content with suggestions for extension and inclusion. (EH)

This paper reports on a practicum designed to increase reading motivation among senior high school students (as reflected by the number of books checked out from the school library) and to promote a better understanding of cultural sub-groups in the school, of which Blacks constituted the largest group (41%) and Hispanics, the second largest (29%). Students were guided toward literature from the Caribbean Islands and Africa in an attempt to instill a sense of pride in the students' cultural heritage. Students were grouped by affinity and interest. A reading corner offered a multitude of books as a classroom resource. Students shared orally, with their peers, the fruits of their weekly readings, which led to animated discussions. Audiotapes were sometimes used to introduce the oral readings and set the tone. Slides, photographs, videos, and films were viewed. Field trips to local book stores were organized as well as food fairs which allowed students to taste foods from different countries. Results showed that by the end of the 8-month implementation period, there was an increase of 80% in the number of books checked out from the school library. Students participated in a "Book Drive" so that they would have the necessary materials for the Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) activity; at the end of implementation, 90% of the students admitted enjoying SSR. (Nine figures and six tables of data are included. Twenty-nine references and a questionnaire on attitudes towards reading, reading interest checklist, cultural awareness survey, teacher observation checklist, and a sample "book card" are attached.) (Author/SR)

In this dissertation I present three papers, each as an individual chapter. The first two papers are in the field of development economics, while the third paper is in the field of education economics. The first two chapters document and study the disappearance of arranged marriages in Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. For this purpose, focusing on Indonesia, I construct and empirically test a model of marital choices that assumes that AM serve as a form of informal insurance for parents and children, whereas other forms of marriage do not. The third chapter designs, implements and evaluates a peer review program with the goal of determining whether trained peer feedback has a causal effect on the teaching performance of teaching assistants. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Land Cover Land Use (LCLU) change affects land surface processes recognized to influence climate change at local, national and global levels. Soil organic carbon is a key component for the functioning of agro-ecosystems and has a direct effect on the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. The capacity to model and project LCLU change is of considerable interest for mitigation and adaptation measures in response to climate change. A combination of remote sensing analyses, qualitative social survey techniques, and biogeochemical modeling was used to study the relationships between climate change, LCLU change and soil organic carbon in the semi-arid rural zone of Senegal between 1960 and 2050. For this purpose, four research hypotheses were addressed. This research aims to contribute to an understanding of future land cover land use change in the semi-arid West African Sahel with respect to climate variability and human activities. Its findings may provide insights to enable policy makers at local to national levels to formulate environmentally and economically adapted policy decisions. This dissertation research has to date resulted in two published and one submitted paper. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The aim of this dissertation is to identify effective educational interventions in Sub-Saharan African with an impact on student learning. This is the first meta-analysis in the field of education conducted for Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper takes an in-depth look at twelve different types of education interventions or programs and attempts to not only present analytics on their relative effectiveness, but to also explore why certain interventions seem to be more effective than others. After a systematic literature review, I combine 56 articles (containing 66 separate experiments, 83 treatment arms, and 420 effect size estimates), and I use random-effects meta-analytic techniques to both a.) evaluate the relative impact of different types of interventions and b.) explain variation in effect sizes within and across intervention types. When I examine the relative pooled effect sizes of all twelve intervention areas, I find that interventions in pedagogical methods (changes in instructional techniques) have a higher pooled effect size on achievement outcomes than all other eleven intervention types in the full sample (e.g., school management programs, school supplies interventions, or interventions that change the class size or composition). The pooled effect size associated with these pedagogical interventions is 0.918 standard deviations in the full sample (SE = 0.314, df = 15.1, p = 0.01), 0.566 