Browsing by Subject "Employment"

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Agrofuels, large-scale agricultural production, and rural development : the case of Jatropha in Madagascar
(2019) Bosch, Christine; Zeller, Manfred
Agrofuel production in marginal areas can contribute directly to creating employment and improving local livelihoods. Indirectly, through increasing household purchasing power and relaxing financial constraints of smallholder farmers, it can contribute to greater food production and/or food consumption and rural development. These benefits depend, however, largely on the feedstock crop and its processing, land and labour requirements, the business model, value chains and institutional frameworks. Jatropha, a feedstock crop with more benefits than first-generation energy crops like maize, experienced a spike in popularity in the early 2000s due to its value in the biofuel markets of industrialized countries. The majority of plantations and outgrower schemes could not survive what followed: disappointing yields, pests and disease, low oil prices, the 2007/2008 food price crisis, negative narratives, and inadequate funding for further research activities. Despite these challenges, large-scale land investments and new Jatropha projects continue to be undertaken. Madagascar is a country characterized by severely eroded and degraded pasturelands, low agricultural productivity, high vulnerability to climatic shocks, and overwhelming poverty and food insecurity rates. It is hypothesized that the use of marginal lands for labour-intensive agrofuel feedstock cultivation, in otherwise neglected areas, through both public and private investment, will have positive impacts through the provision of wage work in large-scale plantation schemes. Although a number of studies have investigated the rural livelihood impacts of participation in Jatropha cultivation, there is little evidence that quantifies the long-term and indirect effects on smallholder food production and household food security. Against this background, large-scale Jatropha cultivation lends itself well to studying the complex interplay between feedstock and food production, as well as the potential for agricultural and rural development. Such analysis would provide useful insights and implications for cost-effective rural development policies to target poor farmers in remote areas. Drawing on a conceptual framework that highlights the role of smallholder farmers’ livelihood strategies like off-farm employment and agricultural intensification, and livelihood outcomes like food security, this thesis explores the contribution of large-scale agrofuel feedstock cultivation on marginal land. Three important outcomes, namely household food security, information and innovation spillover effects, and agricultural input use, are studied empirically in three articles, using a comprehensive household panel data set. The data was collected in six survey rounds between 2008 and 2014, in three villages near a large-scale Jatropha project in the Haute Matsiatra region, located in Madagascar’s Southern Highlands. The first article examines the relationship between wage work for a Jatropha project and household food security. Jatropha cultivation on marginal land is labour intensive and does not compete with food production. Therefore, incomes earned can contribute to increased food security directly as well as indirectly through increased or diversified food production. Using five rounds of household panel data, results show that labour demand from the plantation declined substantially after the build-up phase and Jatropha incomes were mostly used for food and other necessities. Fixed effects models show that Jatropha work contributed significantly to an improved dietary diversity. Despite the possibility to earn income during the lean season, Jatropha work did not lead to a reduction in the more subjective lack of food and led to reduced rice stocks. Both food production and consumption were highly influenced by drought shocks and locust plagues, indicating that complementing income creation strategies with agricultural development strategies might have further positive effects on food security. To shed light on the impact pathway from Jatropha work to agricultural production, the second article explores information dissemination through social networks and through Jatropha workers who are more exposed to modern technologies than control households. In addition to institutional factors, a lack of knowledge and limited extension services for improved agricultural technologies are considered barriers to information dissemination. Using two rounds of the dataset, which contains rich information on social capital and networks as well as knowledge and innovations, determinants of production-relevant knowledge like extension services, credit and marketing opportunities are estimated. Accounting for potential endogeneity with lagged and instrumental variables, the relevance of this knowledge to the adoption of innovations and the cultivation of a formerly taboo legume, as an example of diversification, is tested. The results indicate limited access to information, little knowledge on investment and marketing opportunities, and low adoption of innovations. Knowledge is relevant for both innovation performance and the cultivation of the Bambara groundnut, highlighting the need to increase and improve public extension services and information dissemination in rural Madagascar. Adoption is not only encouraged by knowledge, but also directly motivated through informal social networks. Bambara groundnut spillovers from the biofuel project can be observed, relaxing some of the constraints farmers face concerning access to information, social learning, and cultural norms. The third article explores one specific hypothesized spillover: access to and use of agricultural inputs. Given the very low use of improved inputs in rural areas in Madagascar, this study explores whether improved seed and seed information distributed to farmers encourages farmers to cultivate the seed. The analysis is based on household data gathered between 2012 and 2014 from 390 households in three villages. To investigate the adoption of improved seed, as well as the diffusion of information regarding improved seed, a randomized control trial was applied in 2013. Half of the 390 households were randomly assigned to receive the improved lima bean seed (Phaseolus lunatus), which is specifically bred for dry regions. Of the seed-receiving households, half were randomly assigned to receive information on how to store, plant, and cultivate the improved seed, as the variety was unfamiliar in the region. The control group and the two treatment groups are compared with respect to baseline characteristics, bean cultivation, information exchange with other farmers, legume consumption, and willingness to pay (WTP) for improved bean seed. To account for non-compliance, contamination, and spillover effects, local average treatment effects (LATE) are estimated. Of the seed-receiving households, 54% cultivated the seed, reaping an average yield of 6.3 kg for each kilogram of seed obtained. Seed information did not lead to higher yields. A small significant positive impact of seed distribution on legume consumption is found. WTP is 171% of the local market price for bean seed; provision of free seeds and information did not result in a higher WTP. Based on these findings, this thesis contributes empirical evidence that large-scale agrofuel feedstock production on marginal land can enhance rural livelihoods by offering alternative livelihood strategies especially for poorer households and contributing to improved livelihood outcomes. Accounting for the indirect effects shows important impact pathways on the livelihood strategies of farmers in a remote area. The provision of incentives for private investors, complemented by more public intervention in rural areas, as well as more investment in agricultural research and extension to reduce agricultural production risks, might enhance these spillovers.
