Showing papers by "World Bank published in 1981"
TL;DR: Binswanger et al. as discussed by the authors found that the more risk averse choosing more conservative options, the more likely a farmer is to choose more conservative risk-averse options, and that a portion of the observed variation among individual farmers' agricultural decisions can be related to variations in the same farmers' experimentally measured degrees of risk aversion.
Abstract: In economics, empirical work with models of behaviour under risk whether security based or utility based usually involves comparing the models' predictions with the real world decisions of a sample of individuals or firms (for utility-based examples in agriculture, see Anderson et al., I977, or Halter and Dean, I97I; for a safety-based example, see Roumassett, I973). The advantage of this approach is that the analysis focuses on decisions that people actually must make in the course of their economic activities. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to determine the relative influence of risk and other factors on these decisions. This difficulty has led experimental psychologists and, to a much lesser extent, economists to design specific experiments to test the implications of utility theories in the laboratory. (For reviews of this experimental work, most of which has been confined to utility-based theories, see Luce and Suppes, I965, and Grether, I978.) This paper, following the lead of the experimental psychology literature, discusses a relatively simple but fairly large-scale experiment in ruralIndia that the writer and colleagues at ICRISAT designed to measure attitudes toward risk. We chose an experimental approach when it became clear that we could not obtain reliable estimates of risk aversion by the usual interview techniques of eliciting certainty equivalents. (For details of the difficulties encountered in this study and a description of the entire experiment see Binswanger, I980.) We have validated our experimental measures of risk aversion by showing that a portion of the observed variation among individual farmers' agricultural decisions can be related in a systematic manner to variations in the same farmer's experimentally measured degrees of risk aversion, the more risk averse choosing more conservative options (Binswanger et al. i980).1 This observed relationship between experimental behaviour and actual farm decisions suggests the importance of examining the significance of our findings for a number of models of behaviour under risk, focusing on the consistency of our findings
592 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report an experimental study of the impact of textbook availability on mathematics achievement of students in Nicaraguan first-grade classes, comparing with control classes in which textbooks are relatively rare and with a radio-based instructional program that uses student worksheets but no other textual material.
Abstract: Because widespread availability of textbooks in the United States preceded research on the effectiveness of instructional materials, there has been little systematic study of their impact on student achievement. The developing world provides an appropriate setting for such studies. This article reports an experimental study of the impact of textbook availability on mathematics achievement of students in Nicaraguan first-grade classes. This intervention is compared with control classes in which textbooks are relatively rare and with a radio-based instructional program that uses student worksheets but no other textual material. Classes were assigned at random to the three conditions. The control and two treatment groups scored similarly on a pretest of mathematical readiness. Both the textbook and the radio treatments had significant positive effects on achievement. Availability of textbooks increased student posttest scores by about 3.5 items correct, approximately .33 of a standard deviation. Availability of the radio instructional program increased student posttest scores 14.9 items, about 1.5 standard deviations. Both interventions reduced the achievement gap between urban and rural students.
144 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify the various internal and external prerequisites for a successful cooperative movement and argue that in the absence of such prerequisites, alternative forms of institutional arrangements may be at least as effective as cooperative institutions.
120 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors considered a model of linkage between land, labor and credit transactions in the context of sharecropping and derived and characterized the equilibrium in a land-scarce, labour-abundant economy under share cropping, given an infinitely elastic supply of identical sharecroppers at a reservation utility.
96 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Nash bargaining theory and recent developments in economic contract theory are employed in the analysis of the marketing channels and individual dyadic contracts involving payment schedules between members of a simple 3-level channel are investigated with particular reference to monitoring problems and intrachannel power relations.
Abstract: Nash bargaining theory and recent developments in economic contract theory are employed in the analysis of the marketing channels. Individual dyadic contracts involving payment schedules between members of a simple 3 level channel are investigated with particular reference to monitoring problems and intrachannel power relations. The interrelations between individual contracts are examined and the equilibrium set of contracts constituting the channel derived. The performance of the channel in terms of risk sharing, allocative efficiency and the distribution of gains is then evaluated. It is found that the risk aversion of channel members and the cost of monitoring and enforcement affect channel efficiency, and that under certain types of interdependencies and externalities, the nature of the power structure is crucial to channel efficiency.
87 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present Textbooks and Achievement in Developing Countries: What we Know, a survey of the literature in the field of textbooks and achievement in developing countries.
Abstract: (1981). Textbooks and Achievement in Developing Countries: What we Know. Journal of Curriculum Studies: Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 227-246.
79 citations
TL;DR: Using published census data, metropolitan area population and employment statistics are constructed for several large Latin American cities in 1950, 1960, and 1970, and compared to similar statistics from selected North American cities.
