scholarly journals The Fall in Global Fertility: A Quantitative Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-109
Author(s):  
Tiloka de Silva ◽  
Silvana Tenreyro
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Population Control ◽  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Control Policies ◽  
Fertility Choice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Using Data

Over the past six decades, fertility rates have fallen dramatically in most middle- and low-income countries. To analyze these developments, we study a quantitative model of endogenous human capital and fertility choice, augmented to allow for social norms over family size. We parametrize the model using data on socioeconomic variables and information on funding for population-control policies aimed at affecting social norms and improving access to contraceptives. We simulate the implementation of population-control policies to gauge their contribution to the decline in fertility. We find that policies aimed at altering family-size norms accelerated and strengthened the decline in fertility, which would have otherwise taken place much more gradually. (JEL J10, J13, J18, J24, O15, Z13)

scholarly journals The quantity-quality tradeoff: a cross-national, longitudinal analysis of national student-faculty ratios in higher education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Buckner ◽  
You Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Faculty Roles ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
The Past ◽  
Enrollment Rates ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Cross National

Abstract This article analyzes cross-national trends in national student-faculty ratios (SFRs) over the past five decades. In descriptive analyses, we find that SFRs have increased globally, driven by particularly large increases in low-income countries. We analyze two cross-national datasets to examine factors associated with national SFRs. We find that national SFRs are positively associated with gross tertiary enrollment rates and particularly so in low-income countries. In contrast, both the female share of faculty and research spending are associated with having lower national SFRs. The findings shed light on how national higher education systems are responding to massification pressures and suggest that differentiating faculty roles is one way that countries curb their rising SFRs as enrollments grow.

scholarly journals TAX STRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: DO DIFFERENCES IN INCOME LEVEL AND GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS MATTER?

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (01) ◽  
pp. 217-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
HALIT YANIKKAYA ◽  
TANER TURAN
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Property Taxes ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Structure ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Effect On Growth

We examine the effects of both overall tax rate and changes in tax structure on growth by using data for more than 100 high, middle, and low income countries by employing the GMM estimation methods. In general, our results do not support the argument that overall tax rates or changes in tax structure have a significant effect on growth. However, we find that a shift from income to consumption and property taxes leads to a positive and significant effect on growth rate while a shift from consumption and property taxes to income taxes has a positive effect for low-income countries.

scholarly journals Technological Spillover, Growth Convergence And Technical Progress: Does technology flow from rich to poor economies?

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
Oladele O Aluko ◽  
B. Sabiu Sani
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Technical Progress ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Generalized Method Of Moments ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Dynamic Panel Model ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Growth Convergence ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The One

This study examines Technology spillover from rich to poor countries, the study used a model that, at the aggregate level, is similar to the one sector neoclassical growth model. The model was estimated using data on technical progress, Average Product Per-Worker, Capital Stock and Technology Intensive Goods in 25 countries which consist of rich and poor countries over the last decade. A dynamic panel model is formulated and estimated Using Generalized method of moments by Arelano and Bond; and the implications of the estimates were evaluated for aggregate total factor productivity and economic growth. The results reveal that, on average, technology have contributed more to economic growth in high income economies and on the contrary technology have made little or no contribution in low income countries. Consequently, there is substantial variation across technologies and economies

scholarly journals COVID-19, Australia: Epidemiology Report 15: Reporting week to 2359 AEST 10 May 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Case Fatality Rate ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Fatality Rate ◽  
Public Health Action ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global Rate

