Jeff Dayton-Johnson

Inequality and Conservation on the Local Commons: A Theoretical Exercise

To analyze the effect of asset inequality on cooperation within a group, we consider a two-player noncooperative model of conservation of a common-pool resource (CPR): a fishery. We give necessary and sufficient conditions such that conservation is a Nash equilibrium, and we show that increasing inequality does not, in general, favor full conservation. However, once inequality is sufficiently great, further inequality may push the players closer to efficiency. Thus the relationship between inequality and economic efficiency is U-shaped. We analyze the implications for conservation if players have earning opportunities outside the commons. Finally, we consider various schemes of community regulation of the commons in the light of the noncooperative model with or without exit options. We find that increases in inequality may restrict the range of implementable mechanisms.

Determinants of collective action on the local commons: a model with evidence from Mexico

I develop a model of cooperation in small irrigation systems. I give conditions under which an equalizing redistribution of wealth increases the level of equilibrium cooperation, but also show that some redistributions that increase inequality can also increase cooperation. The distributive rule, a combination of arrangements for maintenance-cost sharing and water allocation, also affects the cooperation level. I estimate statistical models of cooperation for three maintenance indicators using field data from a study of Mexican irrigation societies. Social heterogeneity and landholding inequality are significantly associated with lower maintenance. Distributive rules that allocate water proportionally to landholding size likewise reduce maintenance.

Measuring Gender (In)Equality: The OECD Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base

The Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Developments Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base (GID‐DB) is a new cross‐country research tool with comprehensive measures of gender equality. It improves upon existing sources because it is the only data base on gender that systematically incorporates indicators of social norms, traditions and family law. The GID‐DB thereby permits analysis of hypotheses that link cultural practices to gender equality, human development and economic growth. A cross‐country comparison of the data indicates that inequalities in social institutions are particularly pronounced in countries with low female literacy rates, but correlate less strongly with Gross Domestic Product per capita. Similarly, our econometric analysis suggests a clearly negative correlation between gender inequality of the OECD Development Center and womens labor‐force participation.*The views expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the authors *The views expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the authors

Natural Disasters and Adaptive Capacity

Natural disasters (droughts, earthquakes, epidemics, floods, wind storms) damage wellbeing, both in their immediate and long-term aftermath, and because the insecurity of exposure to disasters is in itself harmful to risk-averse people. As such, mitigating and coping with the risk of natural disasters is a pressing issue for economic development. This paper provides a conceptual framework for understanding natural disasters. Disasters, which imply tragic human costs, are distinguished from hazards, which are events like earthquakes or flooding: hazards only translate into disasters when societies are vulnerable to them. Consequently international development policy can play a role in reducing the costs of disasters by addressing vulnerability. A review of two recent disasters — the Turkish earthquakes of 1999, and Hurricane Mitch in 1998 — illustrates the importance of precarious urbanisation and environmental degradation for increased vulnerability to natural hazards. These cases ... Les catastrophes naturelles (secheresses, tremblements de terre, epidemies, inondations, ouragans) sont nuisibles au bien-etre, tant par leurs retombees immediates et de long terme que par la nuisance provoquee par l’insecurite qui leur est associee chez les individus adverses au risque. Ainsi, la gestion des effets des catastrophes naturelles, de meme que celle du risque de leur declanchement, sont des questions urgentes pour le developpement economique. Ce document fournit un cadre conceptuel pour mieux comprendre les catastrophes naturelles. Celles-ci impliquent des couts humains tragiques et se distinguent des situations a risque, qui sont des evenements tels que les tremblements de terre ou les inondations : les situations a risque ne deviennent des catastrophes que lorsque les societes leur sont vulnerables. Par consequent, les politiques publiques internationales pour le developpement peuvent contribuer a reduire leur cout en visant sur la vulnerabilite. Un examen de deux ...

The Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base

This policy insight introduces the Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base: a new tool to determine and analyse obstacles to womens economic development.

Natural Disaster and Vulnerability

The tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, to which more than 225 000 deaths had been attributed by the United Nations’ six-month review in June 2005, elicited a worldwide humanitarian relief effort unprecedented in its scale; individuals, firms, non-governmental organisations and governments rapidly marshalled billions of dollars of assistance. Even as reconstruction was barely underway, however, many observers could not escape concluding that many of the dead, the injured, the displaced, were victims primarily because they...

Migration, Aid and Trade

In November 2005, Glenys Kinnock, Co-President of the ACP EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, reported that “there are more nurses from Malawi in Manchester than in Malawi and more doctors from Ethiopia in Chicago than Ethiopia.”1 These Africans had been lured North by work permits targeted at health-care workers, in short supply in the United Kingdom and the United States. On the face of it, this is reasonable policy making: the African health care workers in Manchester and Chicago clearly prefer their new situation to the one they left, and the general public in Manchester and Chicago benefit from the increase in the availability of health-care services. At the same time, however,...

Innovation from Emerging Markets: The Case of Latin America

Today, ‘innovation’ is a priority all over the world, particularly in emerging markets. The President of India declared this decade the ‘Innovation Decade’. In emerging markets the word means much more than catching up by imitating innovative policies and firms from more developed economies. Some called it Reverse Innovation, meaning that it originates in places other than the ones traditionally linked to research and technology. Others use the word ‘frugal innovation’ with the idea that you need to innovate in a context of scarcity of resources and has to have an impact in the society. The goal is to reduce price and functionality and increase quality for a large audience. If we look at Latin America, the region is well known for its music, Nobel laureate writers, excellent TV soapoperas (‘telenovelas’). In several revealing cases, Latin American businesses are redefining global business by developing new business models. There are many examples of promising policy reforms, such as Vive Digital in Colombia among governments in the region. Latin America can offer lessons about innovating with scarce resources in volatile and unpredictable environments — indeed, innovators in countries leading in research and development (R&D) increasingly face similarly challenging conditions.

Making Sense of Latin America’s Middle Classes

What does it mean to be middle class in Latin America? How is the Latin American middle class changing? What are the implications of these changes for Latin American development? The contributions to this volume, taken together, attempt to answer these questions and to make sense of the emerging middle classes in Latin America. This initial chapter motivates recent interest in the Latin American middle class by situating the topic in three narratives about the region’s development experience in recent years, having to do with development success (in comparison to past decades, including the so-called ‘Lost Decade’ that stretched to almost twenty years in some countries), self-sustaining economic growth and a reduction of dependence on the US and European markets and the social critique formulated by the Brazilian demonstrations of 2013–14; each of these stories has an important middle-class dimension. The chapter then provides an overview for understanding the numerous ways the middle class has been defined and measured in recent years, arguing that the various definitions serve an array of explanatory purposes. The final section surveys the answers provided by the contributors to this volume to the research questions raised here.

Making the Most of Aid: Challenges for Africa's Agribusiness

Aid and trade policies – in OECD countries and in developing countries – might reinforce each other to promote development, or they might be substitutes: the sign of the correlation between trade and aid flows depends on the context. East Asia’s rapid growth demonstrates the important development impact of the trade-aid link. While aid has played a strong complementary role for trade development in Viet Nam, for example, the current impasse of African cotton producers is emblematic of trade and aid policies working at cross purposes. The experience of six African countries reviewed in this brief highlights the case for development assistance that aims to eliminate bottlenecks preventing a greater and deeper African participation in the global trading system. The scaling-up of aid, macroeconomic stability and trade expansion are compatible and the ongoing international “aid for trade” initiative will remain critically relevant for African development in the coming decades.