Arjan Verschoor

@article{89ca4be28eb9465cb11650acfd037d19,

title = {Agricultural investment behaviour and contingency: Experimental evidence from Uganda},

author = {Ben D'Exelle and Alistair Munro and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106427},

issn = {0305-750X},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {World Development},

volume = {173},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {Underinvestment in agriculture – a major cause of rural poverty – may be due to difficulties in detecting ‘contingency’, defined as the influence one may exert on the outcome of a decision-making situation. Recently experienced contingency may create a mismatch between perceived and actual contingency in an investment decision-making situation, leading to sub-optimal investment behaviour. To test this, we use an experiment with poor farmers in Uganda used to low levels of contingency, as many factors (e.g., the weather, pests, price fluctuations) obscure the link between farm investment and outcomes. We find that in situations in which some contingency is present, investment levels respond positively to recently experienced contingency. In situations in which no contingency is present (‘non-contingency’), investment responds negatively to recently experienced non-contingency. The findings that perceived contingency influences investment behaviour, and perceived contingency can be readily changed, may inform new behavioural policies to promote agricultural investment.},

note = {Acknowledgements: The research documented in this paper was financed by ESRC-DFID, UK grant ES/J008893/1. Some of Alistair Munro’s expenses were supported by JSPS, Japan KAKENHI Grant Number 25101002 . Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) with research registration number SS2806, and from the University of East Anglia. We thank Joshua Balungira and his team at The Field Lab for support with the fieldwork and Borja Perez Viana for research assistance. We thank participants at seminars at UEA, ISS (The Hague), University of Manchester, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), the Institute of Dalit Studies (New Delhi), and SEEDEC Wageningen for their comments. Data availability: Data will be made available on request.},

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@article{26a33377f939476a987a14f238de29b3,

title = {What should I aspire to? Peer effects in adolescents’ friendship networks},

author = {Ben D'Exelle and Rik Habraken and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1086/720543},

issn = {0013-0079},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-10-01},

journal = {Economic Development and Cultural Change},

volume = {72},

number = {1},

pages = {27–78},

publisher = {University of Chicago},

abstract = {In sub-Saharan Africa, economic aspirations often conflict with aspirations to follow traditional social obligations. We test whether adolescents are influenced by friends when deciding which to prioritize. To do so, we elicit the preferences and perceived competition between economic and social aspirations of 553 Ugandan students, as well as their friendship ties. Using characteristics of nonoverlapping friends as instrumental variables, we identify strong peer effects. They are stronger with more interaction among friends, or when the information shared is more relevant or more important relative to other signals. We find no peer effect on the perceived competition between aspirations.},

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@article{81a293bd4f9b45b0a3fdcf97d423faad,

title = {Village networks and entrepreneurial farming in Uganda},

author = {Ben D'Exelle and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106241},

issn = {0305-750X},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-07-01},

journal = {World Development},

volume = {167},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {The transition from semi-subsistence farming to more entrepreneurial farming by the adoption of new crops or improved seeds is important for poverty reduction in developing countries. In rural societies, farmers’ propensity to experiment with new technologies is influenced by their access to information and support, provided by networks of friends and relatives. Considering that the same connection can share both information and support, we study the separate effects as well as the interaction of both network functions. Using two waves of data from a sample of Ugandan farmers, we find that the propensity to adopt new crops or improved seeds increases with the number of friends or relatives who adopted new crops or improved seeds before. The effect on the adoption of new crops is stronger if the same friends or relatives also provide support in the form of gifts or loans. At the same time, we find a positive effect of support that is conditional on friends or relatives having adopted new crops before.},

