Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung (ZEF): Recent submissions
Now showing items 221-240 of 603
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A policy response to a downside of the integration of economies: An impossibility theorem
(2014-05)Recent research shows that the merger of economies increases aggregate stress. This paper shows that there is no income distribution policy which will ensure that the wellbeing of the individuals belonging to merging ... -
How strong do global commodity prices influence domestic food prices in developing countries?: A global price transmission and vulnerability mapping analysis
(2014-05)This paper analyzes the transmission from global commodity to domestic food prices for a large set of countries. First, a theoretical model is developed to explain price transmission for different trade regimes. Drawing ... -
Socially gainful gender quotas
(2014-05)We study the impact of gender quotas on the acquisition of human capital. We assume that individuals’ formation of human capital is influenced by the prospect of landing high-pay top positions, and that these positions are ... -
Welfare effects of vegetable commercialization: Evidence from smallhoder producers in Kenya
(2014-04)We investigate the impact of smallholder vegetable commercialization through the export and domestic market channels on household income and assets in Kenya. We use a survey panel dataset, which allows us to control for ... -
On the economics of others
(2014-03)We relate to others in two important ways: we care about others, and we care about how we fare in comparison to others. In some contexts, these two forms of relatedness interact. Caring about others can conveniently be ... -
The influence of biofuels, economic and financial factors on daily returns of commodity futures prices
(2014-02)Biofuels production has experienced rapid growth worldwide as one of several strategies to promote green energy economies. Indeed, climate change mitigation and energy security have been frequent rationales behind biofuel ... -
Smallholder Participation in the Commercialisation of Vegetables: Evidence from Kenyan Panel Data
(2014-02)This paper describes the participation of smallholders in commercial horticultural farming in Kenya and identifies constraints and critical factors that influence their decision to participate in this industry by selling ... -
Transgenic crops, production risk, and agrobiodiversity
(2014-02)Do transgenic crops cause agrobiodiversity erosion? We hypothesize that they increase productivity and reduce production risk and may therefore reduce farmer demand for onfarm varietal diversity, especially when only a few ... -
Reconciling the Rawlsian and the utilitarian approaches to the maximization of social welfare
(2014-01)Under a deadweight loss of tax and transfer, there is tension between the optimal policy choices of a Rawlsian social planner and a utilitarian social planner. However, when with a weight greater than a certain critical ... -
Comparing the global and merged with the local and separate: On a downside to the integration of regions and nations
(2015-12)This paper looks at the integration of regions and nations through the prism of the merger of populations (societies). The paper employs a particular index of social stress. Stylized examples of the merging of two populations ... -
Gender differentiation in risk-taking behavior: On the relative risk aversion of single men and single women
(2015-11)We relate an observed difference between single men (SM) and single women (SW) in attitudes towards risk to the higher value assigned to social status by SM than by SW. In the marriage market, low status carries a harsher ... -
The role of livestock portfolios and group-based approaches for building resilience in the face of accelerating climate change: An asset-based panel data analysis from rural Kenya
(2015-10)This study examines the impact of multiple shocks on assets by employing two waves of a panel data set of 360 rural households in three agro-ecological zones in Kenya. To control for unobserved heterogeneity, a ‘within’ ... -
Small farms: Changing structures and roles in economic development
(2015-10)Small farms are the largest employment and small business group among the poor. Their businesses use mostly labor and local resources and face local constraints, but at the same time, they are affected by increasingly ... -
Decentralized energy in water-energy-food security nexus in developing countries: Case studies on successes and failures
(2015-08)Access to modern energy is vital for sustainable development. In rural areas, decentralized energy solutions may play a significant role in reducing poverty, supporting community institutions and facilitating the generation ... -
How inheriting affects bequest plans
(2015-11)We present and test the idea that bequest planning is linked with the experience of inheriting. We consider “a family tradition of bequeathing” as a channel through which the intention to bequeath is moulded by and is ... -
Energy security, uncertainty, and energy resource use option in Ethiopia: A sector modelling approach
(2015-07)Ethiopia’s energy sector faces critical challenges to meeting steadily increasing demand given limited infrastructure, heavy reliance on hydroelectric power, and underdevelopment of alternative energy resources. The main ... -
Engineering an incentive to search for work: A comparison groups approach
(2015-05)Social comparisons are important in the employment sphere. A “culture of unemployment” may evolve and prevail because it is optimal for an individual to remain unemployed when other unemployed individuals constitute his ... -
A bitter choice turned sweet: How acknowledging individuals’ concern at having a low relative income serves to align utilitarianism and egalitarianism
(2015-03)When individuals’ utility is a convex combination of their income and their concern at having a low relative income (the weights attached to income and to the concern at having a low relative income sum up to one), the ... -
Modelling Indian wheat and rice sector policies
(2015-03)This paper serves to disentangle the complex system of Indian food policies related to wheat and rice procurement, storage, distribution and trade. Using nationally aggregated time series data, these policies are econometrically ... -
The impact of the assimilation of migrants on the well-being of native inhabitants: A theory
(2015-01)We present a theory that systematically and causally links the well-being of native inhabitants with variation in the extent of the assimilation of migrants. Recent empirical findings are yielded as predictions of the theory.