in the sample excluding outliers and including only randomized controlled trials (SE = 0.194, df = 11, p = 0.01), and 0.228 in a sample that includes only the highest quality studies (SE = 0.078, df = 5.2, p = 0.03). These findings are robust to a number of moderating factors. Using meta-regression, I find that on average, interventions in pedagogical methods have an effect size over 0.30 standard deviations (significant at the 5% level) greater than all other intervention areas combined, even after controlling for multiple study-level and intervention-level variables. Beyond this average effect, I show that studies that employ adaptive instruction and teacher coaching techniques are particularly effective. Further, while studies that provide health treatments or school meals have on average the lowest pooled effect size, I show that if these studies are analyzed using cognitive assessments (tests of memory and attention), health treatments actually produce a relatively large pooled effect size of 0.176 standard deviations (SE = 0.028, df = 2.18); this is particularly true of studies that either prevent or treat malaria. In addition, this meta-analysis examines the state of current education impact evaluation research in Sub-Saharan Africa and highlights both research gaps as well as differences in study design, methodology, and reporting of metrics by academic field. I find that the bulk of the research in this area comes from the field of economics (62%), followed by the fields of education (23%) and public health (15%). Further, the majority of this research has been conducted in a set of six countries: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Madagascar, while rigorous evaluations of education programs have never taken place in others. Moreover, topics currently under rigorous study are not necessarily representative of the major issues facing many Sub-Saharan African school systems today. For example, there are no impact evaluations of multi-grade or multi-shift teaching and only one evaluation of a bilingual education program. This meta-analysis thus recommends a shift in the impact evaluation research agenda to include both a broader geographic and topical focus, as well as an increased emphasis on improvements in pedagogical methods, without which other interventions may not reach their maximum potential impact. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examines a relatively new phenomenon in study abroad: the practice of intervening in students' intercultural learning during their experience abroad. In this paper, I refer to this type of intentional and focused action taken by educators to facilitate student learning abroad as a "study abroad intervention." This study focuses specifically on a study abroad intervention that is taught on-site while students are participating in a semester abroad. Created and implemented by the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), the Seminar on Living and Learning Abroad ("the Seminar") is a for-credit intercultural seminar that is offered at numerous CIEE sites around the world. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, study abroad interventions currently in existence. This mixed-methods case study not only examines the outcomes of participation in the Seminar on Living and Learning Abroad, but it also explores the process involved in facilitating students' intercultural development through such a course. The researcher visited two sites where the Seminar was being taught--one in Western Europe and one in Africa--in fall 2010, where she observed several sessions of the Seminar, interviewed the instructors multiple times, and interviewed the participants. The primary data sources include these observations and interviews, in addition to interviews with the Seminar administrators at CIEE's headquarters and students' pre-/post-test scores from the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). The findings demonstrate that the students participating in the Seminar on Living and Learning Abroad at these two sites made significantly greater gains in their intercultural sensitivity than would be expected if they were not participating in a study abroad intervention. Furthermore, the findings illustrate that the process of facilitating students' intercultural learning during study abroad can be highly complex, and they highlight the importance of having skilled facilitators teach such courses. This study also sheds light on the applicability of several pedagogical theories--including the Intercultural Development Continuum (Hammer, 2009, 2012), the challenge/support hypothesis (Sanford, 1966), and Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 1984)--to this process. