Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

More Than A Safety Net: Ethiopia's Flagship Public Works Program Increases Tree Cover, Kalle Hirvonen, Elia A. Machado, Andrew M. Simons, Vis Taraz

Economics: Faculty Publications

More than one billion people worldwide receive cash or in-kind transfers from social protection programs. In low-income countries, these transfers are often conditioned on participation in labor-intensive public works to rehabilitate local infrastructure or natural resources. Despite their popularity, the environmental impacts of public works programs remain largely undocumented. We quantify the impact on tree cover of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), one of the world's largest and longest-running public works programs, using satellite-based data of tree cover combined with difference-in-differences and inverse probability treatment weighting methodologies. We find that the PSNP increased tree cover by 3.8% between 2005 …

The Quest For Greener Pastures: Evaluating The Livelihoods Impacts Of Providing Vegetation Condition Maps To Pastoralists In Eastern Africa, Elia Machado, Helene Purcell, Andrew M. Simons, Stephanie Swinehart

Publications and Research

The survival of millions of pastoral households in Eastern Africa has become increasingly at risk. Due to mounting socioeconomic and climatic stressors, pastoral households are faced with making migration decisions under increasing uncertainty about resource availability and limited coping strategies. We assess the potential of providing vegetation condition maps to support the migration decision of pastoralists in Ethiopia and Tanzania and the effect of map usage on their herd condition and size. The maps were generated from remotely sensed data using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a proxy for vegetation condition and overlain with pastoralists’ preferred grazing areas. …

Hydropower Development And Regional Integration In The Greater Horn Of Africa, Temesgen Aschenek Zeleke

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Inadequate and poor regional infrastructure networks posed an impact for escalation of insecurity and political instability in the greater horn of Africa. To deal with such problems, filling resource gaps through sharing resources in the way that maximizes mutual benefit is the major approach to be implemented. In this respect, fostering interdependence through infrastructural development of power interconnections is a best mechanism for energy led integration in the region. The purpose of this article is to analyze the major roles that Ethiopian hydropower development is playing in regional integration schemes. To this end, qualitative research methodology is employed to investigate …

Evaluating Ethiopia’S Development Progress, Sambath Jayapregasham, Matthäus Schuster, Ruben Tjon-A-Meeuw

Undergraduate Economic Review

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most-populated nation is well on its way to becoming one of its wealthiest nations as it charges forward on its path to development. The big question is whether this growth is sustainable. To tackle this question, we will discuss its development strategy using a popular comparison to that of China. We will then offer an appraisal of the current state of the country. Finally, we will evaluate the future of Ethiopia, as it continues its current path – evaluating the potential upsides and risks it faces moving forward.

8.2 Conflict, Food And Water Security In Ethiopia, Desalegn Dagnew

International Conference on African Development

Ethiopia and its people are kind and hospitable to all humanity irrespective of race, tribe, ethnicity, religion or creed. It has been, and still is, a refuge to hundreds of thousands of people who seek shelter and safety. The world knows Ethiopians as people who love their country and who do not hesitate to defend it by giving their dear lives, as was the case during the fascist Italian invasions of 1895 and 1936 where thousands of Ethiopians died fighting to preserve Ethiopia’s identity as the only country in Africa that has never been ruled by a European colonial power. …

Does Privatization Improve Productivity? Empirical Evidence From Ethiopia, Tadesse Wodajo, Dawit Senbet

International Journal of African Development

Theoretically, it is posited that privatization enables the private sector to play a dominant role in the economy by enhancing competition, productivity and efficiency. When evaluated using these criteria, privatization of the manufacturing industries has failed in Ethiopia. Our empirical results show that, at best, privatization did not result in improving productivity, and at worst, it led to a decline in productivity. We argue that the main reason for this outcome is the unique economic and business environment prevailing in Ethiopia, which does not allow the standard economic assumptions of market competition to hold. Ethiopia’s ‘private sector’ can be described …

Asymmetric Benefits: The Ethio-Eritrea Common Market (1991 To 1998), Worku Aberra

