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Abstract:
This paper attempts to demonstrate how location of an agricultural economic activity in relation to urban centers determines households' decision to allot their agricultural land to the production of either staple crop or a high value but risky cash crop. Analyzing household data from villages in North Eastern Ethiopia, we find that proximity to urban centers, access to road, and education along with other factors determine the crop choice in favor of the production of high value crops. Crop choices further significantly predict levels of per capita income across villages where the farthest with no access to road are the poorest.
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Abstract:
This paper is concerned with patterns of expenditure and child welfare among female headed (FHH) and male headed households (MHH) in Tanzania as well as with the underlying cause of potentially different patterns. I estimate semiparametric Engel curves to investigate household expenditure patterns while controlling for household characteristics and find that FHH spend significantly more money on the welfare of children and less on consumption of adult goods. In an attempt to explain this observed difference, I further investigate the empirical content of the old-age security hypothesis, which states that persons lacking the financial means to rely on themselves during old-age invest more in children who care for them in later periods. The results lend support to the idea that old-age security might be the driving force behind the observed differences of expenditure allocated towards the welfare of children. FHH having access to alternative means of old-age security, spend significantly less on child welfare. Furthermore, food expenditure levels of FHH and MHH with access to alternative old-age security become the same.
demand, female headed households, child welfare, old age security
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