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation describes the segments and tones of Soyaltepec Mazatec, an Oto-Manguean language of southern Mexico virtually undescribed in the literature with the exception of Pike (1956). The preliminary work done by Pike and subsequent analyses by Goldsmith (1990) and Pizer (1994) are reviewed giving evidence that the system is complex and not easily explained. Documentation of the segments of the language as well as a more complete documentation of the tonal system has significance for language preservation, comparative Oto-Manguean studies, and for phonological theories of tone. This paper presents original field data gathered by the author during visits to Oaxaca Mexico, and describes the phonetic and phonological patterning for segments and tones, as well as presenting an analysis for the tone sandhi. The author's research reveals that Soyaltepec Mazatec contains 17 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel specifications which contrast for nasality. The phonological processes that occur are described as well as the intricacies of the co-occurrence of phonemes within the syllable which are shown to be vital in determining the nature of the syllable onsets. Four levels of tone are confirmed to occur lexically as well as five rising and two falling tones. The tonal processes include the transfer of tones between morphemes as well as the spread of a low register to the end of a phonological domain. These processes are autosegmental in nature; however, because the language makes use of four levels of tone, the one-dimensional tonal representations which are traditionally used are expanded using Register Tier Theory (RTT). Although RTT has not been widely adopted, it is shown to be not only useful but necessary as a framework to describe four distinct levels of tone while still allowing the flexibility of independent feature spreading which accounts for the processes that occur in a straightforward, insightful and predictive manner. It has been suggested that Mesoamerican tone languages do not fit nicely into the typical tonal typology that divides tone languages into African and Asian types. Soyaltepec Mazatec has the inventory of an Asian tone language with tones which are strongly attached to their lexical TBU while at the same time exhibiting processes that are African. It has contour tones that are sequential in nature, floating tones, downstep and widespread spreading. Furthermore, tone is important both in the lexicon and in the grammar of the language. All of these characteristics are prototypical of African systems. Soyaltepec Mazatec does not fit into either tonal classification; it is a combination of the two. The traditional tonal bicameral typology should not be viewed as rigid, exclusive categories. Un-analyzed tonal languages need to be investigated without typological presumptions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Using the situation in West Africa as an example, this paper examines the role and the problems of libraries in developing countries; a problem approach, rather than a country-by-country survey, has been employed. The paper is divided into three major sections: (1) a review of colonial influence, discussing British and French attitudes towards education and libraries and the effect which these attitudes had on the institutions established by the colonial powers in Africa; (2) an examination of the role of the library in the overall development of a country, emphasizing the need for national planning and the integration of library and educational programs; (3) a discussion of the problems facing all types of libraries in West Africa, including staffing, the scarcity of resources, and the need to develop a supportive national bibliographic apparatus. A lengthy bibliography is provided. (Author)

This thesis contains three papers studying the behavioural response of firms, households and investors in emerging economies to changes in expectations and uncertainty. The first paper investigates how economic agents change their consumption and investment behaviour to news about unanticipated changes to power sector plans by exploiting a novel dataset for the identification of news shocks in a vector- autoregression. While there is an immediate expectations-driven GDP response to a surprise capacity addition in OECD economies, this positive output effect is absent in developing and emerging countries. Firms and households in developing countries respond to failed power projects by immediately reducing investments and are also subjected to lower economic growth as a result relative to the pre-disappointment period. The second paper examines regulatory uncertainty as a barrier affecting infrastructure service investments and quality in Brazil. Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment for identification, it finds that electric utilities partially shielded from uncertainty significantly increase their irreversible investments in electricity distribution infrastructure. This response is qualitatively consistent with optimal behaviour as prescribed by real options theory. The third paper uses an autoregressive distributed lag model and finds that sovereign and corporate bond yields in emerging economies exhibit a long-run relationship that is not explained by economic conditions, firm fundamentals, bond properties, or external factors affecting emerging countries. The paper identifies perceived transfer risks by investors as the key channel. Investors' perceived transfer risks lead corporate and sovereign bond yields to co-move and generally converge. The introduction and conclusion of the thesis further explain common themes.

