Papers by Stephen C. Smith
Social Science Research Network, 2015
We evaluate causal impacts of a large-scale agricultural extension program for smallholder women ... more We evaluate causal impacts of a large-scale agricultural extension program for smallholder women farmers on technology adoption and food security in Uganda through a regression discontinuity design that exploits an arbitrary distanceto-branch threshold for village program eligibility. We find eligible farmers used better basic cultivation methods, achieved improved food security. Given minimal changes in adoption of relatively expensive inputs, we attribute these gains to improved cultivation methods that require low upfront monetary investment. Farmers also modified their shock-coping methods. These results highlight the role of information and training in boosting agricultural productivity among poor farmers and, indirectly, improving food security.
ABSTRACT This article, published in Spanish translation in the Mexican journal Letras Libres (and... more ABSTRACT This article, published in Spanish translation in the Mexican journal Letras Libres (and reprinted in the Peru legal journal Ius Inter Gentes), argues the links between improving human and legal rights protections for people living in poverty and success in ending poverty. It then examines approaches to achieving improvement in human and legal rights of people living in poverty, illustrating with examples from a variety of NGO programs. Previously the article has not been available in English.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2007
This chapter builds on the framework introduced in chapter 4 to examine in more detail the organi... more This chapter builds on the framework introduced in chapter 4 to examine in more detail the organizational comparative advantages of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with specific reference to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and looks in greater depth at some of the resulting strengths that NGOs may bring to bear on innovation and implementation of poverty programs. In doing so, it will examine the types of poverty traps faced by those in extreme poverty, and consider in this light NGO programmatic responses.
Journal of Comparative Economics, Sep 1, 1992
ABSTRACT This paper examines the investment behavior of the internally financed labor-managed fir... more ABSTRACT This paper examines the investment behavior of the internally financed labor-managed firm with an investment gestation lag by employing an overlapping generations model. We show that a retirement income will be paid equal to the current value of investment made by members while working less any income benefits already realized. The internally financed LMF may overinvest as well as underinvest compared to a conventional firm that has capital market access, though the conditions for this to obtain are found to be somewhat stringent. The existence conditions for the steady state are examined, providing further insights into the LMF's investment behavior.
Economic Development and Cultural Change, Jul 1, 2010
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials, Mar 28, 2019
Journal of Development Economics, Apr 1, 1993
This volume and the conference that set it in motion were conceived as a means to more fully acco... more This volume and the conference that set it in motion were conceived as a means to more fully account for, and to understand the role of, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a global policy initiative of historic scope and scale. We anchor our collective interest in NGOs and poverty alleviation and development in general within the MDG framework, and integrate the perspectives of scholars, practitioners, and policy makers working in the MDG areas. As such, our efforts are intended to provide guidance to policy makers and practitioners struggling to achieve tangible progress in confronting the most critical issues facing global society. In pursuing this task we confront the problematic nature of the MDGs themselves, the complexity of defining NGOs, and the blurred roles of the various sectors in practice. The findings are applicable not only to the MDGs but to problems of poverty and development more broadly. Before presenting our findings, we first explore this context.
Economic & Industrial Democracy, Feb 1, 1988
Journal of Comparative Economics, Sep 1, 1999
This book provides a careful description and well-researched institutional analysis of one of the... more This book provides a careful description and well-researched institutional analysis of one of the most important networks of industrial cooperatives in the developing world, the Kerala Dinesh Beedi (KDB) in India. It is an impressive piece of anthropology, comparative politics, economic history, and labor relations. It has many parallels to Bill Whyte and Kathleen Whyte's Making Mondragon, and in fact was inspired by it. The study seeks to answer five basic questions: How did KDB come about? How successful has it been? How did an industrially backward region produce an advanced experiment in industrial democracy? What is the relation of KDB to the Kerala model? Does KDB have relevance for other developing areas? In the process of examining KDB, the book addresses recurrent issues of the worker cooperative literature, such as work incentives, time horizons, investment decisions, potential worker-management conflicts, and the remaining role for unions in an employee-ownership environment. For decades, Kerala state on the subtropical coast of southwestern India has been heralded as an example of the extent to which the welfare of the poor can be improved even when growth is very slow. The state has high literacy and life expectancy, and other positive welfare conditions for its low level of income. Policies oriented to assisting the poor, such as those of the Kerala model, generally do not emerge out of a political vacuum. This book shows that, in Kerala, these emerged out of decades of struggle against harsh poverty and an oppressive social order, first under the British, then under the sometimes authoritarian Indian bureaucracy. Labor unions played an important role; one of their legacies is Kerala's vibrant cooperative movement, which stands in sharp contrast to the often inefficient and stagnant state-sponsored coops in other parts of India. Among the most remarkable and illuminating of these experiences is the Kerala Dinesh Beedi, which produces beedis, small cigarettes known in India as the poor man's smoke. This is an inspiring story, movingly recounted, of decades of struggle against steep odds. The authors document the roots of KDB from the 1930s and carry the story through 1997. The beedi workers' union went through decades of struggle with employers who can only be described as exploitative. (Although the word can be overwrought, it surely applies to the appalling abuses described in the
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Aug 1, 1996
Page 1. HOW BUSINESS AND EMPLOYEES CAN WIN BOTH Page 2. Page 3. Reinventing the Workplace Page 4.... more Page 1. HOW BUSINESS AND EMPLOYEES CAN WIN BOTH Page 2. Page 3. Reinventing the Workplace Page 4. Page 5. Reinventing the Workplace How Business and Employees Can Both Win David I. Levine THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION Washington, DC Page 6. ...
