Decline in farm income due to agro-climatic shocks often induces farm households to send migrants expecting remittances from the migrated household members. While non-agricultural avenues for spending remittances are well documented in the literature, very little is known about the impact of remittances on agricultural expenditure. In this context, our present study uses two rounds of household data from the India Human Development Survey to estimate the impact of remittances on farm households' agricultural spending while considering other avenues of spending as well. Employing Heckman-selection combined with Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model, we find that remittances significantly increase farm households' agricultural spending. However, our heterogeneity analysis shows this effect is primarily driven by those households who do not have access to the Kisan Credit Card (KCC). Moreover, households with prior experience of droughts are less likely to spend remittances for agricultural purposes compared to those without such experience. Also, significant impact of remittances on agricultural activities is observed mostly among small landholders. Nevertheless, remittances are treated as a transitory income resulting in an increase in productive non-agricultural investments as well.
This study examines the long-term evolution of multidimensional child poverty in China between 2010 and 2022 and evaluates the impact of the Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program implemented from 2014 to 2020. Using longitudinal China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data and the Alkire-Foster method, we construct a multidimensional child poverty framework covering six dimensions and fifteen indicators. We document both temporal trends in overall deprivation and shifts in its dimensional composition. To identify causal effects, we exploit poverty-line adjustments and implement a fuzzy regression-discontinuity (RD) design to estimate the local impact of TPA eligibility. The results reveal a substantial decline in the multidimensional poverty headcount over time, mainly driven by improvements in household living conditions, educational outcomes, and parent-child engagement. However, deprivation intensity among the remaining poor remains persistently high, with nutritional deprivation and digital exclusion accounting for an increasing share of multidimensional poverty. The RD estimates suggest that TPA significantly reduced vulnerable multidimensional poverty near the eligibility threshold in later years, primarily through improved living conditions. These findings underscore the need for more targeted and adaptive policy responses as the structure of child deprivation continues to evolve.
Social protection is increasingly used as an instrument for promoting gender equality. However, there is limited evidence on how the implementation of social protection programmes affects the achievement of gender equality objectives, particularly how gender norms shape implementers' perceptions and their interpretation and translation of gender design features. This study analyses the role of gender norms in shaping the implementation of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia, using qualitative data and a value-critical discourse analysis. Our findings suggest that when the values underpinning the gender design features aligned with prevailing gender norms, the policy rationale of those features were largely adopted. However, when these values diverged from prevailing gender norms, policy rationales were modified in ways that undermined the programme's gender intent, and in some instances were not adopted, which may have led to implementation gaps. These findings demonstrate the need for policymakers to account for and address the complex interplay between gender norms and gender equality objectives of social protection to achieve gender-transformative change.
This paper evaluates a pilot bootcamp programme in Haiti, which combined a four-month digital skills bootcamp with a subsequent internship. Despite a small sample size, using a quasi-experimental design, we find significant and positive impacts on key labour market outcomes one year after bootcamp completion. Compared to similar non-graduates, bootcamp graduates are significantly more likely to be working for pay, work as dependent employees, hold permanent contracts, and perform data analysis tasks. They also work more hours and earn significantly higher monthly incomes. In addition, graduates are less likely to be enrolled in education, suggesting that the bootcamp programme is viewed as a viable alternative to further formal education. Graduates also report significantly higher satisfaction levels, with all findings remaining robust to key robustness checks. Despite the high costs, a cost-benefit analysis suggests that the programme is cost-effective.
As global aid budgets shrink, understanding donor motives behind aid allocation can help anticipate donor behaviour and inform recipient strategies. This paper contributes to donor-focused aid allocation research and broader debates on evolving patterns in international development cooperation by investigating the determinants of Italy's bilateral aid allocation to African countries over the past decades, with a focus on explanations beyond traditional humanitarian or strategic motivations. Using a newly-assembled dataset and a combination of Tobit and two-stage Cragg-Hurdle models, complemented by a series of sensitivity analyses, we test a set of third-kind relational hypotheses, emphasising the role of other donors' presence and recipient leaders' diplomatic engagement. Findings show that Italy allocates more aid to countries with competitive donor environments, particularly when the overall aid market is large, and to those whose leaders conduct high-level visits to Rome. These dynamics suggest that aid allocation is shaped not only by domestic priorities and humanitarian needs, but also by relational factors emerging from multi-actor interactions.
