Ceding Power in Intra-Household Bargaining in Times of Economic Anxiety: An Experimental Study in Nepal

How do perceptions of one's relative economic status affect beliefs regarding gender roles? We conducted a 2019 survey experiment with approximately 2,000 adults in Nepal. Employing an established survey treatment called a priming experiment to subtly alter half of respondents' perceptions of their relative economic well-being, we ?find that increased feelings of relative deprivation make married women significantly less likely to support gender egalitarian perspectives. Women decrease their support for women making decisions over household expenditures, having equal control over household income, sharing household chores, and women working outside the home. A message randomly read to some women and designed to spur increased support for women's empowerment does little to alter beliefs regarding gender roles or to attenuate the effects of the relative deprivation prime. Despite the negative impacts on women's gender attitudes, however, we do not find a similar pattern among married men. The results underscore the deleterious effects that feelings of relative deprivation can have on women's own gender attitudes and provide a cautionary tale given trends toward greater economic inequality further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Socioeconomic and Demographic Factors of household Expenditures: A Case Study of Southern Punjab (Pakistan)

Household expenditures are the main source of society's well-being and welfare. The examination of socioeconomic and demographic determinants of Household Expenditure in Southern Punjab is the major objective of the study. The primary data of 785 households is collected in Southern Punjab. The estimation analysis is based on the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) methodology. The age of household head, years of schooling, household size, Remittances, the value of assets, number of earners, distance of health center from household residence, the distance of the school from household residence have a positive effect on household monthly expenditures in Multan division, D.G Khan division, Bahawalpur division, and Southern Punjab. The households which belong to the informal sector have a negative relationship with monthly household expenditures in all three divisions and Southern Punjab. The association between the area of residence and monthly household expenditures is positive in all three divisions and Southern Punjab. The result shows that households living in urban areas of Southern Punjab have more expenditure as compared to rural areas. The presence of disease and household expenditures are negatively related to each other in Southern Punjab. Therefore, this study suggests that health facilities should provide at a large scale in various divisions of southern Punjab.

Assessment of the Impact of the Armed Conflict in Ukraine on the Development of the Agricultural Sector and Price Setting

This paper analyses the impact of the armed conflict in Ukraine on the development of the agricultural sector and changes in average prices of agricultural products, and also identifies a possible relationship between changes in prices for agricultural products and financial expenditures for defence needs. The paper also investigates the possible relationship between changes in military spending, gross harvest of cereals and legumes, harvested and threshed area, their yield levels. The study considers how the presence and duration of armed conflict in the country affects: macroeconomic indicators, intensity of hostilities and their localisation in areas of economic activity, gross domestic product (GDP), government expenditures, export-import indicators; household expenditures and domestic investment, consumer and household expenditures. All this, indirectly, has an impact on fluctuations in average prices of products of different sectors of agriculture sold by enterprises. The study takes into account the importance of the agricultural sector of Ukraine, which is a significant part of the country GDP. The dependence of military spending on the size of GDP is the reason for analysing the relationship between the impact of the existing armed conflict on changes in the state of agriculture in Ukraine. One of the results of such actions was also the spending of more money on the purchase of agricultural products to support the defence needs of the state, etc. Therefore, to understand the magnitude of the impact of gross harvest factors, crop yields, and agricultural land volumes on the pricing of agricultural output using the method of statistical equation dependencies, the findings of the relevant analysis can be used as a basis for developing approaches, methods, and techniques to improve crop yields, or – initiate economic development of the country by increasing agricultural crop yields

