Search

This paper studies the links between discrepancies in the language spoken at home and the medium of instruction at school and grade repetition using nationally representative sample surveys in India. Our sample consists of more than 100,000 students attending educational institutions. Using a fixed effects regression model, we find that language discrepancy is negatively associated with grade repetition among boys and is not statistically significant for girls. Subgroup analyses suggest that results are driven by urban, relatively wealthier households residing in Hindi-speaking states. Implications for policies such as the recently proposed National Education Policy (NEP) are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research highlights a neglected paradox of migration policies: whereas narratives on migrants as a security threat in their countries of destination find little support in empirical studies, forcing migrants to return may increase violence and crime back home. Using migrants' exposure to deportation threats at destination as an exogenous source of identification, this paper traces the long shadow of immigration enforcement on violent crime in Mexico, recipient of more than 3.5 million deportees from the US over the period 2000–2015. Enforced return is associated with more homicides and a stronger presence of cartels in migrants' municipalities of origin, as well as a higher sense of insecurity among the population and a higher probability of being assaulted. Identifying these local effects of enforced return are a first step towards unpacking the various direct and indirect channels through which immigration enforcement generates unintended negative outcomes in migrants' communities of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers an uncommon perspective on household poverty dynamics over a 16-year period of sustained strong economic growth. We combine the large and high-quality consumption surveys used to produce official poverty statistics with information from a nationally representative household panel for rural areas to study poverty dynamics in Bangladesh between 2000 and 2016 using synthetic panel methods. We document the steady and substantial decline of persistent poverty, which has been particularly pronounced in rural areas. Transient poverty declined at a slower pace and affected twice as many households than persistent poverty (30% vs. 14%) between 2010 and 2016. There are stark differences in poverty dynamics across divisions, large and persistent disparities across education levels, and a strong but diminishing association with employment type in urban areas. High levels of mobility, relatively greater in urban Bangladesh, and the growing importance of transient poverty stress the need to consider measures to help poor households cope with income fluctuations and initiatives to address the needs of vulnerable households as core components of poverty reduction efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from children suggest that the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire is a worrying 38%. However, while surveying children has the potential to reduce sensitivity biases such as social desirability bias, it presents significant ethical dilemmas and may also be associated with other reporting biases, making accurate estimates of child labour difficult. To address this, we collected data from 1741 cocoa producers to assess whether parents could provide more accurate estimates using indirect survey methods. We compared direct questioning with a list experiment and a novel non-verbal method (‘colorbox’). We found higher prevalence rates of child labour using indirect elicitation methods, but lower than those obtained from children’s surveys. Qualitative in-depth interviews revealed motivations for underreporting, including fear of legal consequences and mistrust of stakeholders. Indirect methods alone are not sufficient to correct for underreporting when child labour is collected from parents. Future research should prioritise direct data collection from children and address ethical concerns to obtain more accurate estimates of child labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the determinants of international migration flows within the European Union and specifically focuses on the role of cultural and linguistic differences in explaining the size of these flows. For that purpose, a set of indicators of cultural distance is controlled for along with economic, demographic, geographical, political and network variables using data from 28 member states of the EU over the period 1998–2018. Economic factors play an important role in examining migration flows, but economic differentials alone may be insufficient to explain the uneven real-life migration pattern in the EU. The results suggest strong evidence of the importance of linguistic distance in explaining the direction of migration flows across the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of Social Financial Grants (SFGs) in poverty reduction in South Africa, focusing on their impact on economic stability and income inequality. Using a structured model, it explores both the direct and mediated effects of SFGs on poverty alleviation. Results indicate that SFGs significantly reduce poverty by decreasing income inequality and enhancing economic stability, key factors in a highly unequal society. Effective administration and expansion of SFGs could further benefit vulnerable populations. The study notes limitations, such as the need for longitudinal data to assess sustainability and attention to regional disparities. Recommendations include integrating SFGs with job training, improving distribution, and reducing stigma. Implications extend beyond South Africa, offering insights for other developing nations. Future research should investigate additional mediators and conduct comparative regional studies to optimise social grant programmes globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population displacement from Puerto Rico to the United States following Hurricane Maria is considered and distinguished from ongoing outmigration from the island. Administrative data from two sources is used to estimate displacement with a capture-recapture method which, unlike existing estimates, excludes outmigration that occurs independent of the hurricane. The