The four chapters of this thesis make use of newly released large-scale microeconomic datasets to study Africas structural transformation, internal migration, and intergenerational mobility. In the first chapter, I combine georeferenced data on mining and oil endowments with satellite-images of land use and census data from 23 countries to show that resource extraction and international trade have fuelled Africa's recent structural transformation. I document that both increases in the values of regional natural resource endowments, induced by global price shocks, as well as a U.S. policy change, lowering tariffs on African imports, which affected regions close to ports more strongly, lead to reallocations away from agriculture towards services. In the second chapter, I use census data from 13 countries together with satellite data on rainfall, georeferenced data on conflict, and survey data on trust and crime, to study the causes and consequences of internal migration in Africa. After establishing the broad regularities - magnitude, distance-elasticity, and skill-level of migrants - in the second part of the paper I show that rainfall and con ict shocks have in part driven outmigration. The third part of the paper then uses a shift-share instrument to study the impact of migration on unemployment, trust, and crime. In the third and fourth chapters, jointly authored with Alberto Alesina, Stelios Michalopoulos, and Elias Papaioannou, I use census data on schooling for 20 million people in 23 countries to study the intergenerational transmission of education in Africa. We define intergenerational mobility as the likelihood that children of uneducated parents complete at least primary school. We (1) characterize the physical and ethno-religious geography of intergenerational mobility, (2) identify causal effects of regions by exploiting variation from migrant households, and (3) explore the geographic and historical correlates of intergenerational mobility across regions and ethnic groups.

This research examines the collective action and financial dimensions of rural waterpoint sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa. Four interlinking papers empirically evaluate the nature and drivers of financial risks, and how they in turn impact the operational performance of community water supplies. The research is grounded in conceptual and theoretical frameworks pertaining to collective action and common-pool resource management, in particular Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework (Ostrom, 2007), Musgrave & Musgrave's economic good framework (Musgrave & Musgrave, 1973), and Marwell & Oliver's critical mass theory (Marwell & Oliver, 1993). The first paper analyses data extracted from national waterpoint inventories in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. The remaining three papers draw on primary data from rural Kenya comprising 229 years' worth of water committee financial records, a census of 571 waterpoints, and a survey of 3,361 households. These data were collected during extensive field work campaigns in Kwale, Kenya. Quantitative analyses were carried out by way of advanced statistical techniques, including logistic regression, linear mixed (repeated measure) models, and generalised estimating equations. Results suggest collection of user fees is a significant determinant of waterpoint sustainability, alongside other institutional, technical, geographical and environmental variables. However, monthly payment arrangements are beset by non-payment and late payment, particularly if rainfall levels are high, group size is large, households are far away, and water is aggressive and unpalatable. Although monthly contribution levels remain relatively stable above a collective payment rate of 60%, there is little evidence of self-sustaining growth beyond this point, and revenue collection is prone to collapse below this collective payment threshold. In comparison, pay-as-you-fetch fees are associated with increased revenue and improved operational performance, but result in a higher proportion of households opting for an unimproved water source. If the Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to safe water supplies is to be achieved in rural sub-Saharan Africa, strategies are needed to strengthen revenue collection systems and bolster payment incentives. External support and professionalised service delivery models present potential pathways to advance these goals. Policymakers may also need to introduce carefully designed subsidies, or promote self-supply approaches that realign lifecycle costs with users' willingness-to-pay.

The use of group lending for poverty alleviation is a widespread feature of modern microfinance. The structure of joint-liability credit - if one member defaults the others are held financially responsible - produces a natural tension between a borrower's social and economic interests. This study integrates theory from economics, sociology, and behavioural experiments to address the question, "How do social and economic mechanisms interact to shape a microcredit group's financial behaviour?" The empirical analysis involves an original dataset from a microfinance institution in Sierra Leone. The total dataset includes 7,025 joint-liability borrowers involved in 47,931 repayment transactions from 2005 to 2011. The empirical methods used are diverse: ethnographic fieldwork, GPS spatial analysis, social affiliation survey design, and multilevel statistical analysis of loan performance data. The original work is structured as three distinct papers. In the first paper, I examine social collateral, the formal use of a borrower's relationships as security against loan default. How does a group's spatial structure affect the efficacy of social collateral? Spatial concentration improves a group's economic performance up to a certain level after which the effect reverses and performance declines. The relationship is driven by a social trade-off between ability and willingness to enforce the loan. Further, groups that consist of multiple spatial fragments produce worse performance. Spatially fragmented groups are prone to splitting into social factions. In the second paper, I question what drives the self-selection process of microcredit group formation. The results show that group leaders prefer members with pre-existing social ties, who are spatially proximate, and have matching business types. The preference for socio-spatial factors is likely motivated by reducing the risk of strategic default by group members. In the third paper, I explore how economic cooperation in small groups evolves over years of repeated interaction. Despite the selective retention of better performing groups, average cooperation rates consistently decline, in terms of contribution and effort. Further, variance across groups continues to increase over 30 months of repeated interaction, suggesting that convergence to a stable cooperation rate has not occurred. Given that group lending exhibits many of the factors found to promote cooperation in laboratory experiments, it is surprising to find such a marked decline in this field setting. Overall, this thesis contributes to economic sociology by dissecting the difficult trade-offs between social and economic motives in group lending and offers policy implications for microfinance institutions regarding group formation heuristics, contract design, and loan management.

