Higher Consumption Expenditure Research Articles

Does crop insurance ensure food security for Indian farmers? Evidence from a nationally representative survey

AbstractThis study examines the impact of farm households' decision to adopt crop insurance and its effect on food security. Using the National Sample Survey Office's 77th round of data (2019–2020) from Indian farming households, the endogenous switching regression results confirm that insuring crops against production risks increases food security (as measured by higher consumption expenditures and net farm income). Specifically, findings show that farming households would decrease consumption expenditures by 15% and net farm income by 26% if they had not adopted crop insurance. Similarly, the noninsured families would have 23% higher consumption expenditures and 31% higher net farm income if they had insured crops. However, we find heterogeneity in welfare impacts because large farmers reap more benefits than smallholders. Policy implications from this study call for increased awareness of insurance programs, educating farmers about crop insurance schemes, and an effective institutional framework to reduce heterogeneity in insurance benefits. [EconLit Citations: Q13, Q18, O53].

Factors Affecting Consumption Expenditure and Regional Comparison in Ethiopia

This study evaluated factors affecting households consumption expenditure in Ethiopia using cross-sectional survey data collected from 6770 households in Ethiopia by World Bank in 2018/19 fiscal year. By applying quantile regression model, the study found that household’s consumption expenditure was affected by different explanatory variables either positively or negatively at different significant level. Out of the dependent variables that were significantly affecting household consumption expenditure were place of residence, family size, region of the family residence and access to credit. This variables are affecting were affecting either positively or negatively households consumption expenditure at different significant level at different quantiles. Place of residence (urban or rural) in all quantiles affects consumption expenditure negatively. That means households live in urban areas have less consumption expenditure than rural areas. Family size also affects household consumption expenditure at all quantile level negatively. There is high consumption expenditure differences among regions. Especially Amhara region had a less consumption expenditure as compared to others regions. Access to credit had a positive effect on household consumption expenditure and it had a significant effect at 75 th quantile level. As per the research results the researcher recommended as more research may be required to be carried out to assess factors affecting households consumption expenditure in Ethiopia which is the major concern of policy makers in Ethiopia. Keywords: Consumption, Expenditure, quantile regression and Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-18-01 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

Hybrid Ecological Footprint of Taipei

The Ecological Footprint (EF) has been effectively used at the global, national and regional levels, but the local EF accounting methods are lacking. The hybrid EF has been developed to calculate the local EF. It combines a “top-down” approach to determining national EF (five components other than Carbon Footprint, CF) with a “bottom-up” approach to determining local CF (food, housing, transportation). The use of the hybrid EF is cost-effective. The hybrid EF reflects the local context and can be used to measure the progress of local sustainable development and as a basis for environmental responsibility. This study uses statistical databases for Taiwan and Taipei to calculate the hybrid EF of Taipei in 2018. The hybrid EF of Taipei was 4.797 global hectares (gha) in that year, of which the top-down national EF was 0.613 gha and the bottom-up local CF was 4.184 gha. The hybrid EF is lower than Taiwan’s EF (6.460 gha), but the local CF is higher than Taiwan’s CF (3.890 gha), reflecting the urban nature and characteristics of Taipei, which has a high density, high income and high consumption expenditure. With respect to the local CF of Taipei, food is associated with the largest component of CF (2.806 gha), and transportation is associated with the second largest component thereof (1.133 gha). Housing is associated with the smallest component (0.245 gha). Based on these results, five refinements of hybrid EF accounting and two application dimensions are proposed. First, whether the hybrid EF captures the lifestyle of the real situation in Taipei warrants further investigation. Second, the components of national EF that are associated with food should be used to accommodate regional differences by applying a scaling factor. Third, Taiwan’s CF in 2018 accounted for 60.2% of its national EF, but Taipei’s CF accounted for 87.2% of its hybrid EF. Fourth, Taipei’s CF associated with housing is low (0.245 gha/person), while the values for eastern European cities are high (3.140 gha/person). Fifth, Taipei citizens have a fairly high CF associated with private vehicles, warranting a follow-up review of urban sustainable transportation policies.

Assessing Colombia's policy of socio-economic stratification: An intra-city study of self-reported quality of life

This paper aims to analyse whether the Colombian government's classification of households into socio-economic strata accurately reflects the level of quality of life of households in Medellin. To this end, logit multilevel models and a novel graphic analysis were used. Our findings suggest that the stratification criteria currently used in Medellin should be revised. The socio-economic strata, which only considers the characteristics of the dwellings, streets and surrounding areas, explain approximately one tenth of the variability in self-reported quality of life. When other economic and non-economic factors are considered, a different strata ranking for guiding public policies than that used in Medellin was estimated. Neighbourhood safety and personal safety are key drivers of quality of life, whereas higher consumption expenditure is most effective in the most disadvantaged strata.