estimates are compared with preceding trends in outmigration from the US Census Bureau. The results show that nearly 90,000 individuals or about 2.7% of Puerto Ricans (95% CI: 2.5%, 2.9%) were displaced through May 2018. Displacement was highest (approximately 4.7%) from southeastern Puerto Rico where the hurricane made landfall and, counter to earlier outmigration patterns indicated by data from the American Community Survey, was comparatively low from the region near San Juan (4.0% pre-hurricane outmigration against 2.4% post-hurricane displacement). Displacement rates were higher in areas with higher levels of Federal Emergency Management Agency-certified damage to housing (3.3% in areas with high damage against 2.2% in areas with low damage) but did not consistently differ by indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage, including poverty and unemployment rates. Households’ intent to return indicates that those who will not return are more likely to be younger or be unemployed (86% of individuals under the age of 30 will not return, whereas 58% of individuals aged 65 and up will not return, and 84% of employed households will return, whereas 68% of unemployed ones will); these characteristics align with those commonly observed among outmigrants in the decade prior to the hurricane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research studies the effect of information campaigns on migration on perceptions and intentions to migrate among high school students in Dakar, Senegal. First, I analyze the role of expectations, migration perceptions, and intention to migrate. Through a randomized experiment, I also assess which actors and types of information are most effective in shaping these intentions and perceptions. I find that students display a high level of distrust in domestic labor markets, and an information treatment with an external expert reduces the misperceptions of some measures of labor market statistics but has no effect on the perception of the risks of the irregular migration journey. In addition, narratives are more effective in reducing the willingness to migrate irregularly, but none of the treatments has an impact on the intention to migrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to review the computational framework of SDGs in India, so that a mid-course correction can be contemplated. Design/methodology/approach: This study deploys, inter alia, econometric analysis to probe the robustness of indicators of SDG India Index 3.0. Methodologically, the study intensively probes the robustness of SDG India index and extensively refers to the global SDG indexes for cross-checking. Findings: Though the three editions of SDGI index mark significant efforts taken towards measuring the progress of SDGs in India, the paradigm suffers from the problem of too many indicators chasing only few targets, quantitative and qualitative issues with indicators, vintage pollution, partial coverage of targets and robustness issues. Research limitations/implications: This study has the limitation that it could not check the robustness of SDG scores with different weights assigned to indicators and future researchers can take up that interesting assignment. Practical implications: Since measuring the SDG progress through SDG index is a global endeavour, the findings of this study are important for almost all countries of the world, as it is still not too late to do mid-course correction because it is not the measurement that matters at the end of the day, rather it is the outcome of sustainable development that every country cares about. Social implications: The obfuscation of layers of SDG index in crafty, glossy and power-point-presentation-oriented SDG reports should get the reality check through such review of the computational framework of SDGs. Originality/value: This is the first study that unpacks the layers of SDG index computation in general and comprehensively reviews the Indian SDG indexing method in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Workplace Health Reports 2023, around 76% of employees worldwide have experienced moderate-to-high stress levels. Around 26% of Indians are stressed due to their current work environment with long working hours, lack of job security, low wages, and growing competition. It is often believed that teaching is an extremely difficult job, in particular, academic staff experience a lot of stress due to several stressors. Emotional intelligence is a set of non-cognitive abilities, to effectively handle environmental demands and stresses. The current investigation seeks to project the effect of psychological capital as a mediator linking emotional intelligence (EI) and occupational stress to academic teaching faculties in Chennai City.

The problem towards measuring the level of inclusive development of the national economy is one of the most important and controversial problems the modern scientists faced with in the 21st century. The objectives of the named research are the analysis of the various methods of assessing the level of the inclusive development of countries, defining their main advantages and disadvantages, likewise the development of the universal comprehensive method and its use for the further research on the inclusive development of the Ukraine’s economy. The calculation of the integral indicator of the inclusive development of the economy of Ukraine was carried out on the basis of the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine according to the author’s methodology using the Excel program. The given method helps to reveal the actual asymmetries in the field of the inclusive development, which should become an analytical basis for making the further managerial decisions. To increase the level of the inclusive development of the economy of Ukraine, it is necessary to: ensure the national security and territorial integrity of the country; improve the institutional support for the inclusive development of the national economy; implement an inclusive approach at all levels of the national economy; stimulate the development of the inclusive entrepreneur-ship; modernize the infrastructure based on the principles of the «universal design»; create conditions for the development of the inclusive education and medicine; stimulate the development of «green», «silver», digital, circular and serial economies.

