Household-level Data Research Articles

Intra-household Gender Disparity in Private Tuition: Evidence from West Bengal

The article focuses on intra-household gender disparity in private tuition in West Bengal. By employing Engel curve framework and hurdle model with household-level data from NSS 71st Round (2014–2015), the article establishes that there is significant gender bias in favour of girls for the age group 15–20 years. This is contrary to the general perception of gender bias against girls. It has also been found that at the same age group, there is a significant difference in enrolment of girls and boys in private schools where boys are mostly enrolled in private schools. This finding suggests that girls are discriminated at the decision of formal schooling, but there is an attempt to compensate for it at a later stage when credentials become important to signal in the labour market or marriage market.

Increasing yield and farm income of upland farmers: The case of Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project in the Philippines

The 17th Sustainable Development Goal aims to enhance the international cooperation between developed and least-developed countries, and the Official Development Assistance (ODA) program is the largest source of external support in the attainment of this goal. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project (PIU-SRDP), an ODA project supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and the Local Government Units of project municipalities in the Philippines. We focused on Phase II of the PIU-SRDP, which implemented randomly various agriculture-based income-generating projects, aimed at improving the sustainable productivity of low-income farming households. Based on a spatial and intertemporal variations of the project, we exploit a difference-in-difference approach using household-level data. The results suggest that the project significantly increased the rice yield and farm income of beneficiaries. With the opposing views about the true impacts of ODA programs, our study shows evidence of the positive effects of an ODA project on farmer-beneficiaries. This study provides insights for future engagement and implementation of related community-based ODA, agriculture, and rural development projects.

Perceived neighborhood crime and health: a multilevel analysis for Turkey

PurposeCrime has notable impacts on health outcomes of individuals through various pathways. This study aims to explore relationships between perceived neighborhood crime and health statuses of individuals in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines individual- and household-level data from a national household survey and regional-level data for empirical analyses. A multilevel estimation framework is used for quantification of associations between a perceived neighborhood crime indicator and an individual-level health status index.FindingsEmpirical findings indicate that perceived neighborhood crime level has a negative relationship with health indexes of Turkish individuals. Additionally, health index is significantly associated with individual- and household-level covariates.Practical implicationsPublic policies for health and safety improvements should consider heterogeneities in characteristics of individuals and households in developing regions of the world.Originality/valueEarlier findings on associations of crime and health measures mostly rely on evidence from developed regions of the world. This research complements the related literature by providing empirical analysis of associations between perceived neighborhood crime and health outcomes for a developing country, Turkey.

Environmental regulations, clean energy access, and household energy poverty: Evidence from China

This paper examines the effect of environmental regulations on energy poverty and analyses whether clean energy access, the access to modern energy services, is an important channel through which environmental regulations affect energy poverty in China. Using household-level survey data in China from 2012 to 2018, we find that enacting tightened environmental regulations leads to greater affordability problems for households using non-clean energy and deepens the degree of their energy poverty. Furthermore, we show that capable or sufficient access to clean energy enables households to obtain clean energy at a lower price, thus reducing the adverse effect of environmental regulations on household energy poverty. Our results have important implications for environmental and energy policy makers.

Natural disasters and well-being in India: A household-level panel data analysis

We provide first estimates of the impact of cumulative natural disasters on well-being in India disaggregated by social and economic groups. We use a nationally representative panel data set in a difference in difference model with fixed effects at the household level and a continuous treatment. We use monthly consumption expenditure adjusted for health expenditure as an indicator of well-being. We find that natural disasters have a consistent and significant negative impact on consumption across all social and economic groups. We also find that assets, health insurance, membership in groups, and the number of married females in the household are positive and significant. On the other hand, conflict intensity, number of persons in the household, the proportion of children in the household and public project intensity have a negative and significant coefficient.In the disaggregated results some variables provide consistent results across all caste groups and economic quintiles among the covariates. Among them are Assets owned by households, membership intensity and health insurance which positively impact on consumption. At the same time, the number of persons in the household and the proportion of children in the household have a negative and significant impact.Social capital too influences consumption. We find that conflict intensity has a significant and negative impact on consumption for some caste and economic groups, but not all. Some variables provided mixed results like public project intensity, number of married females, among others.

The Impact of Remittances on Children’s Education in Bangladesh

Inward remittance is one of the major sources of foreign income for Bangladesh and its economic significance at both macro and household levels is evident in the existing literature. This study iassesses the impact of remittances on school enrolment of children in Bangladesh by utilising cross-sectional household-level data obtained from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016. Employing a probit regression method for the analysis, our findings reveal a positive relationship between school enrolment of children and remittances as expected. Furthermore, the education levels of parents are found to have a significant positive impact on the school enrolment of children. Our results also suggest that households with two or three children are more likely to enrol their children in schools as opposed to households with just one child and those with four or more children. However, household location (urban) and gender of children (male) exhibit a negative impact on enrolment. This study suggests that along with the current incentives provided to migrant workers sending remittances, the government can also implement modified or additional incentives to enhance the enrolment of children from remittance-receiving families. Also, to address the issues of lower enrolment among children from urban areas, male children and households with just one child, policymakers should develop new intervention programmes while sensitising the public on the benefits of acquiring education.

