World Institute for Development Economics Research

About: World Institute for Development Economics Research is a facility organization based out in Helsinki, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Poverty & Population. The organization has 110 authors who have published 525 publications receiving 17316 citations.

The Determinants of Migration from Sub-Saharan African Countries

Abstract: This paper investigates the determinants of migration from 45 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1965--2005. The significant determinants are armed conflict and lack of job opportunities. An additional year of conflict is estimated to raise emigration by 1.7 per 1,000 inhabitants, while an additional 1% reduction in relative growth is found to reduce emigration by 1.5 per 1,000. Demographic and environmental pressures are found to have a less important direct impact, although they may have an indirect impact on migration through conflict and job opportunities. Finally, evidence is found of a 'migration hump' in migration from SSA, which is consistent with the finding that much migration from SSA is forced. Copyright 2010 The author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Tanzania: CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN TANZANIA

Abstract: Due to their reliance on rain‐fed agriculture, both as a source of income and consumption, many low‐income countries are considered to be the most vulnerable to climate change. Here, we estimate the impact of climate change on food security in Tanzania. Representative climate projections are used in calibrated crop models to predict crop yield changes for 110 districts in Tanzania. These results are in turn imposed on a highly disaggregated, recursive dynamic economy‐wide model of Tanzania. We find that, relative to a no‐climate‐change baseline and considering domestic agricultural production as the channel of impact, food security in Tanzania appears likely to deteriorate as a consequence of climate change. The analysis points to a high degree of diversity of outcomes (including some favorable outcomes) across climate scenarios, sectors, and regions. Noteworthy differences in impacts across households are also present both by region and by income category.

Measuring non‐economic well‐being achievement

Abstract: It is common to treat human well-being as a multidimensional concept, enveloping diverse, separable or behaviourally distinct components, domains or dimensions (Finnis 1980; Nussbaum 1988; Sen 1990, 1993; UNDP 1990–2003; Doyal and Gough 1993; Galtung 1994; Cummins 1996; Qizilbash 1996; Stewart 1996; Narayan 2000; Alkire 2002, among many other studies).1 It is in particular thought to be a much richer or vital concept than economic well-being: much of the literature is justifiably emphatic about this point. Accordingly, there is a long history of efforts both to refocus attention away from the established, although invariably far less than perfect, monetary measures of national economic well-being achievement and to capture better non-economic well-being achievement. A plethora of indicators of national well-being achievement has been proposed for these purposes. Indicators of health and educational status are most widely-used in inter-country ordinal and cardinal assessments of national well-being achievement, and are now available for diverse samples of 160 or more countries (see UNDP 2003). Multidimensional indicators are also available for similar samples, based either solely or predominantly on these indicators, and include the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) and the very well-known Human Development Index (HDI).