Efficiency and effectiveness in treating workers are the focus of this research in an era completely limited by circumstances to adapt to these rapid changes by analyzing the influence of leadership and training on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and the subsequent impact on performance.

This study investigates the impact of Value Added Tax on Economic Development and Human Capital Development from 1994 to 2022. Employing a longitudinal research design, the study utilizes data specific to Nigeria and obtained from the office of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Statistical Bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the World Bank. The collected data is then analyzed using the Johansen Co-integration, Vector Error Correction Model, and Vector Autoregressive analysis technique. The research establishes a connection between Value Added Tax (VAT) and the Exchange rate, demonstrating their impact on Economic Development and Human capital development in Nigeria. The verdicts show that both VAT and Exchange Rate significantly impact both Economic Development and Human Capital Development, though negatively. However, these findings are not meant to discourage but rather to serve as a catalyst for change. The recommendations outlined in the study emphasize the importance of training, oversight, exchange rate stabilization, investment in education, and financial security in promoting Economic Development and Human Capital Development in Nigeria. Tax regulatory authorities should improve management of VAT funds to ensure they are utilized for developmental objectives. Finally, organizations such as the EFCC must remain steadfast in their commitment to preventing the misuse or diversion of VAT funds meant for Capital Expenditure and the development of the nation’s human resources, thereby safeguarding the financial security of the government and the nation as a whole.

This study discusses the influence of China's high-speed rail (HSR) network on the urban‒rural income gap from 2003–2019. We find that China's HSR network has reduced the urban‒rural income gap since 2003, mainly by promoting industrial upgrading, industry agglomeration, and financial industry development. The results also show that the HSR network decreases the urban‒rural income gap in medium-sized cities but has nonsignificant effects on large and small cities. Additionally, the HSR network can reduce the urban‒rural income gap in cities with high betweenness centrality, whereas it has no significant effect on the urban‒rural income gap in cities with low betweenness centrality. The HSR network expands the urban‒rural income gap in provincial capital cities, whereas it narrows the gap in nonprovincial capital cities. Additionally, the HSR network reduces the urban–rural income gap more for cities with HSR stations far from the provincial capital than for cities with HSR stations close to the provincial capital. This study holds reference value for the spatial optimization of the HSR network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a model with corrupt and honest examiners, and applicants with heterogeneous innate ability in the education sector with effort and bribe modelled as substitutes. The results show that ‘strong’ candidates rely only upon effort; ‘medium’ candidates choose positive levels of bribe and effort; ‘weak’ candidates rely only on bribery. They also show that corruption may decrease education quality by lowering aggregate effort while increasing education quantity by increasing the aggregate chances of obtaining a degree, depending on candidates’ ability and the proportion of corrupt examiners. We also find empirical support for the key predictions of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper explores the effect of China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) policy by considering the child human capital of households targeted by the policy. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy to identify the effect of TPA on child human capital. The evidence indicates that TPA significantly enhances beneficiary children’s health, cognitive, and non-cognitive abilities. The most substantial improvement is observed in cognitive ability, reaching 49.8 per cent of its standard deviation (0.999). Mechanism tests suggest that TPA achieves these positive outcomes primarily through improving infrastructure, alleviating resource constraints, and enhancing family-process capacity. Specifically, TPA contributes to local infrastructure enhancement to facilitate child human capital development while increasing targeted households’ utilization of medical services for their children and promoting educational inputs in children. Moreover, TPA substantially improves parent–child relationships, increases quality time spent together, and considerably reduces mothers’ depression in targeted households. A back-of-envelop calculation suggests that exposure to the TPA policy during childhood leads to a 0.562 increase in years of schooling and a 13.1 per cent increase in wages for adults in their twenties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of children are forcibly displaced worldwide due to wars, civil conflicts, and natural disasters. Displacement disrupts the lives of children making child labor a serious risk. However, little is known about this topic due to the difficulty of finding datasets for this population. In this study, we use a large representative dataset of Syrian refugees in Turkey, the largest refugee group in any single country, to examine the incidence of child labor and its determinants. The incidence of paid work is remarkably high among boys: 18.8 percent of 12–14 year-olds and 48.0 percent of 15–17 year-olds are in paid employment. These