Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Milk In The Data: Food Security Impacts From A Livestock Field Experiment In Zambia, Margaret Jodlowski, Alex Winter-Nelson, Kathy Baylis, Peter Goldsmith

Kathy Baylis

Smallholder livestock ownership has potential to enhance food security by raising incomes of the poor and by increasing the availability of nutrient-dense foods. This paper exploits the staggered rollout of livestock distribution by Heifer International in Zambia to identify the effects of livestock using statistically similar treatment and control groups in a balanced panel of households. Results indicate that livestock ownership improves dietary diversity through both direct consumption of animal products produced on farm and through increased consumption expenditures. Further results indicate that expanded livestock ownership alters the local food economy to influence food consumption by households lacking farm animals.

Farmers' Risk Preferences And Pesticide Use Decisions: Evidence From Field Experiments In China, Kathy Baylis, Yazhen Gong, Robert Kozak, Gary Bull

Kathy Baylis

The Political Economy Of Export Restrictions: The Case Of Vietnam And India, Kathy Baylis, Murray E. Fulton, Travis Reynolds

Kathy Baylis

No abstract provided.

Do Peer Effects Influence The Household Bargain? Evidence From Children's Food Consumption In India, Eeshani Kandpal, Kathy Baylis

Kathy Baylis

This paper uses primary data on women's social networks to estimate causal peer effects in the household bargain. Using an extension of a spatial weighting technique that relies of friends-of-friends to identify peer effects, we examine how a woman's friend's participation in an education program affects her physical mobility, access to outside employment, and probability of working outside the household, as well as her children's food consumption. Results show that peer effects have a significant impact on all proxies of female bargaining power. We decompose the overall peer effects into those on participants and non-participants, and focus on the effects …

Effects Of Export Restrictions On Domestic Market Efficiency: The Case Of India’S Rice And Wheat Export Ban, Kathy Baylis, Maria Christina Jolejole-Foreman, Mindy Mallory

Kathy Baylis

The use of export restrictions has substantially increased in recent years. While a number of papers show how these restrictions have increased world commodity prices, in this paper, we empirically estimate how one country’s export restrictions affected the efficiency of their domestic market. We use a threshold cointegration model to estimate the integration between selected wheat and rice markets in India before and during the export bans and test whether those bans exacerbated the price effects of domestic production shocks. We find that before the ban, the majority of port markets for rice and wheat are integrated with the world …

Empowering Women Through Education And Influence: An Evaluation Of The Indian Mahila Samakhya Program, Eeshani Kandpal, Kathy Baylis, Mary Arends-Kuenning

Kathy Baylis

Mahila Samakhya is an innovative Indian program that attempts to harness local peer networks to change social norms and empower women. While most studies focus on programs that target individuals, only a small number of papers evaluate community-level interventions. This article analyses the effect of this program on women's empowerment outcomes. We attempt to disentangle the mechanisms of the program, separately considering its eff#11;ect on women who work and those who do not work, where the program aff#11;ects the latter group solely through their reservation wage. We also consider the program's e#11;ffect on non-participants, to observe whether there are spillover …

The Food Corporation Of India And The Public Distribution System: Impacts On Market Integration In Wheat, Rice, And Pearl Millet, Mindy Mallory, Kathy Baylis

Kathy Baylis

This paper examines the spatial integration of major staple commodity markets in India. We consider wheat, rice and pearl millet markets, two of which are highly regulated (wheat and rice) and one that is less regulated (pearl millet). Our data come from the states of Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, states that produce a large share of India’s cereal grains. Access to food remains an important issue for India as it develops. Because of this, the Indian government regulates the markets for staple foods heavily, requiring almost all grain be marketed through government licensed mandis. The government enforces …

Expanding Horizons: Can Women’S Support Groups Diversify Peer Networks In Rural India?, Eeshani Kandpal, Kathy Baylis

Kathy Baylis

Peer networks in traditional societies may be homogenous and stratified by income or social hierarchy, therefore reinforcing social norms. Conservative social norms will reinforce current bargaining power, which is often skewed to the male in the household. Diversifying networks may improve female bargaining power of those women in the network by allowing them to connect with role models, facilitating information sharing with women who have a different range of experiences, or challenge the social norms in which they usually find themselves. We ask whether Mahila Samakhya, a women's empowerment program, was able to diversity social networks of women in the …

Fast-Food Consumption And The Ban On Advertising Targeting Children: The Quebec Experience, Tirtha Dhar, Kathy Baylis

Kathy Baylis

Amid growing concerns about childhood obesity and the associated health risks, several countries are considering banning fast-food advertising targeting children. In this paper we study the effect of such a ban in the Canadian province of Quebec. Using household expenditure survey data from 1984 to 1992, we examine whether expenditure on fast food is lower in those groups affected by the ban than in those who are not. We use a novel triple difference-in-difference methodology by appropriately defining treatment and control groups and find that the ban’s effectiveness is due not to the decrease in fast-food expenditures per week but …