Government and Household Expenditure on Education: The Role of Credit Constraint

Human capital accumulation is one of the most important factors of economic growth for both developed and developing nations. The central research question of this paper is to evaluate the tendency of household educational spending vis-à-vis government spending on education, given the household’s credit constraints. For this purpose, use annual data of 40 countries from 2004 to 2018 in this paper. The intensity of government and household expenditures on education is a more appropriate indicator to analyze the impact of human capital on economic development. This paper has applied the Fixed effect and the random effect model. The Panel Corrected Standard error (PCSEs) model to tackle the problem of heteroscedasticity, Serial Correlation of AR (1), and Cross-sectional dependence. For testing stationarity of the variables, the second generation panel unit root test is Im-Pesaran and Shin (IPS) Test at level and difference. As a robustness test, I estimated a VAR (3) and computed the Impulse response function using Cholesky decomposition along with a 95% confidence interval. The current study concludes that the causality runs from household expenditures (HEX) to government expenditure (GEX) on education directly and not the other way round. This paper also finds a negative contemporaneous relationship between GEX and NPL at the 5% significance level. This means that as households become more credit-constrained, the government tends to spend less on education.

Corporate Fight against the COVID-19 Risks Based on Technologies of Industry 4.0 as a New Direction of Social Responsibility

The purpose of the article: to find new (most effective) directions for the corporate COVID-19 risks management and developing management implications for leading this fight amid the pandemic and crisis for sustainable development. The methods of correlation and regression analysis are used. It is proved that the most perspective method of the corporate fight against the COVID-19 risks is a flexible transformation of business according to the new conditions based on the Industry 4.0 technologies. This paper further develops and supplements the concept of corporate social responsibility, including a new direction—corporate fight against the COVID-19 risks in it. The authors develop management implications on improving the corporate fight against the COVID-19 risks as a new direction of corporate social responsibility amid the pandemic. The advantages of using the Industry 4.0 technologies for the corporate fight against the viral threat include reduction of the share of the population with household expenditures for healthcare above 25% of total expenditures or incomes, reduction of the number of new cases per 1 million people, and an increase of the self-isolation index, the share of responsible employers amid COVID-19 risks.

Exclusive Breastfeeding Protects Young Children from Stunting in a Low-Income Population: A Study from Eastern Indonesia

The prevalence of stunting in young Indonesian children is the highest among countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Breastfed children are reported to grow better than non-breastfed. The present study examined the protective effect of exclusive breastfeeding against stunting in children under two years old (CU2) and its interaction with monthly household expenditure. Secondary analyses were conducted based on a 2012 cross-sectional study including 408 children aged 6–24 months and their caregivers from 14 villages in rural Eastern Indonesia. Data on breastfeeding history, childcare, and household expenditures were collected using structured questionnaires. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted in each village (n = 14). Nearly two-thirds (61%) of caregivers who identified as the biological mother exclusively breastfed their child at 6 months. Exclusively-breastfed CU2 from poorer households were 20% less likely to be stunted than their non-exclusively-breastfed peers. Further, exclusively-breastfed CU2 from wealthier households were 50% less likely to be stunted than non-exclusively-breastfed CU2 from poorer households. FGDs revealed that some mothers were unaware of the importance of recommended breastfeeding practices. Exclusive breastfeeding may protect low-income children against stunting. Health promotion to improve caregiver motivation to exclusively breastfeed is critical in the present setting and beyond.

Analysis of Household Food Security of Fishermen in Coastal Area, Bangil District, Pasuruan Regency

The low income of fishermen makes it difficult to fulfill basic household food needs and non-food basic needs. The purpose of this study was to analyze the level of energy adequacy and the level of protein adequacy and identify the factors that affect the food security of fishermen's households. The first analysis was carried out descriptively by combining food expenditure and energy consumption indicators. The second analysis uses a logit model regression analysis. The analysis results show that the food security condition of fishermen's households is at the food shortage level of 43.34%. Fisherman households in the food insecurity criteria are 10%, and food security is 23.33%. It means that more than 60% of fishermen's household income is spent on food consumption. The low income received has resulted in fisherman households being unable to allocate food expenditures to meet the nutritional adequacy of their household. The factors that influence the food security of fishermen's households are the size of the household members, household expenditures, and the nutritional knowledge of housewives. Local governments should coordinate with other institutions to formulate policies and plans for economic development in coastal areas.