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@article{265db8ac59b14ebf96a153db91ac0742,

title = {Effort and social comparison: Experimental evidence from Uganda},

author = {Ben D'Exelle and Rik Habraken and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1086/725231},

issn = {0013-0079},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-03-29},

journal = {Economic Development and Cultural Change},

publisher = {University of Chicago},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{ce2205cac16c4f29a1e2003d02fb7150,

title = {Designing development interventions: The application of service design and discrete choice experiments in complex settings},

author = {Matthew Osborne and Fiona Lambe and Ylva Ran and Naira Dehmel and Giovanni Alberto Tabacco and Joshua Balungira and Borja Perez-Viana and Erik Widmark and Stefan Holmlid and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105998},

issn = {0305-750X},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-10-01},

journal = {World Development},

volume = {158},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {The persistence of problems such as endemic poverty, rising inequalities, climate change and biodiversity loss demands us to find solutions which are embedded in a highly complex web of interacting social, technological, and ecological processes. Service design (SD), an approach to directly involve citizens in the development and improvement of services and systems, shows promise as a tool to support the design of interventions to address complex development challenges in the Global South. In this paper we describe how service design was used alongside discrete choice experiments (DCEs) to inform the design of a Weather Index Insurance product for small holder farmers in Uganda. As part of the service design process, we used archetypes to capture and articulate the multiple vulnerabilities of farmers and quickly test prototype insurance packages to identify important design features. DCEs tested promising design features in a manner that complemented as well as triangulated the service design phase. The results of both phases were used to inform the design of a WII product that has been taken up by major insurance providers in Uganda. The approach complements and builds on qualitative work typically done to inform DCEs by opening up space for research participants to question core assumptions, and by involving respondents directly in the process of designing a future service.},

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@article{33aacd168a9842a989ab87507179baf4,

title = {Probability weighting for losses and for gains among smallholder farmers in Uganda},

author = {Arjan Verschoor and Ben D'Exelle},

doi = {10.1007/s11238-020-09796-8},

issn = {0040-5833},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-02-01},

journal = {Theory and Decision},

volume = {92},

pages = {223–258},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {Probability weighting is a marked feature of decision-making under risk. For poor people in rural areas of developing countries, how probabilities are evaluated matters for livelihoods decisions, especially the probabilities associated with losses. Previous studies of risky choice among poor people in developing countries seldom consider losses and do not offer a refined tracking of the probability-weighting function (PWF). We investigate probability weighting among smallholder farmers in Uganda, separately for losses and for gains, using a method (common consequence ladders) that allows refined tracking of the PWF for a population with low levels of literacy. For losses, we find marked probability weighting near zero, which is in line with evidence found in Western labs. For gains, the absence of probability weighting is remarkable, particularly its absence near 100%. We also find marked differences in probability weighting for traditional farmers which are in line with the observed livelihoods strategies in the study area.},

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@article{774405f988894e6aabd46e3fb9e1c653,

title = {An endowment effect for risk levels: Evidence from a Ugandan lab},

author = {Paul Clist and Arjan Verschoor and Ben D'Exelle},

doi = {10.1016/j.jebo.2020.12.013},

issn = {0167-2681},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-02-01},

journal = {Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization},

volume = {182},

pages = {297–310},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {Risky choices often have a natural starting-point. For example, insurance-type decisions concern reducing risk while investment-type decisions concern increasing it. A recent reference-dependent utility model predicts such references influence behaviour. Stochastic references act as endowments, with riskier references leading to riskier choices. We test this prediction in an identical choice set using a between-subject design in rural Uganda. Subjects are subtly assigned to one of three reference lotteries. On average, those with riskier endowments risk half a standard deviation more coins. We also consider the effect of introducing a new stochastic reference. In a within-subject second round, we test whether a social signal acts as a competing reference. In our experiment, information on peers’ choices is a stronger pull than the initial treatment effect. On average, subjects converge to the social signal by 0.37 for each unit of difference. Previous research focuses on the absence or presence of risk, allowing either the reference or prospect to be non-degenerate. Our results allow both to contain an element of risk, and show that the endowment effect can operate on the level of risk: risky choice is influenced by the riskiness of the reference.},

