The Impact of Income on the Division in Domestic Labor: The Case Study in Rural Vietnam

The imbalance in the distribution of responsibilities for unpaid work has profoundly affected women’s’ empowerment and full participation in economic and social activities. The study surveyed more than 150 households in one rural area in one Vietnamese province. This study's result in the central rural area did not improve Vietnamese domestic labor division compared to previous studies. The daily time taken up doing housework strongly correlates with gender, and the t-Test is statistically significant differences in the mean by gender. Wives earn additional money, and then spend less time on housework; nonetheless, the wife's minimum threshold for housework time is much higher than her husband's maximum threshold. Unlike the time devoted to housework, how much income contributes to the household does not affect childcare time. Except for the gender factor, the importance and extent of factors affecting housework and childcare differed markedly. Peculiarly, the unemployment of husbands is not a normal situation in Vietnamese families, so the assumption of exchange theory is not satisfied, though the wife is almost unable to negotiate with the unemployed husband.

Covid-19 Impact on the Workers of the Informal Sector: A Longitudinal Study of Bangladesh

The rapid spread of COVID-19 and subsequent restriction measures become a growing concern for its economic impacts as well. To address it, a study was undertaken to investigate the impacts upon the low-income people employed in the informal sectors in Bangladesh. The data of 372 respondents was collected through a structured questionnaire from the informal sectors in the cities of Dhaka and Chattogram, the most predominant hubs of the country’s informal workers. This study covered the period of the first wave of the pandemic in Bangladesh from its first detection (8 March 2020) to the onset of the second wave (February 2021). It was a little over the one year period that had been divided into four-time segments considering as before pandemic (January – March 2020), and during pandemic (1st quartile: April – July 2020; 2nd quartile: August – November 2020 and 3rd quartile: December 2020 - February 2021). In the 1st quartile during the pandemic, 65% of respondents' income revealed a sharp decline. This scenario continued in the 2nd and 3rd quartiles with the figure of 35% and 24% respectively. Thus, in each of the three quartiles during pandemic time slots, the majority of respondents' consumption, living standard, schooling, and access to health care facilities were found negatively impacted. By the continuity of time some of the respondents were able to settle them in the new socio-economic condition. Overall, these results indicated several recommendations, including extending basic assistance to these vulnerable groups.

Exports of Services, Output and Productivity Growth in Europe

In this study, we analyse the impact of service exports on GDP and productivity growth in a sample of thirty-eight European countries for the period 2000-2019. Descriptive statistics analysis of the panel data shows that growth in exports of goods is more positively related to GDP growth, total fixed assets growth and productivity growth, while growth in export of services is more positively related to employment growth. In addition, the analysis shows that the volume of exports (in terms of its share in relation to GDP) of knowledge-intensive services (information and communication, other business services, intellectual property) is higher in more developed countries (measured as GDP per person). The pooled panel OLS model (fixed effects) with GDP growth rate and labour productivity growth as the dependent variables shows a positive impact on GDP growth of exports of services, although the positive impact of growth in exports of goods is higher. It applies to labour productivity growth, with a larger positive impact from exports of goods than services.

Examination of the Causes and Consequences of International Migration in Nigeria

This study examined the leading causes and consequences of international migration in Nigeria. A survey research design was utilized for the study. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The opinions of 100 respondents selected through the purposive sampling technique were obtained on the principal causes and consequences of international migration in Nigeria. The findings revealed that the principal causes of international migration in Nigeria were job opportunities, unemployment, wealth prospects, safety and security, better conditions of service, low salaries and higher standards of living. These foremost causes of international migration in Nigeria were mostly economic factors. Furthermore, the findings showed that the foremost positive and negative effects of international migration in Nigeria were integrated development, increase in remittances, cheap and surplus labour, urban services and social infrastructure under stress, stricter immigration norms, multi-ethnic society and increased tolerance, Xenophobia, close gaps in skills and cultural dilution. These effects were economic, social and political. Among others, the study, thus, recommends that: the strategies of the government for stemming international migration should address push factors of unemployment, safety and security and low salaries and pull factors such as job opportunities, wealth prospects, better conditions of service and higher standards of living since they are the root causes of international migration. Furthermore, migration, a long-standing poverty reduction and strategy for human development need to be mainstreamed into policies of development in Nigeria at the Federal, State and Local Governments.

Why is Ethnic Minority Poverty Severe? The Case of Rural Vietnam

In Vietnam, poverty is prevalent and extremely severe among rural ethnic minorities (REM). Despite a number of studies on characteristics of poverty, very few studies comprehensively examine the determinants of poverty intensity. This study employs binary and fractional logit models to investigate the determinants of poverty and the poverty intensity of the REM. Data are obtained by combining the 2012, 2014, and 2016 Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys. The results show that education, wage-paying employment, housing conditions, and domestic remittances reduce poverty and its intensity. Poverty incidence reduction also hinges on development programmes on credit and scholarships. The likelihood and shortfall of poverty declined for households residing in the Red River and Mekong Deltas, and in southeast Vietnam. However, language barriers, farm size and overseas remittances influenced the poverty intensity but not the likelihood of poverty. Our results suggest that previous studies using only logit models have neglected several influences of poverty intensity, which the current research overcomes.