Empirical Testing on User Behavior and Consumption Expenditure on Downtown Commercial Supremacy; Focused on Asan City

This study was conducted as it is determined that the activation of commercial supremacy is important to restore the degenerating downtown of Asan; and that the analysis of user behavior and consumption expenditure is important for the activation of commercial supremacy. The results are as follows: First of all, 47.7% of Asan citizens tend to go to Asan s downtown for daily shopping and cultural activities while 40.1% of them go to Cheonan-si, which is an adjacent city center. Secondly, the main consumers of downtown Asan with high consumption expenditure are young men in their 30s and 40s whose occupations are government officials or professionals. In contrast, young women under 20s exhibit a relatively lower frequency and expenditure in downtown Asan. The analytical results show the following points. First, the fundamental consideration of the role of downtown Asan and its desirable urban city structure as the downtown s commercial supremacy is now shifting to its neighboring city - Cheonan-si. Second, considering that the main consumers of urban downtowns are young women, downtown Asan does not seem to attract the typical target audience that it is supposed to. Thus, setting the target audience of Asan s downtown commercial supremacy is very significant.

Welfare impacts of smallholder farmers’ participation in maize and pigeonpea markets in Tanzania

This paper evaluates the impact of maize and pigeonpea market participation and the level of participation on household welfare measured by consumption expenditure in rural Tanzania. The study used cross-sectional farm household level data collected in 2010 from 700 randomly selected households in northern and eastern zones of Tanzania. Propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression techniques were employed to address the welfare impacts of market participation for binary treatment, while linear regression was employed to address the welfare impacts of the level of market participation. Maize and pigeonpea market participation and the level of participation had positive and significant impacts on the welfare of rural households. On average, maize and pigeonpea market participation increased consumption expenditure per capita in the range of 19.2–20.4 % and 28.3–29.4 %, respectively. Similarly, a one unit increase in the predicted level of market participation increased per capita consumption expenditure by 0.5 and 0.3 %, for both maize and pigeonpea, respectively. This confirms the potential role of market participation and the level of participation in improving rural household welfare, as higher consumption expenditures from market participation also mean improved food security and reduced poverty. Policies aimed at reducing the transaction costs of accessing markets such as improved market information, rural infrastructure and household capacity to produce surplus production are critical to the improvement of household welfare.

Non-Farm Enterprises and Poverty Reduction amongst Households in Rural Nigeria: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

The data of nationally representative household survey from rural Nigeria was used to examine the effect of non-farm enterprise activities on improvement in the welfare of households in rural Nigeria, using total annual household consumption expenditure as a measure of their welfare. Propensity score matching approach was used for the analysis, and the result shows that rural households that engage in non-farm enterprise activities are having higher consumption expenditure than those that did not diversify into such activities. This suggests that, non-farm enterprises could be a pathway for improving the wellbeing of rural households in Nigeria and in the remaining sub-Saharan African countries.

Responding To the Changing Shape of the World Economy: Consumer-Spending and Export Developments in Turkey in a Comparative Perspective

This paper addresses the sustainability of Turkey’s current-account position by emphasizing household consumption and exports. It highlights Turkey’s comparatively high consumption expenditure as a share of GDP, much of which credit financed over the past few years, and the significant increase in the contribution of developing countries, including Turkey, to global economic growth, but shows that these features have been accompanied by the accumulation of large global current-account imbalances. The paper employs GTAP-simulations to analyse the frequently made recommendation that slower consumer demand growth and a durable improvement in the price competitiveness of exports are the key to improving the sustainability of Turkey’s external accounts. It argues that demand growth on Turkey’s traditional export markets, especially the Euro area, is likely to remain subdued for a protracted period of time and cannot be expected to generate expansionary impulses for other countries’ exports. The paper concludes that diversifying the destination markets of Turkey’s exports towards rapidly growing developing countries will require product innovation with a view to meeting these * Earlier versions of parts of this paper wereinputs to UNCTAD‟s Trade and Development Reports 2010 and 2013. The author thanks Lyubov Chumakova for help with the data and Juan Pizarro for undertaking the GTAP-simulations. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNCTAD or its Member States. ** UNCTAD.

Impact of modern agricultural technologies on smallholder welfare: Evidence from Tanzania and Ethiopia

This paper evaluates the potential impact of adoption of improved legume technologies on rural household welfare measured by consumption expenditure in rural Ethiopia and Tanzania. The study utilizes cross-sectional farm household level data collected in 2008 from a randomly selected sample of 1313 households (700 in Ethiopia and 613 in Tanzania). The causal impact of technology adoption is estimated by utilizing endogenous switching regression. This helps us estimate the true welfare effect of technology adoption by controlling for the role of selection problem on production and adoption decisions. Our analysis reveals that adoption of improved agricultural technologies has a significant positive impact consumption expenditure (in per adult equivalent terms) in rural Ethiopia and Tanzania. This confirms the potential role of technology adoption in improving rural household welfare as higher consumption expenditure from improved technologies translate into lower poverty, higher food security and greater ability to withstand risk. An analysis of the determinants of adoption highlighted inadequate local supply of seed, access to information and perception about the new cultivars as key constraints for technology adoption.