Entry regulation and competition : evidence from retail and labormarkets of pharmacists
(2021) Unsorg, Maximiliane; Rostam-Afschar, Davud
We examine a deregulation of German pharmacists to assess its effects on retail and labor markets. From 2004 onward, the reform allowed pharmacists to expand their single-store firms and to open or acquire up to three affliated stores. This partial deregulation of multi-store prohibition reduced the cost of firm expansion substantially and provides the basis for our analysis. We develop a theoretical model that suggests that the general limitation of the total store number per firm to four is excessively restrictive. Firms with high managerial effciency will open more stores per furm and have higher labor demand. Our empirical analysis uses very rich information from the administrative panel data on the universe of pharmacies from 2002 to 2009 and their affiliated stores matched with survey data, which provide additional information on the characteristics of expanding firms before and after the reform. We find a sharp immediate increase in entry rates, which continues to be more than five-fold of its pre-reform level after five years for expanding firms. Expanding firms can double revenues but not profits after three years. We show that the increase of the number of employees by 50% after five years and the higher overall employment in the local markets, which increased by 40%, can be attributed to the deregulation.
Essays on the impact of temporary agency work on wages and employment
(2018) Baudy, Philipp; Beißinger, Thomas
The thesis contributes to the theoretical discussion of the effects of temporary agency work and picks up three different issues that have not been analyzed yet. It provides three theoretical models 1) to discuss the optimal economic behavior of firms and labor unions when firms threaten to use temporary agency employment in the bargaining process, 2) to examine the macroeconomic effects of the deregulation of temporary agency work that took, and still takes, place in many countries in the last decades, and 3) to study how the technological choice of firms in the economy changes due to the legal deregulation of temporary agency work. The first model focuses on the question of the optimal economic behavior of the bargaining parties. Developing a monopoly union model, it analyzes how and to what extent firms can strategically use the threat of temporary agency employment to dampen the wage claims of labor unions. Furthermore, the model discusses how labor unions optimally behave and respond to these threats. It is shown that labor unions may find it optimal to accept lower wages to prevent firms from using temporary agency workers. The decision of the labor union to oppose or accept the firms threat is based on the attempt to minimize the loss in its utility. While labor unions suffer from the potential use of temporary agency employment in terms of their utility, firms gain from increasing profits and an extended employment level per firm. If unions do not oppose temporary agency work, the model suggests that labor unions increase their wage claims for the remaining regular workers to a level that even exceeds the claims of the labor union if there is no threat at all. Hence, an intensive use of temporary agency workers in high-wage firms may be the cause and not the consequence of the high wage level in those firms. The second model concentrates on the effects of the deregulation of temporary agency employment on macroeconomic determinants like wages, unemployment, and the employment structure. Using the matching framework, it provides a first contribution that combines labor unions and temporary agency work in this modeling setup. Large firms produce differentiated goods employing regular workers that are organized in labor unions and, optionally, using temporary agency work for parts of the production. Furthermore, there is a special emphasis on the flows from temporary agency to regular employment, which is modeled as on-the-job search. The model shows that the deregulation of temporary agency work leads to a reduction in overall unemployment. Surprisingly, this favors regular employment due to lower wages that arise from the impact that the more attractive production alternative temporary agency employment has on labor union wage bargaining. The most interesting finding, however, is that there is a hump-shaped relationship between the degree of institutional deregulation of temporary agency work and its rate of employment. This is explained by the fact that voluntary non-institutional, firm-level regulations come into play and get the more important, the less regulated temporary agency employment is. They have a counter-effect on the costs of temporary agency work that is lowered by the deregulation. Additionally, even if the model does not conceal that individual workers suffer from declining wages, it shows that regular employment benefits from the deregulation of temporary agency employment. The third model examines how the technological choice of firms in an economy changes due to the availability of temporary agency employment as a production alternative that gets cheaper and, therefore, more attractive the less regulated it is. The model uses the matching framework with two types of jobs that differ in their productivity and workers that are randomly matched with temporary or regular job vacancies. The analysis reveals how the decision of firms with which technology to enter the market and to produce with changes with the deregulation of temporary agency employment. Regular and temporary agency workers produce the same good but use different technologies. Temporary agency work is less expensive to hire than regular workers as direct labor costs are lower. However, job destruction and labor turnover is higher in this employment type. The model rather intuitively suggests that the legal deregulation of temporary agency employment deteriorates the technology level used in the economy, leads to a more intensive use of the less advanced technology, and increases temporary agency employment. Regular workers are shown to suffer from declining wages while the labor income of temporary agency workers increases. However, the model also provides an advice for economic policy by suggesting that subsidies or other forms of support for directed investments in technological progress of more advanced technologies may be suitable to dampen the macroeconomic effects of the deregulation of temporary agency employment.