International Journal of African Development

Economic theory suggests that a common market between two or more countries improves overall well-being, but it creates winners and losers in each country. Recent empirical findings also show that the overall impact of a common market on per capita income depends on the similarity of economic development between member countries. A common market among developed countries results in the convergence of per capita income while a common market among developing countries results in the divergence of per capita income. The difference in outcome, some economists suggest, is due to variations in comparative advantage between member states and the rest …

Financial Institutions And The Global Farming Industry: The Impacts Of Large-Scale Agricultural Investments Observed In Ethiopia, George William Goceljak Iii

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Due to the significant deregulation of commodity futures markets in 2000, the presence of index-speculators became increasingly prevalent. The strategies applied by these market participants drastically manipulated global commodity prices. The severe rise in food prices would come to initiate a global concern towards food security. Consequently, developed countries began implementing policies that would secure agricultural production and food supplies. This policy movement facilitated a trend in agricultural investments. Through political influence, investing governments were able augment favorable environments abroad for investors. In such environments, farmland was easily obtainable and regulations of agricultural investments were minimal. The combination of government …

Three Essays On Sustainability, Mark V. Paul

Doctoral Dissertations

Chapter 1 investigates the inverse relationship between farm size and agricultural yield. While there are a large number of studies internationally, there have been few conducted in African countries. Using household-level data from a national survey we explore the relationship between farm size and yield in Ethiopia's post land reform scenario. We find a robust inverse relationship between farm size and yield, and a positive association between yield and land fragmentation. These findings raise important questions for current agricultural development strategies that favor larger farms and less fragmentation in Africa Chapter 2 investigates the uptake of top-down flood mitigation policies …

Household Shocks And Transition Into Marriage: Evidence From Rural Ethiopia, Boyd K. Tembo

Theses and Dissertations

The study tests the primary hypothesis that household shocks do not have a positive and significant correlation with a child's transition into early marriage. It finds that there is no statistically significant correlation between parental death and transition into marriage for both genders of subjects in the study.

Envisioning A Future For Ethiopian Small Farmer Involvement In Development And Food Security, William H. Cauffman

Student Publications

In this paper I attempt to answer the question of how small-scale Ethiopian farmers can best participate in, contribute to and benefit from the development process. In addition, I seek to clarify the implications and potential nature of local food systems and their ability to achieve greater food security through small farmer involvement. Modern development ideology often focuses on large scale projects and export-led growth, ignoring the importance of smallholder farmers and rural vitality. These farmers are increasingly marginalized through this process. In Ethiopia 85% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, the majority being small farmers that …

Reversing Ethiopia's Intellectual Capital Flight, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Recently, the Ethiopian Government drafted a five year plan (2010 to 2015) to achieve the country’s economic growth. When Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation plan was analyzed in light of the new growth theory and traced historically in terms of the push and pull factors that contributed to the flight of skilled Ethiopians to more advanced countries, it was found that over the years Ethiopia has funded the education of its nationals only to see them contributing to the growth of developed countries. Being stripped of skilled human capital, leaving it ill prepared to face globalization and survive in the new …

Sovereignty And Democracy In Ethiopia: A Reflection On Gebru Asrat's Book, Asayehgn Desta

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Over the past forty years, we have been hearing and reading a lot about the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which dismantled the inhuman and atrocious Military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. It was not only highly skilled in military operations but was visionary. The impression that was widely circulated was that when the TPLF came to power it would protect Ethiopia’s sovereignty, adhere to the rules of law and ensure that equity and social justice would prevail , and above all democracy would be the norm of Ethiopian society.