Dust is a critical component of the Earth System. The central and western Sahara (CWS) is the dustiest place on Earth during the northern hemisphere summer. Understanding patterns and causes of spatial and temporal variability of dust presence here is essential for its reliable simulation in numerical models of weather and climate. Four papers in this thesis contribute to that objective, utilising a combination of high temporal resolution satellite data and global atmospheric reanalyses for June – August 2004 – 2010 inclusive. The first paper develops an objective dust detection scheme for the CWS using data from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), which are available every 15 minutes around the clock. These data have shed valuable insight on CWS dust processes, but their subjective application has to date limited their range of applications. The SEVIRI dust flag (SDF) developed here is evaluated against other widely used surface and satellite derived indicators of dustiness and it is found to reliably detect the presence of moderate-heavy dust loadings. The distribution of dust each summer is presented, revealing a high degree of interannual variability in overall dust coverage. The second paper utilises SDF to create an objective, high spatial resolution dust source map, based on the automated tracking of individual dust plumes. The most active sources are associated predominantly with palaeo-lakes and outwash plains, typically around the Saharan mountains. There is a clear intraseasonal progression of active source areas, controlled by regional climatology. The tracking scheme describes the transport trajectory of dust events following their initiation and the spatial association with deep convection at this time, revealing a clear regional divide in the relative importance of known meteorological mechanisms that drive dust emission from the dominant sources. The third paper uses an unsupervised clustering algorithm to classify maps of daily dust presence frequency and identify patterns of intraseasonal variability in CWS dust coverage. The resulting idealised dust states vary according to frequency of dust occurrence and its location, demonstrating a clear progression in preferred dust location from June – August and preferred state transitions from one day to the next. High daily dust occurrence frequency corresponds to an advanced West African Monsoon flow and low daily dust occurrence frequency corresponds to a Harmattan-dominated CWS. The overall location of the dust is linked to the location of the Sahara Heat Low, which changes as the summer progresses. The final paper addresses interannual variability in summertime dust presence frequency by comparing the 2 years with highest (2005) and lowest (2008) dust presence. The key difference is the occurrence of 3 multi-day periods in 2005 characterised by anomalously high dust presence. Case study comparison with the 3 periods of highest dust presence in 2008 identifies the anticyclonic circulation of the midtroposphere as a key control on dust duration over the CWS, dictating whether emitted dust is efficiently transported away from the CWS or whether it remains in suspension over the region for prolonged periods of time, up to several days in the anomalously dusty periods of 2005.