Confirmed cases in Australia notified up to 10 May 2020: notifications = 6,971; deaths = 98. The incidence of new cases of COVID-19 has reduced dramatically since a peak in mid-march. The reduction in international travel, social distancing measures and public health action have likely been effective in slowing the spread of the disease, in the Australian community. Cases of COVID-19 continue to be notified by jurisdictions, albeit at a slowed rate. Testing rates over the past week have increased markedly, with a very low proportion of people testing positive. These low rates of detection are indicative of low levels of COVID-19 transmission. It is important that testing rates and community adherence to public health measures remain high to support the continued suppression of the virus, particularly in vulnerable high-risk groups and settings. In the past reporting week new cases in Australia are mostly considered to be locally acquired, consistent with the drop in international travel. Most locally-acquired cases can be linked back to a known case or cluster. Although the proportion of locally-acquired cases has increased, the overall rate of cases, regardless of place of acquisition, continues to decrease. The crude case fatality rate in Australia remains low (1.4%), compared with the WHO reported global rate (6.9%). The low case fatality rate is likely reflective of high case detection and high quality of health care services in Australia. Deaths from COVID-19 in Australia have occurred predominantly among the elderly and those with comorbidities, with no deaths occurring in those under 40 years. The highest rate of COVID-19 continues to be among people aged 60-79 years, with a third of these cases associated with several outbreaks linked to cruise ships. The lowest rate of disease is in young children, a pattern reflected in international reports. Internationally, cases continue to increase, with some areas such as Brazil and India showing a dramatic rise in reported cases. Although some low-income countries have currently reported few cases, it is possible that this is due to limited diagnostic and public health capacity, and may not be reflective of disease occurrence.

Approaches to Macrofinancial Surveillance in Article IV Reports

Policy Papers ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Sector ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Financial Shocks ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

The Fund has made good progress over the past two years in integrating macrofinancial analysis into Article IV surveillance for a wide range of members. Building on past work to enhance financial sector analysis, Fund staff has sought to develop a consistent and forward-looking view on how the financial sector affects each member’s economic outlook with the aim of strengthening staff’s capacity to provide advice on macro-critical questions. The focus has been on developing a fuller understanding of macrofinancial linkages, and applying this analysis to inform policy advice. Staff has sought to articulate the role of the financial sector in the macroeconomic baseline, and to integrate the financial sector into the risk assessment, taking into account both the impact of macro shocks on the financial sector as well as the effect of financial shocks on macroeconomic stability. Strengthening the analytical foundations of this work has helped staff provide advice in all policy areas, including financial sector policies. Staff has tailored macrofinancial analysis to the circumstances of a diverse set of economies. Area departments have taken the lead in selecting 66 economies for enhanced macrofinancial coverage and in identifying topics, drawing on targeted support from functional departments. The choice of coverage has included legacies from the global financial crisis—such as deleveraging and stretched balance sheets in advanced economies and some emerging markets—and more recent challenges such as commodity price shocks, especially in low income countries, and the risks of housing booms. The financial sector’s contribution to growth and inclusion has become an important question in countries across all income groups. Staff sees benefits in mainstreaming this approach across the membership, while continuing to address analytical gaps and adapting to new challenges. The work of the past two years has underscored the criticality of macrofinancial analysis for a diverse range of members, and laid the basis for progressively mainstreaming macrofinancial surveillance across the membership. Building on this progress, staff sees scope for the Fund to deepen its understanding of the macroeconomic effects of financial shocks, to better adapt microprudential and macroprudential policy advice with an assessment of macro-critical risks including systemic risk, and to deepen the analysis of outward spillovers. Staff will also need to continue to adapt the focus of analysis and tools, and seek relevant data, as economic challenges evolve.

Trading Equality for Health? Evaluating the Trade-off and Institutional Hypotheses on Health Inequalities in the Global South

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Sosnaud ◽  
Jason Beckfield
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Global South ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Inequality In Health ◽  
Small Increments ◽  
Using Data

It has been suggested that as medicine advances and mortality declines, socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes will grow. Yet, most research on this topic uses data from affluent Western democracies, where mortality is declining in small increments. We argue that the Global South represents the ideal setting to study this issue in a context of rapid mortality decline. We evaluate two competing hypotheses: (1) there is a trade-off between population health and health inequality such that reductions in under-five mortality are linked to higher levels of social inequality in health; and (2) institutional interventions that improve under-five mortality, like the expansion of educational systems and public health expenditure, are associated with reductions in inequalities. We test these hypotheses using data on 1,369,050 births in 34 low-income countries in the Demographic and Health Surveys from 1995 to 2012. The results show little evidence of a health-for-equality trade-off and instead support the institutional hypothesis.