Out-of-Pocket expenditures associated with Congenital Zika Syndrome in Brazil: an analysis of household health spending

Introduction: The study aims to estimate out-of-pocket household expenditures associated with the diagnosis and follow-up treatment of Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) in children affected during the 2015-2016 epidemic in Brazil. Methods: Ninety-six interviews were held in the cities of Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro in a convenience sample, using a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics and private household expenditures associated with the syndrome, which also allowed estimating catastrophic expenditures resulting from care for CZS. Results: Most of the mothers interviewed in the study were brown, under 34 years of age, unemployed, and reported a monthly family income of two minimum wages or less. Spending on medicines accounted for 77.6% of the out-of-pocket medical expenditures, while transportation and food were the main components of nonmedical expenditures, accounting for 79% of this total. The mean annual out-of-pocket expenditures by households was equivalent to almost a quarter of the annual minimum wage. Conclusions: The affected households were largely low-income and suffered catastrophic expenditures due to the disease. Public policies should consider the financial and healthcare needs of these families to ensure adequate support for individuals affected by CZS.

Inequality-Reducing Effects of Tobacco Tax Increase: Accounting for Behavioral Response of Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Households in Serbia

While previous research has indicated that increasing tobacco excises is a crucial instrument for lowering tobacco demand, this policy has been criticized for its alleged regressive impact on the poor. However, this critique does not take into account the behavioral response, i.e., decrease in consumption that occurs after excises and prices increase. In this paper, we examine the effect of cigarettes’ price increase on tobacco consumption, household expenditures, and tax burdens in three income groups and provide empirical arguments on the regressivity/progressivity effects of tobacco tax increase. Estimated elasticities indicate that all groups decrease their cigarettes demand with increasing prices, with demand decrease stronger for low- than for middle- and high-income households. Results further suggest that increasing tobacco excises (1) decreases tobacco expenditure of low-income households, which increases their productive consumption, such as on food, clothes, etc., and (2) redistributes the tobacco tax burden from low- to high-income households. Therefore, excise increase policies do not have an adverse effect on the position of the low-income households; on the contrary, they lower their cigarettes expenditure and their tax burden, while lower cigarettes consumption has an additional, positive effect on their health, which attenuates future inequalities.

Crowding-Out Effect of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures on Consumption Among Households in Mongolia

Background: High out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures are a common problem in developing countries. Studies rarely investigate the crowding-out effect of OOP health expenditures on other areas of household consumption. OOP health costs are a colossal burden on families and can lead to adjustments in other areas of consumption to cope with these costs. Methods: This cross-sectional study used self-reported household consumption data from the nationally representative Household Socioeconomic Survey (HSES), collected in 2018 by the National Statistical Office of Mongolia. We estimated a quadratic conditional Engel curves system to determine intrahousehold resource allocation among 12 consumption variables. The 3-stage least squared method was used to deal with heteroscedasticity and endogeneity problems to estimate the causal crowding-out effect of OOP. Results: The mean monthly OOP health expenditure per household was ₮64 673 (standard deviation [SD]=259 604), representing approximately 6.9% of total household expenditures. OOP health expenditures were associated with crowding out durables, communication, transportation, and rent, and with crowding in education and heating for all households. The crowding-out effect of ₮10 000 in OOP health expenditures was the largest for food (₮5149, 95% CI=−8582; −1695) and crowding-in effect was largest in heating (₮2691, 95% CI=737; 4649) in the lowest-income households. The effect of heating was more than 10 times greater than that in highest-income households (₮261, 95% CI=66; 454); in the highest-income households, food had a crowding-in effect (₮179, 95% CI=-445; 802) in absolute amounts. In terms of absolute amount, the crowding-out effect for food was up to 5 times greater in households without social health insurance (SHI) than in those with SHI. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Mongolia’s OOP health expenses are associated with reduced essential expenditure on items such as durables, communication, transportation, rent, and food. The effect varies by household income level and SHI status, and the lowest-income families were most vulnerable. SHI in Mongolia may not protect households from large OOP health expenditures.