Menno Pradhan

Measuring Poverty Using Qualitative Perceptions of Consumption Adequacy

We show that subjective poverty lines can be derived using simple qualitative assessments of perceived consumption adequacy based on a household survey. We implement the method using survey data for Jamaica and Nepal. Respondents were asked whether their consumptions of food, housing, and clothing were adequate for their familys needs. The implied poverty lines are robust to alternative methods of dealing with other components of expenditure. The aggregate poverty rates accord quite closely with those based on independent objective poverty lines. However, there are notable differences in the geographic and demographic poverty profiles.

Decomposing world health inequality

This study explores global inequality in health status and decomposes it into within- and between-country inequality. We rely on standardized height as our health indicator since it avoids the measurement pitfalls of more traditional measures of health such as morbidity, mortality, and life expectancy. It also avoids measurement problems associated with using monetary variables such as income or expenditure across time or place to compare welfare. Our calculation of world height inequality indicates that, in contrast with similar research on income inequality, within-country variation is the source of most inequality, rather than the differences between countries.

Formal and informal sector employment in urban areas of Bolivia

Abstract Earnings and labour market participation in urban areas of Bolivia are analyzed, using household level survey data from 1989. We distinguish between non-participation, formal sector work, and informal sector work, and estimate separate wage equations for informal and formal sector. Two types of models are analyzed: in the first, the informal sector is seen as a buffer zone between formal sector and non-participation, while in the second, there is no ordering among sectors. We find that accounting for selectivity substantially affects wage equation estimates. The direction of the selectivity effect is the same according to both models, but its magnitude varies, in particular for the informal sector. Other results are quite robust: wages are higher in larger local labour markets. In both sectors females of ethnic minorities are underpaid.

Flexible labour, firm performance and the Dutch job creation miracle

Abstract Unlike internal (‘functional’) forms of flexibility of labour, external (‘numerical’) forms of flexibility (i.e. high shares of people on temporary contract or a high turnover of personnel) yield substantial savings on a firm’s wage bill. Savings on wage bills lead to higher job growth, but do not translate into higher sales growth. Externally flexible labour appears to be related to lower labour productivity growth, the effects being different for innovating vs non‐innovating firms. We discuss these findings from firm‐level and worker‐level data against the background of the Dutch job creation miracle during the 1980s and 1990s. Modest wage increases and flexibilization of labour markets may indeed create lots of jobs. However, this is likely to happen at the expense of labour productivity growth, raising serious doubts about the long‐run sustainability of a low‐productivity–high‐employment growth path.

Household Labor Supply in Urban Areas of Bolivia

We analyze labor supply behavior and the choice between formal and informal sector work of the two spouses in families in urban areas of a developing country, using cross-section data from Bolivia drawn in 1989. The model generalizes the neoclassical family labor supply model. Nonmonetary returns of formal sector employment capture the fact that the choice between sectors is not exclusively based on wage differentials. Wage equations, nonmonetary returns equations, and labor supply equations are estimated jointly by smooth simulated maximum likelihood. We find substantial cross-wage elasticities of working hours of both partners, and large substitution elasticities between the two sectors.

Marginal benefit incidence of public health spending: evidence from Indonesian sub-national data.

We examine the marginal effects of decentralized public health spending by incorporating estimates of behavioural responses to changes in health spending in benefit incidence analysis. The analysis is based on a panel dataset of 207 Indonesian districts over the period from 2001 to 2004. We show that district public health spending is largely driven by central government transfers, with an elasticity of around 0.9. We find a positive effect of public health spending on utilization of outpatient care in the public sector for the poorest two quartiles. We find no evidence that public expenditures crowd out utilization of private services or household health spending. Our analysis suggests that increased public health spending improves targeting to the poor, as behavioural changes in public health care utilization are pro-poor. Nonetheless, most of the benefits of the additional spending accrued to existing users of services, as initial utilization shares outweigh the behavioural responses.

Demand for public safety

In public safety of less concern to poor people? What about people in poor areas? How is demand for public safety affected by income inequality? Is there a self-correcting mechanism whereby higher crime increases demand for public safety? The authors study subjective assessments of public safety using a comprehensive socioeconomic survey of living standards in Brazil. They find public safety to be a normal good at the household level. Marginal income effects are higher for the poor, so inequality reduces aggregate demand for public safety. Less public safety generates higher demand for improving it. Living in a poor area increases demand at given own-income. So does living in an area with higher average education.

A poverty profile of Cambodia

This paper uses the Socioeconomic Survey of Cambodia (SESC) of 1993/94 to estimate poverty measures for Cambodia. The SESC was administered over four rounds to 5578 households in three domains: Phnom Phenh, other urban areas, and rural areas. The paper begins by describing the SESC questionnaire and sampling frame to help interpret representatives of the empirical results because not all areas of Cambodia could be included in the sampling frame. Basic data are given on the level and distribution of living standards as measured by per capita household consumption expenditures. New poverty lines for Cambodia are estimated and used to make poverty comparisons for targeting purposes -assessing differences among regions, sectors of employment, and levels of education, gender, and household size- and to make international comparisons between Cambodia and other countries in East Asia. These consumption-based poverty comparisons are supplemented with an assessment of the distribution of various nonmonetary welfare indicators between the poor and the better off in Cambodia. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving institutional capacity for poverty analysis and poverty in Cambodia.

Comparison of Perceived and Technical Healthcare Quality in Primary Health Facilities: Implications for a Sustainable National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana

Background Quality care in health facilities is critical for a sustainable health insurance system because of its influence on clients’ decisions to participate in health insurance and utilize health services. Exploration of the different dimensions of healthcare quality and their associations will help determine more effective quality improvement interventions and health insurance sustainability strategies, especially in resource constrained countries in Africa where universal access to good quality care remains a challenge. Purpose To examine the differences in perceptions of clients and health staff on quality healthcare and determine if these perceptions are associated with technical quality proxies in health facilities. Implications of the findings for a sustainable National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana are also discussed. Methods This is a cross-sectional study in two southern regions in Ghana involving 64 primary health facilities: 1,903 households and 324 health staff. Data collection lasted from March to June, 2012. A Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was performed to determine differences in client and health staff perceptions of quality healthcare. Spearman’s rank correlation test was used to ascertain associations between perceived and technical quality care proxies in health facilities, and ordered logistic regression employed to predict the determinants of client and staff-perceived quality healthcare. Results Negative association was found between technical quality and client-perceived quality care (coef. = -0.0991, p<0.0001). Significant staff-client perception differences were found in all healthcare quality proxies, suggesting some level of unbalanced commitment to quality improvement and potential information asymmetry between clients and service providers. Overall, the findings suggest that increased efforts towards technical quality care alone will not necessarily translate into better client-perceived quality care and willingness to utilize health services in NHIS-accredited health facilities. Conclusion There is the need to intensify client education and balanced commitment to technical and perceived quality improvement efforts. This will help enhance client confidence in Ghana’s healthcare system, stimulate active participation in the national health insurance, increase healthcare utilization and ultimately improve public health outcomes.

Evaluating a community-based early childhood education and development program in Indonesia: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial with supplementary matched control group

BackgroundThis paper presents the study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a supplementary matched control group. The aim of the trial is to evaluate a community-based early education and development program launched by the Government of Indonesia. The program was developed in collaboration with the World Bank with a total budget of US