Foreign Aid and Adolescent Fertility Rate: Cross-Country Evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Zhuang ◽  
Miao Wang ◽  
Joseph Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Fertility Rate ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Health Aid ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Beneficial Impact ◽  
Adolescent Fertility ◽  
Using Data

AbstractThis study examines the role of official development assistance (ODA) in affecting adolescent fertility rates in low- and middle-income countries. Approximately 95% of adolescent births occur in middle- and low-income countries, and the average adolescent fertility rate in low-income countries is five times higher than in high-income countries. Aid donors typically pursue multiple objectives when providing development aid, many of which can go beyond changes in per capita GDP and include human capital factors such as adolescent fertility and infant mortality. Using data over the period from 1995 to 2015, our results suggest that total ODA has a beneficial impact by lowering the adolescent fertility rate either directly or through the channel of income growth. Our results also show that this beneficial effect on the adolescent fertility rate is stronger in low-income countries than in middle-income countries. Findings based on sectoral aid suggest that health aid has a stronger effect than aid in other sectors.

scholarly journals Mobile Money and School Participation: Evidence from Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Rotondi ◽  
Francesco C. Billari
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Empirical Models ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
School Age ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mobile Money ◽  
School Participation ◽  
Using Data ◽  
To Receive

AbstractThis paper shows that mobile money technology—an electronic wallet service that allows users to deposit, transfer, and receive money using their mobile phones—is positively correlated with increased school participation of children in school age. By using data from 4 African countries, we argue that, by reducing transaction costs, and by making it easier and less expensive to receive remittances, mobile money reduces the need for coping strategies that are detrimental to child development, such as withdrawing children from school and sending them to work. We find that mobile money increases the chances of children attending school. This finding is robust to different empirical models. In a nutshell, our results show that 1 million children could start attending school in low-income countries if mobile money was available to all.

scholarly journals Undernutrition and Associated Factors Among Lactating Women in Dire Dawa Health Facilities, Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zerihun Tariku ◽  
Bereket Tefera ◽  
Serawit Samuel ◽  
Tariku Derese ◽  
Melese Markos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Associated Factors ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Nutrition Status ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Additional Food ◽  
Lactating Women ◽  
Dire Dawa

Abstract Background: The nutritional status of lactating women is very important since it also affects the health of their children. However, there was limited information on maternal nutrition status in low-income countries like Ethiopia, especially in the study area.Objectives: Determine magnitude of undernutrition and associated factors among lactating womenMethods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 lactating women in Dire Dawa town health facilities from February 10/02/2019 – March 30/ 03/2019.Result: Prevalence of undernutrition was 22 %. Women who age 15-25 years were four times more likely undernourished than older [AOR=4.04(CI: (1.74, 9.40)]. Unable to read and write Women were almost five times more likely to be undernourished than formal education [AOR=4.76 CI: (2.31, 9.81)]. Women who have family size >7 were six times more likely to be undernourished than family size < 3 [AOR=5.53 CI :( 1.15, 26.53)]. Women not take additional food during lactating were 4.5 times more likely undernourished than take additional food [AOR=4.56 CI (1.50, 13.9)]. DD score < 5 were four times more likely to be undernourished than (>= 5) DD [AOR= 4 CI: (2.02, 7.90)].Conclusion: Prevalence of undernutrition in the study area was high: Factors associated with underweight were: Age of lactating women, Education status, Family size, Additional food during lactation and DD score. Thus, multi-sectoral collaboration targeted at improving women’s educational status and increasing food during lactation need to be emphasized.

scholarly journals Changing Forms of Corruption in India

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 1862-1890 ◽  
Author(s):  
AKHIL GUPTA
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Develop Nation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms ◽  
Nation States

AbstractThis article has four important goals. First, I want to ask why liberalization and market-friendly reforms failed to curb corruption in India. Indeed, confounding the predictions of most proponents of reform, corruption seems to have increased after the neoliberal reforms of 1991. Second, I aim to develop a typology in which the importance of particular sectors to corrupt practices is highlighted and explained. Third, I point out that India has failed to make the ‘transition’ historically seen in low-income countries as they develop. Nation-states have in the past moved from a system of vertical corruption—marked by the extraction of small sums from a large number of transactions with citizens in everyday life—to a system of horizontal corruption, in which governmental elites extract large sums in a small number of transactions from corporate and commercial bodies. Finally, I argue that anti-corruption movements cannot be understood without paying attention to the affective and emotional ties that bind citizens to the state. We have to take account of contradictory feelings about the state: cynicism about the state and popular anger against corruption on one side, and an attachment to popular sovereignty and patronage on the other. These contradictory sentiments will better enable us to understand the conjunctures that lead to effective institutional change.

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