Food insecurity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in four African countries

We document trends in food security up to one full year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in four African countries. Using household-level data collected by the World Bank, we highlight differences over time amid the pandemic, between rural and urban areas, and between female-headed and male-headed households within Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Nigeria. We first observe a sharp increase in food insecurity during the early months of the pandemic with a subsequent gradual decline. Next, we find that food insecurity has increased more in rural areas than in urban areas relative to pre-pandemic data within each of these countries. Finally, we do not find a systematic difference in changes in food insecurity between female-headed and male-headed households. These trends complement previous microeconomic analysis studying short-term changes in food security associated with the pandemic and existing macroeconomic projections.

Enhancing Adaptive Capacity to Flooding of Households: Evidence from Lakeshore Communities of Pila, Laguna, Philippines

There is a need for households in flood-prone areas to strengthen their adaptive capacities to cope with the negative impacts of climate change. The main objective of this paper is to measure adaptive capacity to cope with the effects of flooding of households in lakeshore communities of Pila, Laguna, Philippines, a municipality with high vulnerability to climate change. The adaptive capacity index (ACI) was estimated by adapting the objective and subjective approaches to adaptive capacity measurements and using both equal and unequal weighting approaches to index estimation with household-level data. We also looked at the levels of adaptive capacity by income group and presented policy recommendations. Overall, the findings of this research suggest that there is a need to prioritize households with low adaptive capacities and be given necessary local government support. Results also suggest the use of appropriate weights for estimating the adaptive capacity index. There were statistically significant differences between the ACIs of households using equal and unequal weighting approaches. Since this study is case-specific, there is a need to conduct further studies using the three weighting approaches and determine how results vary across groups.

Does project-level foreign aid increase access to improved water sources? Evidence from household panel data in Uganda

Empirical evidence from cross-country studies on the effectiveness of aid to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector (WASH aid) points to significant heterogeneity across countries and highlights the need for further research at the sub-national level to assess and quantify the effectiveness of WASH aid within countries. This paper combines geocoded sub-national data on the location of WASH aid projects in Uganda with nationally representative household-level panel survey data to examine whether proximity to aid-funded WASH projects improves household access to water. Access to water is evaluated along three dimensions: access to an improved water source, travel time to an improved water source and waiting time at an improved water source. The results of a difference-in-difference regression analysis suggest that while aid-funded WASH projects increase household access to improved sources of water, households may also see the time burden of water collection increase, as they may need to travel longer distances and also experience longer wait times due to congestion at water service points. This is an indication that the supply of improved water sources financed by WASH aid in Uganda remains insufficient relative to demand as measured by the population density.

The impact of income on household solar panel uptake: Exploring diverse results using Australian data

Understanding mixed results for the impact of income on household solar-panel uptake is important for several reasons. Income is often a central feature of economic studies or a key control for social studies. Furthermore, policy makers are increasingly relying on income to determine solar-subsidy eligibility. We use a large sample of Australian households to suggest reasons for mixed results. For a comparative purpose, we show a negative relationship between income and solar-panel uptake for a regression with 318 observations, where these observations are area-aggregated averages of underlying household-level survey data. A similar model with 31,828 household observations from the same household-level survey data suggests a positive relationship. This gradually disappears when adding key controls. When assessing possible non-linearity, we find a negative association between income and solar-panel uptake at high-income levels. Interestingly, this is primarily true for higher-wealth households. Our analysis suggests an important shift in solar policies is needed – from a singular focus on income toward wealth or dual income-wealth thresholds.

Nutritional Demand and Consumption Pattern: A Case Study of Pakistan

Nutrition problems persist over several decades in most developing countries. Poor and vulnerable households in low-income countries do not have sufficient disposable sources to access adequate and diverse diets. This study analyzes the household nutrition consumption patterns in Pakistan at a provincial level. The log-linear Engel’s curve approach is applied using household-level data comprising 16,340 households from the Pakistan Household Integrated Expenditure survey (HIES) between 2018 and 2019. The results of the estimated income and household size elasticities reveal that any variation in the households’ income brings major changes in their diets, whereas an increase in household size, ceteris paribus (impact of all other factors are held constant), increases the demand for all nutritional intakes except thiamine and cholesterol. Furthermore, the estimated income elasticities for the four provinces provided similarities and differences in the nutritional consumption patterns of households. On the basis of income elasticities, we find the same nutrition pattern in Sindh and Baluchistan and a similar nutrition pattern in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Finally, the estimated income elasticities show poor nutritional consumption patterns in Sindh and Baluchistan as compared to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Thus, there is a need to generate nutritional policies in each province, and people should make wise nutrient-dense choices from all food commodities groups. Moreover, this study applies a unique approach to estimate the income elasticities for 17 nutrients using household survey data within the same framework of Engel’s curve. The findings of this study have important implications for public policy aiming at malnutrition alleviation and understanding dietary change in Pakistan.