Contrary to these assertions, Gebru Asrat (hereafter …

Clean Cooking: The Value Of Clean Cookstoves In Ethiopia, Shannon H. Kooser

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This project investigates how demographic differences affect the way people value clean cookstoves in Ethiopia. Previous research indicates that traditional cooking methods are harmful to human health as well as the environment, as people need to cut down trees or collect other biomass sources for fuel. However, clean stoves can solve both these environmental and health problems, as well as provide a sustainable method for cooking and heating in developing countries. Using choice survey data, this study examines Ethiopian households’ valuations of different characteristics of stoves, including durability, fuel reduction, smoke reduction and the amount of time they may save …

Economic Empowerment Through Income Generating Activities And Social Mobilization: The Case Of Married Amhara Women Of Wadla Woreda, North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia, Belete Deribie Woldegies

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Wadla Woreda is located in North Wollo Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. The woreda is predominantly agrarian and the population produces mainly subsistence food crops with small amounts of cash crops. Access to basic social and economic services such as health, education, and employment for rural communities is limited due to poor development of rural infrastructure. Wadla is one of the food insecure woredas in the region. As a result some of the people are internally displaced and a portion of the population is included in safety-net programs. The Wadla Woreda is prone to famine due to severe droughts, soil …

Foreign Direct Investment And Uncertainty: Implications For Ethiopia, Adugna Lemi, Sisay Asefa

Adugna Lemi

The paper examines the effect of price and exchange rate uncertainty and political instability on the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to selected African economies. Measures of uncertainty of inflation rate and real exchange rate are incorporated by taking the conditional variance of the residual of the Autoregressive (AR) processes of each series. Pooled data result without accounting for country specific factors is misleading. Fixed effects model provides a better explanation of the variation of FDI flow to African economies. The results show that uncertainty in the rate of inflation and political instability constrain the flow of FDI only …

How Population Density Influences Agricultural Intensification And Productivity: Evidence From Ethiopia, Anna Leigh Josephson

Open Access Theses

We use household-level panel data to estimate how population density impacts agricultural intensification and farm income in Ethiopia. We hypothesize that increases in population density affect agricultural intensification and farm income directly through information flows, institutional development, and reduction in transactions costs. Increases in population density also affect agricultural intensification and farm income indirectly through farm size, agricultural wage rates, and staple crop prices. We find that increases in population density lead to lower farm sizes, which has major implications for agricultural intensification and household well-being. Our analysis indicates that increases in population density cause farmers to purchase more inorganic …

The Dynamics Of Income Diversification In Ethiopia: Evidence From Panel Data, Adugna Lemi

Adugna Lemi

Block and Webb (2001) in Food Policy address the issue of the dynamics of livelihood diversification in Ethiopia. Their study uses the ratio of per capita income derived from crops to the sum of all other incomes as an indicator of livelihood diversification for the years 1989 and 1994. Their study focuses only on drought-prone areas during the survey years. The aim of the present study is to explore further the demographic and economic determinants of the dynamics of income diversification using survey data. The data used in this study cover larger and more representative sample and was colleted from …

Anatomy Of Foreign Aid To Ethiopia: 1960-2003, Adugna Lemi

Adugna Lemi

The purpose of this study is to present a portrait of the foreign aid flow to Ethiopia during the 1960 to 2003 period. Since the launch of Marshal Plan after World War II, the flow of foreign aid has been seen as the panacea to overcome underdevelopment. Ethiopia is not an exception to this view, and Ethiopia is one of the recipients of foreign aid not only to provide emergency relief but also to support longterm economic development. This study shows the flow of aid to Ethiopia in terms of major donors (bilateral and multilateral), method of delivery, and major …

The 6th International Conference On The State Of Africa: Challenges And Opportunities For Sustainable Development And Peace In Africa In The 21st Century, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Tackling Poverty By Ethiopians Or Globalization Wave: A Book Review, Asayehgn Desta

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reversing Ethiopia's Intellectual Capital Flight, Asayehgn Desta

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Recently, the Ethiopian Government drafted a five year plan (2010 to 2015) to achieve the country’s economic growth. When Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation plan was analyzed in light of the new growth theory and traced historically in terms of the push and pull factors that contributed to the flight of skilled Ethiopians to more advanced countries, it was found that over the years Ethiopia has funded the education of its nationals only to see them contributing to the growth of developed countries. Being stripped of skilled human capital, leaving it ill prepared to face globalization and survive in the new …

A Multidisciplinary Conference On The Challenges & Opportunities For Sustainable Development In Ethiopia & The Greater Horn Of Africa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Ethnosymbolism And The Dismemberment Of The State In The Horn Of Africa: The Ethiopian Case Of Ethnic Federalism, Assefa Mehretu

