Dualism and Development

Historical ‘source’ of dualism in Indonesia is first discussed, with a particular emphasis on the relevance of Boeke’s concept of dualism. Despite the presence of various policies to address the issue, the inequality between regions in the country is large by international standard. The productivity gap of micro-small enterprises and large businesses are also stark. As policy goals tend to be ambiguous, some proposed measures are not well received by the MSMEs.

Wealth wars: how productivity gaps explain democratic erosion in advanced economies

Why are democracies backsliding? I contend that a large productivity gap between economic groups motivates those with low productivity to capture the state for rent-seeking. They assess their relative position as weak and are willing to sacrifice certain democratic guarantees in exchange for favorable policies. Erosion takes two forms. (1) With high inter-class inequality and a large productivity gap among economic industries, losing economic elites capture the state through a political outsider who enacts favorable policy. Once in office, the outsider expands his personal executive control and attacks key democratic veto players. (2) When inter-class inequality is high but the inter-industry productivity gap is small, a united economic elite coordinate to stop a populist takeover. Traditional political elites respond to the populist threat by curtailing basic freedoms of speech and association. I use both quantitative and case study evidence from the US and Spain to support my main hypotheses.

Gender issues in fundamental physics: A bibliometric analysis

I analyze bibliometric data about fundamental physics worldwide from 1970 to now, extracting quantitative data about gender issues. I do not find significant gender differences in hiring rates, hiring timing, career gaps and slowdowns, abandonment rates, citation, and self-citation patterns. Furthermore, various bibliometric indicators (number of fractionally counted papers, citations, etc.) exhibit a productivity gap at hiring moments, at career level, and without integrating over careers. The gap persists after accounting for confounding factors and manifests as an increasing fraction of male authors going from average to top authors in terms of bibliometric indices, with a quantitative shape that can be fitted by higher male variability.

Examining the Gender Productivity Gap among Farm Households in Mali

This paper decomposes the gender agricultural productivity gap and measures the factors that influence the gap between male and female agricultural plot managers in Mali. The Oaxaca–Blinder approach and the recentred influence function (RIF) decomposition methodology are applied to a nationally representative survey of Mali. The results show that the agricultural productivity of female plot managers is 20.18% lower than that of male plot managers. Additionally, while more than half (56%) of the agricultural productivity gap is influenced by female-specific structural disadvantages, 44% of the gap is due to an endowment effect. Socio-economic characteristics such as the educational level and age of the plot manager, environmental factors and agricultural production practices, i.e., the differential use of inputs (organic or inorganic fertiliser and improved seeds) and the use of hired female workers seem to affect the female-specific structural disadvantages. To reduce or close the gender productivity gap, the underlying causes of female-specific structural disadvantages must be addressed to enable female farmers to obtain the same returns as men. Traditional means of addressing the gender gap, such as providing education for women in rural areas and facilitating rural women’ access to extension services and improved seeds, can mitigate the endowment deficit. This paper highlights the need to develop a better understanding of the factors influencing the structural disadvantages faced by female farmers in Mali that could feed into the development of more effective policies to address the gender gap in agricultural productivity, improving productivity and gender equity and reducing poverty.

Gender Differentials on Productivity of Rice Farmers in South-western Nigeria: An Oaxaca-blinder Decomposition Approach

One of the critical constraints hindering the transformation of African agriculture in general, and Nigerian agriculture in particular, is gender disparities in productivity. This study, therefore, examines gender inequality in farm productivity and sources of the productivity differentials among rice farmers in Nigeria, using the Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) gender decomposition model. The results revealed an uneven situation between men and women, leading to a gender productivity gap of about 29% in favour of men. Thus, female-managed plots are 29% less productive than male-managed plots. The decomposition of the sources of gender productivity differences shows that marital status, education, farm size and access to market information are the significant determinants of the endowment factor that contribute to about 15% of the productivity gap. The study, therefore, concludes that gender productivity inequalities exist in the Nigerian agricultural sector, hence, paying attention to these productivity gaps and factors contributing to these gaps is crucial in formulating policy interventions oriented towards women empowerment.