Jonna P. Estudillo

Gender Differences in Land Inheritance, Schooling and Lifetime Income: Evidence from the Rural Philippines

This article examines the difference in lifetime incomes arising from parental preferences in the allocation of land inheritance and investments in schooling between sons and daughters in the rural Philippines. Sons are preferred with respect to land inheritance, receiving 0.15 additional hectares of land, while daughters are treated more favourably in schooling investments, receiving 1.5 more years of schooling. However, differences in both current and life-cycle incomes between sons and daughters are insignificant. This suggests that Filipino parents allocate intergenerational transfers to equalise incomes among their children, without sacrificing efficiency.

Rural Poverty and Income Dynamics in Asia and Africa

1. Introduction: An Overview and Conceptual Framework Yasuyuki Sawada, Jonna P. Estudillo and Keijiro Otsuka 2. Income Dynamics, Schooling Investment, and Poverty Reduction in Philippine Villages, 1985-2004 Jonna P. Estudillo, Yasuyuki Sawada and Keijiro Otsuka 3. Human Capital Investment and Poverty Reduction over Generations: A Case from the Rural Philippines, 1979-2003 Kazushi Takahashi and Keijiro Otsuka 4. Income Dynamics, Schooling Investment, and Poverty Reduction in Thai Villages, 1987-2004 Supattra Cherdchuchai, Keijiro Otsuka and Jonna P. Estudillo 5. Income Dynamics, Schooling Investments, and Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh, 1988-2004, Mahabub Hossain A.N.M. Mahfuzur Rahman and Jonna P. Estudillo 6. Income Dynamics and Schooling Investments in Tamil Nadu, India, from 1971 to 2003: Changing Roles of Land and Human Capital Kei Kajisa and N. Venkatesa Palanichamy 7. Role of Nonfarm Income and Education in Reducing Poverty: Evidence from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda Tomoya Matsumoto, Yoko Kijima and Takashi Yamano 8. Determinants of Household Income and Schooling Investments in Rice-Growing Provinces in Mozambique, 2002-5 Benedito Cunguara and Kei Kajisa 9. Toward a New Paradigm of Farm and Nonfarm Linkages in Economic Development Keijiro Otsuka, Jonna P. Estudillo and Yasuyuki Sawada

Gender Differences in Land Inheritance and Schooling Investments in the Rural Philippines

This paper examines the preferences of parents with respect to the allocation of land and investments in schooling between sons and daughters in two generations of households in the rural Philippines. In the older generation, better-educated fathers prefer to invest in sons’ schooling, while land-owning mothers preferentially bestow land to daughters. While gender preference in relation to parental resources has disappeared in the child generation, sons are preferred with respect to land inheritance, while daughters are treated more favorably in schooling investments. (JEL Q24)

Trade, Migration, and Poverty Reduction in the Globalizing Economy: The Case of the Philippines

In September 2000, the 189 member countries of the United Nations (UN) made poverty reduction a global objective by setting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The most important of the MDGs was Goal 1: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and Target 1: to halve the proportion of people living on less than a (US) dollar a day, and those who suffer from hunger. The UN aims to achieve both Goal 1 and Target 1 between 1990 and 2015.

Lessons from the Asian Green Revolution in Rice

The Asian Green Revolution in rice entailed a long-term evolutionary process spanning more than four decades since the mid-1960s. The purpose of this chapter is to identify important lessons from the Asian Green Revolution in rice and examine whether the modern rice technology in Asia could be appropriately transferred to contemporary sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). While there are many lessons to learn, this study focuses on high-yielding well-adapted lowland rice varieties, appropriate fertilizer application, and favorable institutional and policy environment that played pivotal roles in launching and sustaining the Asian Green Revolution in rice. The Green Revolution in SSA could include more than one commodity as none of which dominates; we argue that such Green Revolution should include rice for a number of reasons.

The changing determinants of schooling investments: evidence from villages in the Philippines, 1985-89 and 2002-04.

Abstract This paper aims to explore the changing determinants of child progress through school over the last two decades using unique long-term household-panel data from four villages in the Philippines. In a regime of low income in the late 1980s, income from farming is the most important source of funds to finance child schooling. As households shift away from farm to non-farm activities and their children pursue higher education, non-farm income and revenues from pawning of land have emerged as main sources of schooling funds in the early 2000s. In this process, farm income has lost its prime importance as a determinant of schooling investments among rural households.

Can Africa replicate Asia's green revolution in rice ?

Asias green revolution in rice was transformational and improved the lives of millions of poor households. Rice has become an increasingly important part of African diets and imports of rice have grown. Agronomists point out that large areas in Africa are well suited for rice and are encouraged by the field tests of new rice varieties. So is Africa poised for its own green revolution in rice? This study reviews the recent literature on rice technologies and their impact on productivity, incomes, and poverty, and compares current conditions in Africa with the conditions that prevailed in Asia as its rice revolution got under way. An important conclusion is that, to a degree, a rice revolution has already begun in Africa. Moreover, many of the same practices that have proved successful in Asia and in Africa can be applied where yields are currently low. At the same time, for many reasons, Africas rice revolution has been, and will continue to be, characterized by a mosaic of successes, situated where the conditions are right for new technologies to take hold. This can have profound effects in some places. But because diets, markets, and geography are heterogeneous in Africa, the successful transformation of the Africas rice sector must be matched by productivity gains in other crops to fully launch Africas Green Revolution.

Rural Poverty and Income Dynamics in Southeast Asia

Many rural households in Asia have been able to move out of poverty in the presence of increasing scarcity of farmland, initially by increasing rice income through the adoption of modern rice technology and gradually diversifying their income sources away from farm to nonfarm activities. Increased participation in nonfarm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the spread of modern rice technology. An important lesson for poverty reduction is to increase agricultural productivity through the development and adoption of modern technology, which subsequently stimulates the development of the nonfarm sector, thereby providing employment opportunities for the rural labor force. This chapter explores the key processes of long-term poverty reduction in Southeast Asia using the Philippines and Thailand as case studies.

New rice technology and comparative advantage in rice production in the Philippines

The aim of this study is to assess the comparative advantage in rice production in the Philippines for the past three decades since 1966. We have found that the country gained sharp improvement in comparative advantage in rice production in 1979, when yield rose remarkably due to the diffusion of pest- and disease-resistant modern rice. Beginning in 1986 however, the country appears to have slowly lost its comparative advantage due to the decline in rice prices, stagnation in rice yield and rising cost of domestic factors. By 1990, the country completely lost its comparative advantage in rice production.

Job Choice of Three Generations in Rural Laos

Using a rare individual-level data set, this article explores the role of education and farmland on the choice of job of three generations of household members in rural Laos. While the first (G1) and the second (G2) generations are mainly engaged in farming, the youngest generation (G3) is engaged in nonfarm wage and overseas work. Education matters in nonfarm wage work, but not necessarily in overseas work. The female members of G3 are more likely to migrate. Our findings imply a shortage of jobs in rural Laos, pushing the less educated and the females to cross the border to Thailand.