percentages are considerably higher than the corresponding values we estimate for pre-war Syria at 7.6 percent and 29.0 percent, respectively. We find that children from poorer households with more dependents and younger, less educated, and female household heads and children living in industrialized regions of Turkey and originating from rural Syria are more likely to work. A key finding is that being older at arrival is highly associated with child labor. Difficulties with school integration, on the one hand, and availability of job opportunities, on the other, have created a group of young out-of-school children at work. Placing these children in vocational training that allows them to work while learning a trade under the scrutiny of the Ministry of Education may help protect their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 23 June 2016, the people of the UK voted to leave the European Union. This article examines how Brexit impacted international student applications. Using administrative data along with a difference-in-differences approach, we find that Brexit curtailed the growth rate of international student applications by 7 per cent even before tuition fees had changed, ultimately lowering enrolment as well. The impact is larger for applications to pursue STEM studies, as well as for those from countries with worse employment prospects and weaker economies, hinting on students' ability to stay long-term in the UK as an important pull factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of exports on productivity is a central theme in macroeconomics, explored in both the ‘learning by exporting’ and ‘Kaldor-Verdoorn law’ literature. We utilize a novel dataset of Italian firm microdata to build an empirical model examining the effect of persistent exporting on firm productivity. The model endogenizes a firm's export propensity using a probit specification that enables us to derive consistent estimates of the impact of exporting on productivity. In addition, we use the share of highly educated workers as a proxy of human capital to test the ability of persistently exporting firms to learn. This impact is derived using a biprobit specification, which enables us to endogenize the joint probability of being a continuously exporting firm while highly endowed with a skilled workforce. The results strongly support the hypothesis that persistent exporters show a significant productivity premium compared to occasional exporters. Moreover, the workforce's education level further increases productivity, with results supporting the hypothesis that highly educated shares of a firm's workforce enhance the ability to learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the socioeconomic determinants of early childhood development (ECD) in Türkiye, focusing on maternal education and household wealth, using representative microdata from the 2018 Türkiye Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS), which collected data on the developmental status of young children aged 36–59 months for the first time. Using this data, we construct an ECD index based on four developmental domains (i.e., literacy-numeracy, physical development, learning readiness and socio-emotional). Our results suggest that 74 percent of children (70.3 percent of boys and 78 percent of girls) are developmentally on track. We find that while over 96 percent of children are developmentally on track in physical and learning readiness domains, only 14.5 percent and 73.6 percent are in the literacy-numeracy and socio-emotional development domains, respectively. The multivariate regression results suggest both maternal education and household wealth improve children's ECD outcomes but the latter has a stronger effect. In fact, we find that mother's schooling is only positively and statistically associated with ECD once mothers have at least a high school education. Kindergarten attendance, which stands at a meagre 11.3 percent, is only likely for children from well-to-do and educated households. As a result, we find large gaps in ECD and its components between children with low and high socioeconomic backgrounds. We conclude that leveling the playing field is only possible via a nationwide multisectoral initiative that can support and educate caregivers and children simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Development and its regional disparity is an area of topical interest. In this paper, we consider space as an instrumental variable in understanding this disparity and explore spatial interdependence in human development across districts of West Bengal using alternate indicators of human development. This study uses both the standard United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) technique and an alternative methodology to construct a sub-national human development index. Spatial interdependence is measured using Moran's I coefficient and Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA) cluster maps. Spatial regression is used to evaluate the spatial association between the Human Development Index as the dependent variable and a few independent variables. A high degree of clustering in all three dimensions of human development is observed among the southern districts of West Bengal. The pattern of cluster maps indicates the presence of both the growth pole process and the metropole-periphery process in the state. Spatial regression results indicate that the share of socially backward class population and urbanization rate are important variables affecting regional human development patterns. The findings of this study suggest policies targeted to promote social inclusion and urbanization linked with better access to economic opportunities in the lagging areas can help reduce regional imbalances.