Job insecurity, employability, and health : an analysis for germany across generations
(2014) Otterbach, Steffen; Sousa-Poza, Alfonso
In this paper, we use 12 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel to examine the relationship between job insecurity, employability and health-related well-being. Our results indicate that being unemployed has a strong negative effect on life satisfaction and health. They also, however, highlight the fact that this effect is most prominent among individuals over the age of 40. A second observation is that job insecurity is also associated with lower levels of life satisfaction and health, and this association is quite strong. This negative effect of job insecurity is, in many cases, exacerbated by poor employability.
Perceived effects of farm tractors in four African countries, highlighted by participatory impact diagrams
(2020) Daum, Thomas; Adegbola, Ygué Patrice; Kamau, Geoffrey; Kergna, Alpha Oumar; Daudu, Christogonus; Zossou, Roch Cedrique; Crinot, Géraud Fabrice; Houssou, Paul; Mose, Lawrence; Ndirpaya, Yarama; Wahab, A. A.; Kirui, Oliver; Oluwole, Fatunbi Abiodun
Agricultural mechanization is on the rise in Africa. A widespread replacement of manual labor and animal traction will change the face of African agriculture. Despite this potentially transformative role, only a few studies have looked at the effects of mechanization empirically, mostly focusing on yields and labor alone. This is the first paper that explores perceived agronomic, environmental, and socioeconomic effects together, thereby revealing linkages and trade-offs, some of which have been hitherto unknown. Data were collected using a novel data collection method called “participatory impact diagrams” in four countries: Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, and Mali. In 129 gendered focus group discussions, 1330 respondents from 87 villages shared their perceptions on the positive and negative effects of agricultural mechanization, and developed causal impact chains. The results suggest that mechanization is likely to have more far-reaching agronomic, environmental, and socioeconomic consequences than commonly assumed. Most perceived effects were positive, suggesting that mechanization can help to reduce poverty and enhance food security but other effects were negative such as deforestation, soil erosion, land-use conflicts, and gender inequalities. Accompanying research and policy efforts, which reflect variations in local agro-ecological and socioeconomic conditions, are needed to ensure that mechanization contributes to an African agricultural transformation that is sustainable from a social, economic, and environmental perspective.
Service offshoring: a challenge for employment? : evidence from Germany
(2006) Schöller, Deborah
Besides material offshoring, economists have started to analyze the impact of service offshoring on domestic employment. Services are of particular interest since their significance has grown not only in terms of quantity, but also of qualitative understanding. One decade ago, most services were considered non-tradable, but the appearance of new information and communication technologies has contributed to overcoming geographical distance. The introduction of the paper aims at giving an appropriate definition of service offshoring also taking into account the different motives behind offshoring. The theoretical part gives a brief literature overview of the predicted effects of offshoring on domestic employment. The empirical part first compares import data of computing and information as well as other business services and states that service offshoring is more relevant in Germany than in most other countries. Secondly, German service offshoring intensities are calculated on a sectoral basis using input-output data. This measurement represents the proportion of imported service inputs used in home production. Germany?s average service offshoring intensity more than doubled from 1991 to 2002. Besides this, indications for a possible negative correlation between German service offshoring and manufacturing employment are given. Thirdly, the impact of service offshoring on German domestic manufacturing employment is estimated at a sectoral level. The author refers to the labor demand specification of Hamermesh using sectoral wages, output and other input prices as exogenous variables. The estimation results indicate that service offshoring was negatively related to manufacturing employment in Germany between 1991 and 2000.