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@article{bbc4f30796534839a9cdb95acc0c4a12,

title = {The role of preferences for pro-environmental behaviour among urban middle class households in Peru},

author = {Hanna Fuhrmann-Riebel and Ben D'Exelle and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106850},

issn = {0921-8009},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-02-01},

journal = {Ecological Economics},

volume = {180},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {Pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) is known to reflect people's social preferences, time preferences and risk preferences. Previous research has tended to consider these in isolation, which means they may proxy for omitted ones, leading to biased estimates. Moreover, it has not considered ambiguity preferences, which for some PEBs is conceptually more relevant than risk preferences. Using a survey module from the Global Preference Survey (GPS), we investigate the role of a large range of preferences for PEB in a sample of 900 middle class households in Lima, Peru. The PEBs we consider are habitually saving energy, avoiding the use of plastics, and limiting expenditures on electricity. We find that social preferences matter mainly for saving-energy behaviour; time, risk and ambiguity preferences matter mainly for the consumption of plastics; and time and ambiguity preferences matter for expenditures on electricity. The insight that particular preferences matter for particular PEBs has important policy implications.},

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@article{2b2fb69ac559444f9e0d9f9804efdcea,

title = {Combining service design and discrete choice experiments for intervention design: An application to weather index insurance},

author = {Naira Dehmel and Ylva Ran and Matthew Osborne and Arjan Verschoor and Fiona Lambe and Joshua Balungira and Giovanni Tabacco and Borja Perez-Viana and Erik Widmark and Stefan Holmlid},

doi = {10.1016/j.mex.2021.101513},

issn = {2215-0161},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-01},

journal = {MethodsX},

volume = {8},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {In this paper we provide a detailed description of the methodological steps involved in conducting a Service Design study in combination with Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs). It complements the conceptual and epistemological argument developed for this methodological combination in Osborne et al. (2021, World Development, in review WD-19535). Service Design for the co-creative development of policy interventions in complex adaptive systems involves an iterative process of moving between the six methodological stages of (1) problem co-definition, (2) actor-centred mapping, (3) experience-based problem diagnosis, (4) rapid prototyping, (5) design and testing and (6) upscaling. We suggest using DCEs as a quantitative method that is contextually adaptable and comparatively fast and cheap to implement, as part of stage (6) design and testing. Whilst both methods can operate independently with their own strengths and limitations, we find their combination to add value to the processes and outcomes of each. We illustrate the general methodological approach with a step-by-step description of its application to Weather Index Insurance in eastern Uganda.},

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@article{dae732526f6a4d3a86c0fc69777da014,

title = {Spousal control and efficiency of intra-household decision making: Experiments among married couples in India, Ethiopia and Nigeria},

author = {Arjan Verschoor and Bereket Kebede and Alistair Munro and Marcela Tarazona},

doi = {10.1057/s41287-019-00206-6},

issn = {0957-8811},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-09-01},

journal = {European Journal of Development Research},

volume = {31},

number = {4},

pages = {1171–1196},

publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.},

abstract = {Given the importance of the household as a resource allocation mechanism, considerable interest exists in its efficiency. Most of the non-experimental evidence for inefficiency comes from West African farm households in which husbands and wives pursue separate productive activities. Using experiments, we test for efficiency of spouses’ resource allocation decisions in a range of household types. In North India, we selected households that are unified, in northern Nigeria households characterised by separate spheres of economic decision making. Our other sites occupy carefully selected intermediate positions on the spectrum from unitary to separate-spheres household types. We find that, the more separate is decision making in real life, the less efficient is resource allocation in the experiments. Moreover, female control of resource allocation tends to lower efficiency, in contrast to male control. The exception is a site in northern Nigeria where female control of resource allocation is well established.},

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@article{05ff45b1f77f45bb90efd521a23d48a4,

title = {The lion’s share. An experimental analysis of polygamy in Northern Nigeria},

author = {Alistair Munro and Bereket Kebede and Marcela Tarazona-Gomez and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1086/700102},

issn = {0013-0079},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-01},

journal = {Economic Development and Cultural Change},

volume = {67},

number = {4},

pages = {833–861},

publisher = {University of Chicago},

abstract = {We use simple public goods games to investigate spousal behavior in Kano, northern Nigeria, one of the modern heartlands of polygyny. Most partners keep back at least half of their endowment from the common pool, but we find no evidence that polygynous households are less efficient than their monogamous counterparts. When men control the allocation, equal treatment of wives is common, but senior wives often receive more from their husbands, no matter what their contribution. However, the clearest result is that when men control the allocation, polygynous husbands receive a higher payoff compared to their wives and their monogamous counterparts.},