66 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the initial conditions for development facing post-colonial African nations, outlines alternative development strategies followed by different groups of countries and assesses the consequences for growth and poverty alleviation.
50 citations
31 Mar 1981
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a framework for electric power pricing, reviews the basic theory of marginal cost pricing applicable to the power sector, and summarizes recent developments, and the adaptation of the theory for practical application for the objectives of power pricing policy results in a two stage procedure for tariff setting.
Abstract: This paper presents a framework for electric power pricing, reviews the basic theory of marginal cost pricing applicable to the power sector, and summarizes recent developments. The adaptation of the theory for practical application in relation to the objectives of power pricing policy results in a two stage procedure for tariff setting. First, the detailed structure of the strict long-run marginal costs (LRMC) of supply which meet the economic efficiency criterion are computed. Second, the strict LRMC is adjusted to arrive at an appropriate realistic tariff schedule which satisfies other constraints, including economic second best and social lifeline rate considerations, financial needs, simplicity of metering and billing, etc. The results obtained through past applications of modern pricing structures internationally are reviewed, and the U.S. situation is discussed with respect to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978.
50 citations
TL;DR: Donors need to adopt a longer perspective on development and to make greater efforts to promote indigenous capacities for policy, planning, and administration and their investments need to be geared more to broad-based higher education and training and to transport and communications.
Abstract: Prospects for rural development in sub-Saharan Africa appear to be much poorer than in the rest of the developing world, especially since the oil price increases. If present trends continue, African dependence on food imports will increase. Despite the rhetorical acknowledgment of the importance of the agricultural and rural sector, most African countries are not giving that sector the needed priority in their policies and budgets. Indeed, the rural sector is heavily taxed for the support of urban modernization. Large investments by foreign donors in the rural sector have had little overall effect. Donors need to adopt a longer perspective on development and to make greater efforts to promote indigenous capacities for policy, planning, and administration. Their investments need to be geared more to broad-based higher education and training and to transport and communications.
48 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a methodology for fitting distributed lag models with polynomial restrictions on the lag coefficients is presented, which incorporates autoregressive residuals and allows for inference to be made about the three integer parameters in the model: (i) the length of the lag, (ii) the degree of the polynomials and (iii) the order of the autoregression.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the daily mean expenditures on travel, in time and money terms, which are regarded as "budgets" allocated to travel if they display predictable regularities.
TL;DR: The authors summarizes some of the main issues related to the World Bank's basic-needs oriented lending program and discusses the lessons learned with regard to sectoral policies and programming for their basic needs and their implications for future lending.
TL;DR: In this paper, a brief review of measurements based on nutritional and monetary norms is presented, and it is suggested that data on the proportion spent on food (PSF) by per capita expenditure can be exploited to measure the incidence of deprivation and incidence of poverty.
TL;DR: A broader approach to system planning was developed in which the sum of system costs and outage costs is minimized, which effectively subsumes the traditional system planning criterion of minimizing only the system costs subject to an arbitrary target reliability level.
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors derived orders of magnitudes for the economic value of increases in preschool children ability scores, i.e., the demand price for early abilities, and used this information to 'price' interventions that can increase ability scores of chronically deprived children.
TL;DR: This paper shows how an approximate competitive market equilibrium may be computed as the solution to a linear programming model, when production possibilities are described by activity analysis vectors and demand functions are locally linear.
Abstract: This paper shows how an approximate competitive market equilibrium may be computed as the solution to a linear programming model, when production possibilities are described by activity analysis vectors and demand functions are locally linear. Numerical examples show that the degree of approximation may be expected to be very small in many cases. Prices and quantities of goods and resources and also incomes are explicit in the primal. The defining characteristics of a market equilibrium are written as primal constraints. Linearizations of inherently nonlinear expressions are attained by use of grid linearizations and the associated interpolation variables.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that infitah is not a forcing open of a previously closed economy, but a restructuring of its economic relations, and that Egypt is not simply looking outside but, rather, turning northwest toward the United States and Europe.
Abstract: The argument here is that infitah is not a forcing open of a previously closed economy, but a restructuring of its economic relations. Egypt is not simply looking outside but, rather, turning northwest toward the United States and Europe. Internal evidence of this new orientation is presented and its implications explored, especially the regional and international influence of such agencies as the Consultative Group, the International Monetary Fund, and foreign banks—the latter a type of external influence also strongly affecting Egypt in the altered paths of development in the previous century.