The goal of quantifying the woody cover and biomass of tropical savannas, woodlands and forests using satellite data is becoming increasingly important, but limitations in current scientific understanding reduce the utility of the considerable quantity of satellite data currently being collected. The work contained in this thesis reduces this knowledgegap, using new field data and analysis methods to quantify changes using optical, radar and LiDAR data. The first paper shows that high-resolution optical data (Landsat & ASTER) can be used to track changes in woody vegetation in the Mbam Djerem National Park in Cameroon. The method correlates a satellite-derived vegetation index with field-measured canopy cover, and the paper concludes that forest encroached rapidly into savanna in the region from 1986-2006. Using the same study area, but with radar remote sensing data from 1996 and 2007 (ALOS PALSAR & JERS-1), the second paper shows that radar backscatter correlates well with field-measured aboveground biomass (AGB). This dataset confirms the woody encroachment within the park; however, in a larger area around the park, deforestation dominates. The AGB-radar relationships described above are expanded in the next paper to include field plots from Budongo Forest (Uganda), the Niassa Reserve (north Mozambique), and the Nhambita Community Project (central Mozambique). A consistent AGB-radar relationship is found in the combined dataset, with the RMSE for predicted AGB values for a site increasing by <30 %, compared with a site-specific equation, when using an AGB-radar equation derived from the three other sites. The study of the Nhambita site is extended in the following paper to assess the ability of radar to detect change over short time periods in this environment, as will be needed for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). Using radar mosaics from 2007 and 2009, areas known (from detailed ground data) to have been degraded decreased in AGB in the radar change detection, whereas areas of agroforestry and forest protection showed small increases.

The aim of the second chapter is to examine the factors which determine the crop choices of small-holder farmers in Nigeria and how these choices affect productivity and welfare outcomes. Using the two-rounds of LSMS panel data from Nigeria in 2010/11 and 2012/13; the paper starts by re-examining the old arguments surrounding whether small-holder farmers are indeed 'efficient-but-poor'. We find that smallholders are generally efficient in their allocation of resources (after estimating household crop productivity by stochastic frontier analysis) but are not necessarily rational in their crop choices because even when some crops are found to be more productive than others, the less productive crop is often chosen. To figure out why, a treatments effect model is employed to determine farmer selection into the choice of a type of crop in the first stage; and subsequently the impact of their choices on productivity and poverty. We find that access to free inputs, non-farm income and the use of seeds from the previous growing season are important determinants of crop choice. The third chapter aims to examine the effect of the choices smallholder farmers make in terms of what crops they grow on the food security outcomes of the households. This issue is studied using the household level panel data available from the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) and different specifications of propensity score matching models. The empirical estimates suggest that smallholders who grow cash crops have significantly more diverse food options available to them as well as a greater amount of overall food consumption but a greater severity of food shortage when food is scarce. However, there is no effect of crop choice on the total number of days in a week without food. Furthermore, when there are significant effects, these effects are reduced when the access to export markets and fluctuations in international food prices are considered as instruments. The conclusion is that if the policy objective is to improve food security, a careful examination has been carried out on the pre-existing conditions of the households before a crop choice recommendation can be made. In addition, cash crop production should only be encouraged when an adequate support can be provided to link the farmers to the international market and if there can be some government-backed price stabilization measures. The fourth chapter examines the determinants of food availability at the national level from the perspective of food imports in African countries. The system-GMM method is adopted for this purpose to account for the endogeneity of variables in a dynamic model. The results show that past import levels, food aid, armed conflicts, food price fluctuations, as well as overall income per capita levels were some of the influential factors for food-security sufficient food imports.