Journal of Development Economics, May 1, 1988
A decade ago, a vigorous debate over the causes of 'stagnation' in Indian industrial growth since... more A decade ago, a vigorous debate over the causes of 'stagnation' in Indian industrial growth since the mid-sixties emerged. Many of the important articles were published in the Economic and Political Weekly, a unique Indian periodical combining current affairs journalism with scholarly, refereed papers. Every conceivable position on the causes of industrial growth decline seems to have been staked out. On the demand side, it was argued that slow growth in the agricultural sector was translated into slow growth in demand for industrial goods; that increases in inequality in the urban sector dampened growth of demand for basic consumer manufactures; that terms of trade worsened against the large agricultural sector as a whole, again reducing demand. On the supply side, it was argued that India's complex system of industrial policies served to restrict entry and exit, reduce domestic and international competition, and in general retard the development of entrepreneurship. Direct and indirect effects of a slowdown in public investment were said to have weakened the entire industrial sector. Casual evidence of a factor productivity growth slowdown was cited. And the terms of trade were said to have changed in faoor of agriculture, causing resources to be shifted away from the industrial sector. Some authors even argued that the industrial slowdown was only a figment of the data: India revised its system of national accounts at just the time the slowdown was said to have begun. At last in Prof. Isher Ahluwalia's book we have a treatment of this issue which is theoretically and empirically comprehensive. She demonstrates a rare ability to combine insightful economic detective work with sound theory and rigorous hypothesis testing. Her book has much to offer not only to those interested in Indian economic development, but also to those who would examine industrial development in other LDCs. Professor Ahluwalia shows that the decline in manufacturing growth after 1965-66 was all too real -and statistically significant. After a careful development of the alternative data, some constructed for the purposes of the study, she uses econometric techniques to determine that a slowdown in aggregate industrial growth from about 7% in the 19561965 period to about 4% in the 19661981 period was statistically robust. The only potential problem rests with whether the industrial output of the informal sector, for which reliable data is unavailable, has
Journal of Development Economics, Jun 1, 2000
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2019
From a theoretical viewpoint, there can be market failures resulting in an underprovision of occu... more From a theoretical viewpoint, there can be market failures resulting in an underprovision of occupational health and safety. Works councils may help mitigate these failures. Using establishment data from Germany, our empirical analysis confirms that the incidence of a works council is significantly associated with an increased likelihood that the establishment provides more workplace health promotion than required by law. This result also holds in a recursive bivariate probit regression accounting for the possible endogeneity of works council incidence. Furthermore, analyzing potentially moderating factors such as collective bargaining coverage, industry, type of ownership, multiestablishment status and product market competition, we find a positive association between works councils and workplace health promotion for the various types of establishments examined. Finally, we go beyond the mere incidence of workplace health promotion and show that works councils are positively associated with a series of different measures of workplace health promotion.
WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks, Mar 29, 2021
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2019
Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have the potential to improve infant and young child feedin... more Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have the potential to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices; however, gaps in the literature remain regarding their design, implementation and effectiveness. The aims of this study were to: design a mHealth voice messaging intervention delivered to mothers and fathers targeting IYCF practices and examine its implementation and impact in households with children 6-23 months in three rural villages in Senegal. We conducted focus groups (n=6) to inform the intervention development. We then conducted a pilot study (n=47 households) to examine the impact of the intervention on IYCF practices of children 6-23 months. Voice messages were sent to the children's mothers and fathers over a period of four weeks (2 messages/week; 8 messages in total), and 24-hour dietary recalls and food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were conducted before and immediately after the implementation of the mHealth intervention to examine its impact on IYCF practices. Overall, 3 of the 8 behaviors increased and one decreased. There was a significant increase in the number of children that consumed fish (60% vs 94%; p=0.008) as measured by the 24-hour recall after the completion of the intervention. We also found significantly higher frequency of egg (p=0.026), fish (p=0.004) and thick porridge (p=0.002) consumption in the previous 7-days measured by the FFQ. Our findings suggest that voice messaging IYCF interventions in Senegal have the potential to improve IYCF behaviors among young children in the short term. Future research should entail scaling-up the intervention and examining its sustainability over the long-term.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jul 1, 2012
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Papers by Stephen C. Smith