Showing papers by "World Bank published in 1978"

Rural poverty and agricultural performance in India

Abstract: Time-series evidence on rural poverty over the past two decades in India is examined. In general, the time series shows a pattern of fluctuation, with the incidence of poverty falling during periods of good agricultural performance and rising during periods of bad performance. The incidence of poverty in all of India is inversely related to agricultural performance measured in terms of agricultural NDP per rural person. This correlation between poverty and agricultural performance suggests that faster agricultural growth might have led to reduced poverty rates. The state level analysis demonstrates a similar significant inverse relationship in at least seven states, accounting for 75 percent of the rural poor. On the other hand, state level analysis also shows that there may be a process at work in the rural economies that tends to increase poverty over time. The existence of an underlying force within the rural economy is extremely important. The nature of these forces, their variation across states, and technique to mitigate their effects require further analysis. Statistical data are included. 20 references.

Japanese Agricultural Distortions and Their Welfare Value

Abstract: Using a Corden/Johnson model the welfare costs of current and future Japanese agricultural trade and production policies are evaluated for the eight major cereal and livestock commodities produced and imported in Japan. It is estimated that the net social loss in consumption and production of 1975/76 import and production distortions for the eight commodities is $276 million and $111 million respectively. If the 1985/86 Japanese farm production goals are met the net social loss in production will rise dramatically to $7.6 billion. The combined production and consumption net social losses of the 1985/86 plan are equivalent to 2% of Japan's gross national product.

Macrosocial change, feminization of agriculture, and peasant women's threefold economic role

Abstract: Analysis of the impact of change in land tenure and production patterns on the roles and position of women in Romanian villages in the last 25 years reveals some unpredictable consequences of the macro social changes brought about in Romanian agriculture. A time budget survey of 500 peasant families revealed that: (1) no work role is performed exclusively by either sex; (2) the time allocated to various roles for women is independent of whether the family lives in a mountainous region, but the converse is true for men; (3) women spend more time in house keeping activities than in all other activities taken together; and (4) women still manage to work more than their husbands on cooperative farms in two out of three ecological areas. Hence, though women's traditional roles of housekeeper and mother may have changed in content, the time spent on them has not been reduced. This situation has increased women's economic decision-making authority, authority within the family and economic independence. These gains, however, are constrained by the traditional view of women as subservient to men and the extraordinary amount of effort expected from women under the new regime. 20 references.

Experience with mass audience linear programming for farm planning

Abstract: In this article the authors discuss the structure and application of a farm planning model for commercial grain farms. The authors have personally helped over 4000 farmers improve their decision making process via use of this linear programming technique. This model is designed to help farmers make annual and longer run decisions on a grain producing farm. All discussion herein relates to the Purdue Automatic Cropping Budget Model B-9 which is used in conjunction with Purdue’s Top Farmer Workshops. This paper describes in technical terms, how the model is constructed and dicusses the purposes of its individual components.

Economic analysis of irrigation production functions: an application of linear programming

Abstract: Economic analysis of irrigation production functions is discussed using linear programming. The method provides advantages over the partial one-crop type of analyses because it captures intercrop tradeoffs in water and land use in response to economic policies or changes in water supply. A numerical example is used.

A Review of the Manuals for BMDP and SPSS

Abstract: Objectives for the review of a user guide of a statistical computing package are presented. Sixteen major categories are used to compare the capabilities described in the BMDP and SPSS guides. This is followed by additional specific comments on each package and its guide. It is hoped this review will stimulate interest in developing standards for user guides, in reviewing such guides, in evaluating statistical computing capabilities, and in improving these capabilities. It is also hoped this paper will contribute to the understanding of these two fine statistical packages.

The household distribution of government services for agriculture and education in peninsular malaysia in 1974

Abstract: The paper reports on several results from a comprehensive study of the household incidence of public expenditure in Peninsular Malaysia in 1974. The results for education show a pro-poor distribution of expenditure when measured as a share of household income. Using however the criterion of each according to his needs (that is the number of school-age children per household) reverses this outcome. In agriculture, because of the importance of land settlement, benefits from public expenditure distribute predominantly in favor of the poor. The research differs from the usual study of this kind in that individual government outputs such as school years, or fertilizer loans, were defined, and in the case of education their unit costs estimated and their distribution across households measured. In the case of education, both the costs of services from capital and the households’ out-of-pocket educational costs were added to the current subsidies. As one consequence, it was seen that total expenditure for education in Malaysia exceeds one-eighth of GNP, nearly double the conventional estimate. Equally important, for the poor the burden of private costs for education even within a public system were seen to be very high. The contrasts between the strong results for education, a broad based social service, and the less conclusive results for agriculture, an economic service which impacts directly on production, were instructive in suggesting the limitations of such research in measuring the effects of government budget activity on distribution.