Testing axioms of revealed preference in Stata

The revealed preference approach in economics is central to the empirical analysis of consumer behavior. In this article, we introduce the commands checkax, aei, and powerps as a bundle within the package rpaxioms. The first command allows a user to test whether consumer expenditure data satisfy several revealed preference axioms; the second command calculates measures of goodness of fit when the data violate these axioms; and the third command calculates power against uniformly random behavior as well as predictive success for each axiom. We illustrate the commands using individual-level experimental data and household-level aggregate consumption data.

Examining the interstate variations and interlinkage between water poverty and multidimensional poverty in India: evidence from household-level data

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to examine the inter-relationship between the multi-dimensional poverty and water poverty using household level data for Indian states.Design/methodology/approachA modified water poverty index (MWPI) for both rural and urban households was created using the five components approach and various quantifiable proxies. Principal component analysis (PCA) has been used for the construction of MWPI. Multidimensionality of poverty (MPI) is measured using the Alkire and Foster methodology. Further, the study has utilized correlation and Tobit regression analysis to show the relationship between MWPI and MPI.FindingsThe empirical findings suggest that there is a positive and significant relationship between multidimensional poverty and water poverty, with the extent of relationship being greater in rural areas. The results show that in rural areas all the components of water poverty has significant impact on multidimensional poverty, whereas in urban areas except use component all others have significant impact on multidimensional poverty. Further, components of multidimensional poverty were also found to be significantly impacting water poverty.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that policymakers cannot treat both forms of poverty in isolation. If India aims to reduce poverty, then it needs to pay significant attention to improving water conditions.Originality/valueThis is a pioneering attempt to construct water poverty index at the household level while accounting for micro-level differences for Indian economy. It highlights that water poverty leads to multi-dimensional poverty and vice-versa.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2021-0731.

How does ethnic diversity affect energy poverty? Insights from South Africa

We examine the effect of ethnic diversity on energy poverty in post-apartheid South Africa after several decades of racial segregation. We use both ethnic fractionalisation and polarisation indexes along with a multidimensional energy poverty measure from a five-year South African household-level panel data. Using historical information on ethnic diversity at the provincial level as an instrument to address endogeneity, we find that one standard deviation increase in ethnic diversity is associated with a 0.272 standard deviation decrease in energy poverty. This finding is robust across several quasi-experimental econometric approaches, different measures of ethnic diversity, and alternative cut-offs used to identify energy poor households in a multidimensional construct. Further analyses reveal that ethnic diversity reduces energy poverty only among people of colour, with the largest effect observed among native Black South Africans. Our mediation analysis highlights enhanced job opportunities and increased household incomes as the potential pathways through which ethnic diversity reduces energy poverty.

Using Small Area Prevalence Survey Methods to Conduct Blood Lead Assessments among Children.

Introduction: Prevalence surveys conducted in geographically small areas such as towns, zip codes, neighborhoods or census tracts are a valuable tool for estimating the extent to which environmental risks contribute to children’s blood lead levels (BLLs). Population-based, cross-sectional small area prevalence surveys assessing BLLs can be used to establish a baseline lead exposure prevalence for a specific geographic region. Materials and Methods: The required statistical methods, biological and environmental sampling, supportive data, and fieldwork considerations necessary for public health organizations to rapidly conduct child blood lead prevalence surveys at low cost using small area, cluster sampling methodology are described. Results: Comprehensive small area prevalence surveys include partner identification, background data collection, review of the assessment area, resource availability determinations, sample size calculations, obtaining the consent of survey participants, survey administration, blood lead analysis, environmental sampling, educational outreach, follow-up and referral, data entry/analysis, and report production. Discussion: Survey results can be used to estimate the geographic distribution of elevated BLLs and to investigate inequitable lead exposures and risk factors of interest. Conclusions: Public health officials who wish to assess child and household-level blood lead data can quickly apply the data collection methodologies using this standardized protocol here to target resources and obtain assistance with these complex procedures. The standardized methods allow for comparisons across geographic areas and over time.