Tropical woodlands play a key role in the livelihoods of rural communities in southern Africa, but exist in contexts of constant ecological and socioeconomic change. With research into tropical woodlands neglected compared to tropical forests, it is important to improve understanding of the consequences of tropical woodland change for rural wellbeing. The aim of this thesis is to examine the dynamic interactions between woodland change and rural livelihoods through an interdisciplinary case study of a miombo woodland landscape on and around Wedza Mountain, Zimbabwe. The thesis is organised into three parts addressing: (1) the patterns of land use intensity and provisioning ecosystem service availability around Wedza Mountain; (2) the importance of environmental resources in rural income portfolios and hazard coping strategies; and (3) the adequacy of ecosystem service literature in representing the environmental values of rural African communities. The first part of this thesis explores patterns of land use and woodland structure on the woodland cover gradient around Wedza Mountain. In Chapter 2 I characterise land use intensity in the six study villages using a new method of calculating human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) at the village scale. Use of this approach indicates that previous studies have underestimated land use intensity in African small-scale farming areas, with village-scale HANPP estimates in Wedza ranging from 48% to 113% of total potential annual NPP as compared to 18 to 38% in published studies. In Chapter 3 I combine woodland survey data with a quantitative ethnobotanical assessment of the use values of woody species and demonstrate that per-household availability of provisioning ecosystem services declines with declining relative tree cover. These findings also suggest that more deforested villages have reduced diversity of ethnospecies underlying service provision, with ramifications for service resilience and livelihood option values in response to future change. The focus of the second part of the thesis is on the role of woodland resources in rural livelihoods. In Chapter 4 I quantify the contribution of environmental income to the total income portfolios of 91 households and show that lower village woodland cover is not associated with reduced livelihood diversity, in part because a large proportion of environmental income is derived from degraded woodland or non-woodland environments. In Chapter 5 I assess the importance of environmental resources for coping with hazard exposures, drawing on recall of past exposure responses and a survey exercise weighting the elements of coping strategy portfolios in response to varying shock scenarios. Synthesis of these data sets indicates that environmental resources represent an important safety net in coping with interacting covariate and idiosyncratic hazard exposures. The third part of the thesis consists of critical reflection, firstly on the adequacy of current ecosystem services research in southern Africa landscapes and secondly on this specific research project. In Chapter 6 I identify the value discourses which are most dominant across 356 peer-reviewed papers adopting an ecosystem services approach to miombo landscape research, and contrast these with the environmental values of study communities in Wedza District. Through this I show that the current ecosystem service literature is failing to represent rural African social and spiritual imaginaries of landscapes, with potentially serious consequences for the efficacy and equity of landscape management interventions. In Chapter 7 I examine some of the methodological and ethical challenges encountered during this research project through a discussion of the relationships between researcher, research assistant and respondents in an interdisciplinary field research context. Finally, in Chapter 8 I synthesise the key messages from the thesis, and conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for understanding of how future change will impact the resilience and vulnerability of savanna woodland socioecological systems.

This thesis consists of three independent but thematically related papers exploring the income determination process in African labour markets from spatial and sectoral perspectives. Using long-run household panel data from rural Tanzania, chapter 2 investigates the extent to which education can explain migrants' income and consumption gains. We expect that the higher return to schooling at the destination primarily drives migrants' gains, suggesting that those who cannot afford the cost of schooling cannot reap the benefits of migration. We find that education indeed plays the role, but that it does not appear to be a major factor in limiting the internal migration as a source of raising income and consumption. Exploiting data drawn from urban household panel surveys in Ghana and Tanzania, chapter 3 investigates how rural-to-urban migrants' earnings compare with those of natives in urban labour markets. The chapter attempts to identify the growth of migrants' earnings at the destination (assimilation), making a distinction between wage and self-employed migrants. We find that wage-dependent migrants would achieve higher lifetime earnings if they entered a self-employed sector from their arrival, conditional on individuals' attributes and the varying returns to those attributes across urban residents. The evidence points towards the importance of capital constraints in a decision to start a business. Using firm-level data of manufacturing and retailing from the Enterprise Surveys conducted in seven Sub-Saharan African countries, chapter 4 attempts to improve our understanding of enterprise performance in urban Africa by investigating three aspects of firms' productive structure: technology, total factor productivity (TFP), and firm size. We find that the technology is similar between sectors, that retailing firms are smaller and less capital intensive but not, on average, ones with lower TFP, and that TFP differences are primarily within sectors. All these findings might point towards the importance of factor prices in characterising the industrial structure in urban Africa.