Entrepreneurship's evolving role now extends beyond economic realms to encompass broader societal and environmental imperatives. Sustainable entrepreneurship emerges as a linchpin in addressing contemporary challenges, offering innovative solutions that harmonize economic resilience with environmental and social objectives. Yet, the determinants underpinning individuals' intentions towards sustainable entrepreneurship, particularly within the Algerian context, remain underexplored. Keeping this into consideration, our research endeavours to identify the motivational factors influencing the decision to engage in sustainable entrepreneurial activities among students at the Kolea University Pole.

The aim of the research was to identify and assess the professional problems of women who hold managerial positions. In addition, factors influencing the female style of management were identified and the level of discrimination against women as well as the level of gender equality in Poland and in the European Union was assessed, using the gender equality index.

This paper studies the labor market impacts of the Venezuelan immigration in Colombia. Exploiting spatial variation in exposure, I find a negative effect on native wages driven by the informal sector (where immigrants are concentrated) and a reduction in native employment in the formal sector (where the minimum wage binds for many workers). To explain this, I build a model in which a firm substitutes formal for informal labor in response to lower informal wages. Consistent with the model’s predictions, I document that the decrease in formal employment is driven by small firms that use both labor types in production and by workers earning the minimum wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-marital residence norms govern where a married couple resides after marriage: with the husband’s family, the wife’s family, or independently. We study whether these arrangements affect female autonomy and domestic violence outcomes in four Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Myanmar—where a sizable proportion of the population practices each type of marital residence. Compared to independently residing families within the same province-country, married women residing with the husband’s family have worse autonomy outcomes, whereas those residing with members of their own natal families fare substantially better. This aligns well with an anthropological understanding of how gendered patterns of influence in a social system might potentially interact with female empowerment. On the other hand, we observe that married women in both types of non-independent households suffer from less frequent domestic abuse compared to women residing independently, likely due to a deterrence effect from the presence of other family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of exposure to violence during pregnancy on anthropometric and cognitive outcomes of children in the medium run. I combine detailed household-level data on more than 36,000 children with geo-coded information on civilian casualties in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq between 2003 and 2009 and exploit within-mother differences in prenatal exposure to violence. I find that one violent incident during pregnancy decreases height- and weight-for-age z-scores by 0.13 standard deviations and lowers cognitive and behavioral skills of children. Leveraging information on the severity, type and perpetrator of violence, I isolate the effect of stress from access to prenatal care. The analysis reveals that stressful events, particularly those involving direct threats to personal safety (violence directed at the civilian population and involving execution and torture), exert an even larger negative impact on child health than those incidents that disrupt health infrastructure and access to prenatal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey-2010/11, and an instrumental variables approach, we find gender-differentiated impact of unpaid care work on employment outcomes. While for an additional hour of caregiving per week, women and men experience commensurate declines in their weekly employment hours, the employment likelihood decreases only for women. The conceptual framework, motivated by the Capability Approach, delineates contemporaneous effects of undertaking unpaid care work on the caregiver and its wider intergenerational and societal effects in a developing country context. The study employs time-use data to provide evidence on the impact of unpaid care work; it is also the first of its kind in the context of Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits the sharp escalation of violence in Colombia in the 1980s associated with the emergence of drug cartels to provide novel evidence on the long-run effects of violence exposure throughout the life-course, on children's educational attainment and academic achievement using administrative data. I find that, a higher homicide rate in early-childhood is associated with a higher probability of school dropout and conditional on completing high school, lower scores on a national end-of-high school exam. Results are robust to several falsification tests, and analyses of potential sources of selection bias. I provide supportive evidence that changes in fetal, child, and adolescent health outcomes are important potential mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right-wing populism and related geographies of discontent have become central subjects in the recent debate on regional inequalities. The present contribution seeks to complement existing, predominantly synoptic approaches by looking at specific economic practices of local actors. We argue that exclusionary regional political identities are transferred to firms and shape corporate practices. Using 65 semi-structured interviews with representatives from firms in East Thuringia, we analyze these processes and how they affect recruitment, customer-relations and local business networks in different types of firms. Furthermore, we show that these practices can have a negative impact on the business location and thus contribute to the consolidation of existing regional inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]