Showing papers by "Duncan Thomas published in 1989"
TL;DR: In this paper, a concept of demographic separability is proposed that formalizes the notion that there are groups of goods (adult goods) that have little or no relationship to specific classes of household demographics (the numbers or ages of children).
Abstract: A concept of demographic separability is proposed that formalizes the notion that there are groups of goods (adult goods) that have little or no relationship to specific classes of household demographics (the numbers or ages of children).That there exist adult goods demographically separable from children is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the validity of Rothbarth's method for measuring child costs. We propose two different methods for testing demographic separability and present results from a 1981 survey of Spain. The econometric evidence is in fair agreement with the theoretical presuppositions.
243 citations
Journal Article•
10 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that unearned income in the hands of a mother has a bigger effect on her family's health than income under the control of a father; for child survival probabilities the effect is almost twenty times bigger.
Abstract: If household income is pooled and then allocated to maximize welfare then income under the control of mothers and fathers should have the same impact on demand. With survey data on family health and nutrition in Brazil, the equality of parental income effects is rejected. Unearned income in the hands of a mother has a bigger effect on her family's health than income under the control of a father; for child survival probabilities the effect is almost twenty times bigger. The common preference (or neoclassical) model of the household is rejected. If unearned income is measured with error and income is pooled then the ratio of maternal to paternal income effects should be the same; equality of the ratios cannot be rejected. There is also evidence for gender preference: mothers prefer to devote resources to improving the nutritional status of their daughters, fathers to sons.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
3 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored reduced form determinants of the adoption of certain technologies by upland rice and soybean farmers in the central-west region of Brazil and found positive impacts of farmer education on the diffusion process, in accordance with other studies.
Abstract: This paper explores reduced form determinants of the adoption of certain technologies by upland rice and soybean farmers in the central-west region of Brazil. We merge community level data on the availability and quality of publicly provided infrastructure, principally extension, to farm level data containing information on farmer human capital as well as land quantity and quality. By using conununiLy level measures of availability and quality of extension we avoid problems of endogeneity of farm level measures of extension use. We find positive impacts of farmer education on the diffusion process, in accordance with other studies. We also isolate effects of the quality of regional extension investment as measured by the average experience of technical extension staff. These results, which are relatively new in the agricultural diffusion literature, indicate that investments in human capital of extension workers does have a payoff in terms of farmer adoption of better cultivation practices.
1 citations