International Conference on African Development Archives

The paper has three major objectives. The first is to do a critical review of the current largely antagonistic narratives of ethnic instrumentalism in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa that have ultimately led to the balkanization of the state and caused serious political instability and fratricidal conflicts with traumatic and costly consequences in the region. The second is to do a critical review of the policy of the current Ethiopian government to implement ethno-territorial formations under the rubric of killils (Amharic for territorial enclosures), and to demonstrate how this may seriously vitiate national integration along compatible cultural and economic …

Anatomy Of Foreign Aid To Ethiopia: 1960-2003, Adugna Lemi

Economics Faculty Publication Series

The purpose of this study is to present a portrait of the foreign aid flow to Ethiopia during the 1960 to 2003 period. Since the launch of Marshal Plan after World War II, the flow of foreign aid has been seen as the panacea to overcome underdevelopment. Ethiopia is not an exception to this view, and Ethiopia is one of the recipients of foreign aid not only to provide emergency relief but also to support longterm economic development. This study shows the flow of aid to Ethiopia in terms of major donors (bilateral and multilateral), method of delivery, and major …

Maternal Education And Child Nutrition: Evidence From The 2000 And 2005 Ethiopian Demographic And Health Surveys, Alemayehu Azeze Ambel

International Conference on African Development Archives

I used the 2000 and 2005 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys to analyze the effect of maternal education and its pathways on chronic and acute malnutrition in Ethiopia. The pathways examined in this study are socioeconomic status, maternal health-seeking behavior, maternal knowledge of health and family planning and reproductive behavior. I find that maternal education works through all except health-seeking behavior. I also find that maternal education and its pathways are more relevant and robust in explaining chronic than acute malnutrition. Socioeconomic status is the most important factor linking maternal education and child nutritional status. Although girls’ education is a …

A Problem Of Social Capital And Cultural Norms?, Salaam Yitbarek

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper asserts that in Ethiopian society, there exist certain cultural norms or ‘dysfunctional behaviours’ that inhibit effective communication, lead to intra-group conflict, and make conflict resolution difficult. This has resulted in a diminished capacity for cooperation and a dearth of social capital and civil society, which does not bode well for development and democracy. It is imperative that research is expanded in the neglected area of cultural norms and social capital in Ethiopian society, and that intervention strategies are designed to increase social capital by addressing cultural norms directly through social marketing, awareness raising, and other mechanisms.

Party Politics, Political Polarization And The Future Of Ethiopian Democracy, Merera Gudina

International Conference on African Development Archives

A closer glance at the source of what appears to be a curse of history can be explained largely by the political polarization and fragmentation between and among Ethiopian political parties, which time and again failed to set a common agenda and mobilize millions for a common good.

Investors' Willingness To Pay For Urban Land: The Case Of Addis Ababa City, Alebel Bayrau, Genanew Bekele

International Conference on African Development Archives

The spatial, physical and socio-economic conditions of Addis Ababa City, in general, is by far behind the requirements fundamental to sustain the livelihood of the city. In addressing the problems of the city, the suggested government intervention strategies include, among others, the relocation and resettlement of residents for efficient utilization of potential sites, and bringing balanced and coordinated investment/development in different parts of the city. These strategies, so far, seam to concentrate on the supply side and neglected the effective demand of the majority of investors. This study, therefore, aims to assess determinants of investors' willingness to pay for a …

Farmers’ Preferences For Development Intervention Programs: A Case Study Of Subsistence Farmers From East Ethiopian Highlands, Wagayehu Bekele

International Conference on African Development Archives

The aim of this paper is to better understand farmers' perception of the relevance of different development intervention programs. Farmers’ subjective ranking of agricultural problems and their preference for development intervention are elicited using a stated preference method. The factors influencing these preferences are determined using a random utility model. The study is based on a survey conducted in the Hunde-Lafto area of the East Ethiopian Highlands. Individual interviews were conducted with 145 randomly selected farm households using semi-structured questionnaires. The study suggests that drought, soil erosion and shortage of cultivable land are high priority agricultural production problems for farmers. …