Malaria is a major public health problem in Africa. A key issue in studies of epidemiology, treatment, immunity and community-based interventions is the definition of clinical disease due to malaria. However this remains problematic due to both the phenomenon of asymptomatic background parasitisation in endemic areas, and differences in the pattern and amount of clinical disease with differing levels of transmission. This thesis describes attempts to define and quantify malarial disease in two communities in coastal Kenya with similar ethnic, geographical and socio-economic backgrounds but which differ in the level of malaria transmission. A sample of 1,500 people of all age groups from two areas within Kilifi District, with differing transmission were observed for two years. The main objective of this study was to define and quantify non-severe malaria within the two areas of differing malaria transmissions. The thesis is divided into nine chapters, the first three being an introduction to malaria and study design and the other seven chapters being analysis of data and discussion of various results. Chapter two is a literature review of the epidemiology. of severe and non-severe clinical malaria in Africa. It discusses the pathophysiology and clinical presentation of both nonsevere and severe malaria and the difficulties involved in its malaria diagnosis. Effects of age and transmission on severe malaria and mortality are reviewed. Finally, other factors that affect malaria morbidity are discussed. Chapter three is a discussion of the overall design and methodology. The study area is discussed in terms of location, population, topography, climate and entomological factors related to malaria transmission. A description is made of the study population, their occupation, socio-economic status, health seeking practices and main causes of paediatric admissions at the Kilifi District hospital. The study design is described in detail including the selection of the study population, aging of the study participants and weekly follow-up. Chapter four is a discussion of basic descriptive parameters of the study population. Age patterns of the general population in the two study areas are described. The study participants that attended the study clinic are then described in terms of their age, sex, symptoms and clinical signs at presentation and the overall diagnosis made at the clinic. A total of six cross-sectional surveys were conducted in the course of the study and the parasite prevalence by age in the two areas were compared. The effect of regular treatments on parasite prevalence rates are discussed. Other physiological parameters such as body temperature, haemoglobin and C-reactive protein levels are described and the differences among people of different age groups in the study areas discussed. Chapter five details the approach to defining non-severe malaria for epidemiological studies in Kilifi. Logistic regression methods were used to derive malaria attributable fractions of fevers and to derive various parasite density cut-offs as malaria case definitions in the two study areas in Kilifi. These definitions were then used to quantify malaria from data of two years of longitudinal follow-up and the rates of malaria and fever by age in the two study areas. Fin ally, there is a comparison of the rates of malaria treatments provided at the study clinic and that provided at a rural health facility in Ngerenya. The main finding in this chapter was the age differences in non-severe clinical malaria disease presentation with a higher incidence of malaria in the area with lower malaria transmission. Chapter six is an attempt to derive algorithms for clinical malaria diagnosis from data of patients that presented to the clinic with a history of fever. Using clinical symptoms and sIgns three age groups. The four algorithms in each age group were compared with those derived from other African studies and the 'best' algorithms compared in terms of their ability to predict malaria for treatment using hypothetical situations. The difficulties of using clinical algorithms to define malaria for treatment in endemic areas are discussed. Chapter seven discusses the data on children admitted into the Kilifi District hospital from the two study areas with differing transmission. Two sets of data are described; malaria admissions among those recruited into the longitudinal study and from the wider study area. The admissions were discussed in terms of age, haemoglobin, parasitaemia and associations with clinical criteria that have been used in several African countries to define severe malaria. Despite there being more admissions from Ngerenya (the lower transmission area) than Chonyi ( the higher transmission area), those from Chonyi were associated with clinical criteria carrying an increased risk of death compared with those from Ngerenya. Appendix XI is a systematic review of several studies conducted in areas of differing malaria transmission in Africa that attempted to quantify malaria. Difficulties of comparing data from studies with different methodologies are discussed and comparisons of malaria rates in areas of differing endemicity described. In conclusion, it appears that the incidence of clinical malaria is rises with increasing malaria endemicity up to high-moderate transmission, after which there is no further rise with increasing endemicity. Appendix XII is a paper soon to be published in the 'Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene that describes the effects of untreated bednets on malaria "infection and imelidence. Only data from Ngerenya was used and the conclusion was that untreated bednets in good condition were capable of reducing malaria infection and disease compared to use of no nets at all or worn untreated nets.