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The choice between specialisation and diversification of income is driven by multiple, interacting factors, such as economies of scale and scope, risk considerations, context, and household characteristics. Using panel data from Ethiopia, we investigate the role of social capital and the covariate risk of climate change and their interaction. We find that households with greater social capital tend to be more specialised, implying that diversification and informal insurance are substitutes in the mitigation of risk. We also find that this effect is significantly weaker in regions more prone to climate change, which is consistent with the average farmer being aware that informal insurance is not an effective protection against risks that affect the entire social network. We use instrumental variable random effects estimation to account for the plausible endogeneity of social capital and we also establish that our results do not depend on the poorest and most constrained individuals in our sample.

Promoting decent rural employment, by creating new jobs in rural areas and upgrading the existing ones, could be one of the most efficient pathways to reduce rural poverty. This article systematically investigates the impact of decent rural employment on agricultural production efficiency in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The analysis applies an output-oriented distance function approach with an estimation procedure that accounts for different technological, demographic, socioeconomic, institutional, and decent rural employment indicators. Data of the 2011 round of Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for the two countries are used, and a set of indicators is derived to proxy core dimensions of decent rural employment. The findings of our analysis show that decent rural employment contributes to agricultural production efficiency.

Due to different factors, federations exhibit significant variation in their respective forms, natures and degrees of decentralization. Regardless of these differences, however, the necessity of a federal covenant, which bestows genuine autonomy on subnational governments, is not contested. Indisputably, a mere constitutional stipulation does not guarantee the financial autonomy of sub-national governments as the latter is influenced by the political economy narratives of a government. Though the fallings of Ethiopian “developmentalism” on the effective functioning of the federal system are multifaceted, this article scrutinizes its impact on the fiscal (tax) autonomy of subnational governments. Looking at the contemporary “developmental-oriented” measures of the federal government vis-a-vis the constitutionally dictated autonomy of regions to generate own-source revenue, the article argues that the fiscal autonomy of subnational governments is highly constrained due to the adoption of the developmental state paradigm.

Background Policy discussions and debates in the last couple of decades emphasized efficiency of development policies for translating economic growth to development. One of the key aspects in this regard in the developing world is achieving improved nutrition through economic development. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of literature that empirically verifies the association between economic growth and reduction of childhood undernutrition in low- and middle-income countries. Thus, the aim of the study is to assess the interplay between economic growth and reduction of childhood undernutrition in Ethiopia. Methods The study used pooled data of three rounds (2000, 2005 and 2010) from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of Ethiopia. A multilevel mixed logistic regression model with robust standard errors was utilized in order to account for the hierarchical nature of the data. The dependent variables were stunting, underweight, and wasting in children in the household. The main independent variable was real per capita income (PCI) that was adjusted for purchasing power parity. This information was obtained from World Bank. Results A total of 32,610 children were included in the pooled analysis. Overall, 11,296 (46.7%) [46.0%-47.3%], 8,197(33.8%) [33.2%-34.4%] and 3,175(13.1%) [12.7%-13.5%] were stunted, underweight, and wasted, respectively. We found a strong correlation between prevalence of early childhood undernutrition outcomes and real per capita income (PCI). The proportions of stunting (r = -0.1207, p

Farming is at the core of the economy of Ethiopia. Agricultural market development is expected to allow farming to respond to market signals and develop market orientation and technologies for agricultural production. Input and output market development approach as a tool to enhance technological uptake was employed by Improving Productivity and Market success of Ethiopian Farmers (IPMS) project. This study evaluated the impact of market development in the Bure district. The study took a random sample of 100 participant and 100 non-participant households. The influence of different demographic, social, economic, and access to institutional support service variables on participation were examined. The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) results show that participant households are better-off in net farm income. Productivity measures of households indicate that participants are more productive. Input use of the households is different either from stock or in terms of purchased inputs and participants use. Participants are also more market oriented than non-participant households. Therefore, it is advisable to further extend and scale the approach to a wider coverage area and beneficiary farmers to enhance the uptake of improved agricultural technologies and the link of farmers to the market.

This research was undertaken to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the fattening enterprise and to study the economics of cattle fattening in the crop-livestock mixed production system, North Gondar, Ethiopia. Data was collected from 112 farmers from purposively selected three districts and two peasant associations. The Tobit analysis resulted labor availability in the households, duration of fattening (length of stay of oxen in the fattening period) and feed cost have found to affect the gain from fattening negatively. Experience of the farm operator, number of cattle in the fattening activity, frequency of fattening in the year and selling in the export market have significantly enhance the gain from the operation. Fattening is found seemingly paying and profitable for most of the farmers and could be considered as a farm-business which can be used as one of the strategies to achieve transformation of the subsistence agriculture to market oriented farm operation.

Ethiopia- a party to CPB- needs to benefit from the advantages of modern biotechnology, by managing the possible risks occasioned as a result of the application of the technology on human and animal health, biological diversity and the environment. In an attempt to implement the obligations under the protocol, the country promulgated Biosafety proclamation and Directives which regulate among other things import of GMOs. As Ethiopia is on the way to join the WTO, compatibility of the legal system with WTO rules that would otherwise affect international trade has paramount importance either to facilitate the accession or to prevent future trade disputes before the WTO dispute settlement body. And hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the regulatory framework of import regulation of GMOs in Ethiopia and to assess its compatibility with WTO rules- namely SPS, TBT and GATT agreements.