Impact of Technological Change on Growth and Agricultural Sector in Gujarat State of India: A Time-Series Data Study

This study assessed the growth rate of commercial and food-grain crops due to technological change in Gujarat. Growth rate model was employed to examine the growth rate of area sown, production and yield of crops. Subsequently, impact of technological change, and other inputs on yield of individual crop was estimated using a Cobb-Douglas production function model. Time trend factor was used as a proxy variable to capture the impact of technological change, and other inputs (i.e., area sown, irrigated area, application of fertilizer, agricultural labors, rural literate population and annual actual rainfall) on yield of crops. Growth rate of cropped area, production and yield of cotton, sugarcane, castor, potato, rice, arhar, maize, gram and wheat crops were seemed positive in Gujarat. Yield of cotton, sugarcane, castor, rice, arhar, maize, bajra, gram, wheat, jowar ragi, potato, groundnut, sesamum, rapeseed&mustard and soyabeans crops was positively associated with time trend factors. Furthermore, the regression coefficient of time trend factor with yield of cotton, tobacco, potato, groundnut, sesamum, rapeseed & mustard, rice, arhar, maize, bajra, gram, wheat, jowar and ragi was reported positive and statistically significant. Hence, the estimates shows that yield of aforesaid crops were improved due to application of technological change in agricultural sector in Gujarat. Several practical policy suggestions are given to increase the use of technology in agricultural sector to improve the growth of major food-grain and commercial crops.

Covid-19 and Poverty Assessment in Nigeria – The Vulnerability Approach

The aim of the study was to abstract from the vulnerability theory to predict the likelihood of more people in Nigeria falling into the poverty trap as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study used a parametric technique to obtain estimates of the mean and variance of one-period ahead log-consumption. In doing this, the study hypothesized that estimating household consumption function is important in making inferences about the future and in assessing the vulnerability of household to shocks. The simulation analysis shows that of the 82 percent of the households that are vulnerable to poverty, only about 13 percent are in transitory poverty while the rest are in structural poverty. The implication of this finding is that poverty situation in Nigeria is widespread, entrenched and inter-generational. The current coronavirus pandemic has merely worsened the poverty situation and is not the fundamental cause of poverty in Nigeria. The study recommended among others, that anti-poverty intervention measures of the government, going forward, must be forward-looking and aim largely to increase the productive capacity of the populace instead of merely aiming to alleviate their current state of poverty.

Does the Abundance of Natural Resources Crowd-Out the Manufacturing Sector? Evidence from Nigeria

Our objective in this study is to investigate if natural resource abundance can crowed-out the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. Under the framework of an ARDL and over a period of 1990-2019, findings of the results showed that in the short-run, natural resources positively impact on the manufacturing value added in the current period; however, after a one period lag, the contribution of natural resources to the manufacturing value added becomes negative. We also found that in the short-run, real interest rate, inflation rate and trade openness are negatively linked to the manufacturing value added, while employment in industry and gross fixed capital formation are positively related to the manufacturing value added. In the long-run, natural resources contributed positively to the manufacturing value added. The long-run results also show that the gross fixed capital formation and inflation rate negatively impact on the manufacturing valued added. The implication of our finding is that natural resources rent is closely linked to the success of the manufacturing sector and as such can also crowd-out the manufacturing sector. On grounds of these findings, we recommend, among others; that the proceeds from natural resources should be used to build critical infrastructure necessary to improve the performance of the manufacturing sector. This way, the economy can be diversified to create the needed employment.

A Long Run ARDL Investigation of Manufacturing Adjustment to the Services Economy in Nigeria

The long-run equilibrating relationship between the value-added growth of services and manufacturing is investigated in this research. The study is based on the well-established empirical link between manufacturing and service activities, and in particular, manufacturing's servicification. The selected variables' annualized time series were obtained from the World Development Indicators. The paper used the autoregressive distributed lag framework to regress manufacturing value-added growth against service value-added growth while accounting for economic growth, factor input growth, and trade effects. The findings revealed that in Nigeria, a strong performing services sector has a large negative impact on manufacturing performance, whereas capital accumulation and income growth have positive effects. The supply constraint of business services that the manufacturing sector requires is at the root of this finding. The paper advocates for policy frameworks that support the efficient supply of business services as both a manufacturing input and a productivity enhancer for the entire economy.

Determinants of Inter-Regional Financial Inclusion Heterogeneities in the Philippines

This study tries to contribute to the vast literature on promoting financial inclusion in Asia by exploring the key factors that affect the deepening of financial inclusion across the 17 regions of the Philippines for the period between 2013 and 2017. Using the regional multidimensional financial inclusion index (FII) that is developed by the Philippine central bank, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the study finds out that significant heterogeneities exist among regions, and that they persist over the period analyzed, suggesting most importantly that the least financially inclusive regions do not show rapid significant progress. Moreover, using different panel estimation techniques, we try to determine the possible factors that affect this inter-regional financial inclusion heterogeneities. Overall, we show that regional GDP per capita, population, a proxy for the availability of physical infrastructure, and the degree of mobile penetration are among the robust factors explaining the financial inclusion variations across these regions in the Philippines for the observed period.