The Hiring of Labour for Field Cultivation: A Study in the Brahmaputra Valley of Northeast India

On the basis of household-level data, the present study examines the hiring of farm labour in the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam in the north-eastern part of India. By adopting a multi-stage sampling technique, the primary data were collected from 237 randomly selected field crop cultivating households located in the lower, upper and central parts of the Brahmaputra Valley. The hiring of labour for field cultivation is extensive among the sample farm households of all size groups, but it varies across locations and activities. There are three forms of farm labour hiring, among which the hiring of labour on daily basis is common and pre-dominant. The wage of farm labourers is not same across activities, sex and locations. The estimation of independent double hurdle model depicts the farm size, type of cultivator and age of head of the household as the common factors that affect both the adoption and the extent of hiring of farm labour. The availability of family labour is another factor that affects the extent of hiring of farm labour.

Geo-Enabled Sustainable Municipal Energy Planning for Comprehensive Accessibility: A Case in the New Federal Context of Nepal

Energy is a fundamental need of modern society and a basis for economic and social development, and one of the major Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG7. However, the UN’s SDG Report 2021 betrays millions of people living without electricity and one-third of the world’s population deprived of using modern energy cooking services (MECS) through access to electricity. Achieving the SDG7 requires standard approaches and tools that effectively address the geographical, infrastructural, and socioeconomic characteristics of a (rural) municipality of Nepal. Furthermore, Nepal’s Constitution 2015 incorporated a federal system under the purview of a municipality as the local government that has been given the mandate to ensure electricity access and clean energy. To address this, a methodology is developed for local government planning in Nepal in order to identify the optimal mix of electrification options by conducting a detailed geospatial analysis of renewable energy (RE) technologies by exploring accessibility and availability ranging from grid extensions to mini-grid and off-grid solutions, based on (a) life cycle cost and (b) levelized cost of energy. During energy assessment, geospatial and socio-economic data are coupled with household and community level data collected from a mobile survey app, and are exploited to garner energy status-quo and enable local governments to assess the existing situation of energy access/availability and planning. In summary, this paper presents a geo-enabled municipal energy planning method and a comprehensive toolkit to facilitate sustainable energy access to local people.

Leave no one behind: A case of ecosystem service supply equity in Singapore.

Urban populations benefit greatly from the ecosystem services provided by urban green and blue spaces. While the equity of provision of and access to urban green and blue spaces has been widely explored, research on equity of ecosystem service provision is relatively scant. Using household level data, our study aims to assess the supply equityof five regulatory ecosystem services in Singapore. We employed linear mixed-effects models and Hot Spot Analysis to analyze theirdistributional equity across individual households of various demographic characteristics (horizontal inequality), and calculated Gini coefficient for the distribution of PM10 removal service among households categorised into demographic subgroups (vertical inequality). Our results show littleevidence of inequitable ecosystem service provision among Singapore's diverse socio-demographic groups. This can be attributed to the early integration of environmental management strategies and meticulous socio-economic desegregation effortsinto urban development plans, which maximised provision and maintenance of urban green spaces to all residents.

Education demand elasticity in Ghana: Evidence from household level data

Education remains a key factor in human capital accumulation development. Owing to its impact on economic growth and individual welfare, government and household education finance have gained prominence in developing countries. This study seeks to explain the sensitivity of household education demand based on both school type and level owing to changes in household income and price of education, incorporating selected demographic factors in the analysis. To perform this demand analysis, the author adopted the extended version of the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUIAIDS) and the 2016/17 Ghana Living Standard Survey 7. The result shows that education at each level is a normal good; the demand of which increases owing to a one percent increase in household education budget (income). Also, households are income elastic to demand general pre-tertiary education but price inelastic at each level of education. The results further show that public education has higher income elasticities than private education. The author also find that even though both school types are price inelastic, the quantity demanded of private education is more sensitive to change in education cost that public- education at all levels.

Electricity Tariff Rebalancing in Emerging Countries: The Efficiency-equity Tradeoff and Its Impact on Photovoltaic Distributed Generation

Existing tariff schemes often fail to achieve basic economic objectives. They set prices per unit that either exceed or fall short the social marginal cost and produce unfair distributional outcomes. In many cases, electricity rates also contribute to unsustainable fiscal deficits due to the (almost) generalized electricity subsidies. Moreover, inefficient residential tariffs do not favor the adoption of green technologies and the investment in energy efficiency improvements. We argue that the efficient deployment of green technologies, and more generally, the clean energy transition, will require electricity tariff reforms. In this paper, we use household level data and hourly industry data from Mexico to show how more efficient pricing mechanisms (such as a two-part tariff scheme in the context of efficient nodal pricing), combined with well-design environmental regulations (e.g., net-metering schemes) and correctly targeted transfer programs (e.g., means testing mechanisms) can improve economic, social, and environmental outcomes significantly, all at once.