The conclusion is that in Egypt a 19th century type of specialization is developing, one emphasizing oil, the Suez Canal, and tourism as the leading sectors. These, and whatever productive enterprises are established, will be of the capital-intensive type not apt to generate many employment opportunities. Labor's share of the Gross Domestic Product will tend to fall, comprador-propertied-landed classes will reemerge and gain strength. Social disadvantages will tend to widen and may in fact invite social unrest and mounting political repression.
TL;DR: In this paper, the central notion of the hypothesis of factor complementarity between preschool ability and schooling in determining labor productivity was introduced, and an analytical framework was specified to derive magnitudes of the economic cost of this misallocation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the spatial distribution of manufacturing employment in Bogota and analyzes the changes in the location patterns over the 1970-1975 period using industrial directory data.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address income distribution issues and policy options to eliminate extreme poverty in a particular typology of middle-income semi-industrialized developing countries of Latin America, characterized by a high per capita income, a high degree of industrialization, large population and geographical area, and substantial agricultural resources.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the total market value of a closely held firm is lower than that of an identical widely-held firm, and that different prices of control and minority shares and disconuities may impede evolution from closely to widely held ownership.
Abstract: Firms with widely-held ownership are relatively few. Shareholders controlling a firm are willing to forego the benefit of portfolio diversification because they can obtain a ‘rent from control’ at the expense of minority shareholders. This entails relevant conclusions for financial theory: (1) the total market value of a closely-held firm is lower, and its cost of capital higher than that of an identical widely-held firm is lower and its cost of capital higher than that of (3) different prices of control and minority shares and disconuities may impede evolution from closely to widely-held ownership.
TL;DR: The Third National Development Plan (NDP) as discussed by the authors proposes a change in economic development strategy to increase the number of jobs created per unit of capital invested, concentrate benefits on those who have least profited from the growth process to date, decrease imports, and increase the productivity of the poor.
TL;DR: A framework for electric power pricing is presented, the basic theory of marginal cost pricing applicable to the power sector is reviewed, and recent developments in the area are summarized.
Abstract: This paper presents a framework for electric power pricing, reviews the basic theory of marginal cost pricing applicable to the power sector, and summarizes recent developments in the area The adaptation of the theory for practical application in relation to the objectives of power pricing policy results in a two stage procedure for tariff setting First, the strict long-run marginal costs (LRMC) of supply which meet the economic efficiency criterion are computed Second, the strict LRMC is adjusted to arrive at an appropriate realistic tariff structure which satisfies various constraints, including economic-second best and social-lifeline rate considerations, financial Viability, and simplicity of metering and billing
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated both the sources of jute supply instability and the potential impact of an internationally managed buffer stock to stabilize market prices using a simple dynamic model of the markets for raw jute and jute goods.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed Pakistan's economic history from 1947, the time of independence, to 1977, when political power moved once again from a civilian government to a military regime.
TL;DR: Two Caracas household budget surveys are used to compare household and individual income distributions Real 1975 incomes are derived from income-specific price indexes Minimum food budgets define destitution and poverty levels During 1966-1975 mean real income rose substantially, especially among the rich, but mean income did not rise for those remaining poor as discussed by the authors.
TL;DR: The focus of this paper is on communication between administrators and researchers—the problems that arise, and the strategies that may be used to facilitate communication in order to improve use of research findings.
Abstract: Focus in this discussion is on how research results were implemented over the 1961-73 period in Bangladesh in the Training Research Evaluation and Communication Center in Family Planning and its predecessors. The history of research utilization in the family planning program is uneven. It was only over time that a capacity for program related action research developed. The process by which this development occurred has been studied and analyzed. This presentation is a case study of some of the more salient factors that seem to have facilitated or inhibited research utilization in East Pakistan and Bangladesh. The basis of the analysis in addition to personal experience and observation includes a review of some 148 family planning research papers now in progress an analysis of the implication of studies undertaken in 1965-70 and a study of the institution building process at the Training Research Evaluation and Communiation (TREC) Center in Dacca. Attention is directed to the following: organizational constraints; interpersonal influence and establishing a role empathic relationship; and linking the institution to its natural environment. 6 interrelated user subsystems could be identified. These were in order of utilization and communication priorities: the Provincial Family Planning Board; the Central Family Planning Council; the external sponsors; the members of the field structure (trainers supervisors and field workers); the clientele; and the linkage system (other research centers development programs and so forth. The special needs of each of these is outlined along with what media and strategies were used to channel information to them and to encourage their utilization of research findings. The barriers to communication that operated with these systems included traditional orientations of administrators toward intuitive decision making interagency differences about priorities sociopsychological distance between users and producers the research planning process which initially did not involve the users sufficiently the length of time between initiation of research and release of findings and the insularity of the family planning organizations from other national development programs.