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@article{0d834ed457b44f0b86b70ecfaf86fc5c,

title = {Truly reconciled? A dyadic analysis of post-conflict social reintegration in Northern Uganda},

author = {Matthew Osborne and Ben D'Exelle and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1177/0022343317729011},

issn = {0022-3433},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Peace Research},

volume = {55},

number = {1},

pages = {107–121},

publisher = {Sage Publications},

abstract = {In the aftermath of civil war or violent internal conflict, one of the key peacebuilding challenges is the reconciliation of former enemies who are members of the same small-scale societies. A failure of social reintegration may contribute to what is known as a conflict trap. To detect lingering hostile attitudes among a community’s various factions is crucial, but the approaches adopted in previous studies tend to focus on the impact of conflict on one or other aggregated indicator of social cohesion rather than on how violence-affected individuals regard and act towards their fellow community members. Here we demonstrate the value of concentrating on this latter dyadic component of social interactions and we use behavioural experiments and a social tie survey to assess, in an appropriately disaggregated manner, social cohesion in a post-conflict setting in northern Uganda. Whereas in self-reported surveys, ex-combatants appear to be well-connected, active members of their communities, the experiments unveil the continued reluctance of other community members to share or cooperate with them; fewer resources are committed to ex-combatants than to others, which is statistically significant. The dyadic nature of our analysis allows us to detect which groups are more prone to discriminate against ex-combatants, which may help facilitate targeted interventions.},

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@article{1696ab5f70ee4affa131db7a9c3ce854,

title = {Multilingualism and public goods provision: An experiment in two languages in Uganda},

author = {Paul Clist and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.08.003},

issn = {0304-3878},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-11-01},

journal = {Journal of Development Economics},

volume = {129},

pages = {47–57},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {Multilingualism is the global norm, but the implications of this for cooperation and public goods provision have not been studied before. We test whether the language in which a public goods game is played affects subjects' contributions amongst a bilingual population in eastern Uganda, finding that subjects contribute 30% more on average in the national language. This treatment effect is solely driven by those most associated with the local Gisu identity, for whom contributions are 43–74% higher in the national language. This difference fits with Gisu culture's high value on self-reliance and low value on reciprocity and cooperation, due to a violent history of intense competition over land. Language is thus shown to affect cooperation, but only for individuals who both have different latent norms and for whom language activates these norms. NB: The experimental script, data and code are available at https://paulclist.github.io},

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pubstate = {published},

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@article{e0200fd216014ca3986649619fb7fc23,

title = {Lab and life: Does risky choice behaviour observed in experiments reflect that in the real world?},

author = {Arjan Verschoor and Ben D'Exelle and Borja Perez-Viana},

doi = {10.1016/j.jebo.2016.05.009},

issn = {0167-2681},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-08-01},

journal = {Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization},

volume = {128},

pages = {134–148},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {Risk preferences play a crucial role in a great variety of economic decisions. Measuring risk preferences reliably is therefore an important challenge. In this paper we ask the question whether risk preferences observed in economic experiments reflect real-life risky choice behaviour. We investigate in a sample representative for a rural region of eastern Uganda whether pursuing farming strategies with both a higher expected profit and greater variance of profits is associated with willingness to take risks in an experiment. Controlling for other determinants of risk-taking in agriculture, we find that risky choice behaviour in the experiment is correlated with risky choice behaviour in real life in one domain, i.e. the purchase of fertiliser, but not in other domains, i.e. the growing of cash crops and market-orientation more broadly. Our findings suggest that economic experiments may be good at capturing real-world risky choice behaviour that is narrowly bracketed.},

note = {Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)},

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@article{39a748067b6345f8a5b0038447d2124f,

title = {Conflicting risk attitudes},

author = {Amrei Lahno and Marta Serra-Garcia and Ben D'Exelle and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.jebo.2015.03.003},

issn = {0167-2681},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-10-01},

journal = {Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization},

volume = {118},

pages = {136–149},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {This paper examines whether differences in individual risk attitudes are related to interpersonal conflict. In more than thirty villages of rural Uganda, we conduct a social survey to document social links between pairs of individuals within a village, and separately elicit individual risk attitudes using an incentivized task. Our findings reveal that the difference in risk attitudes between two individuals is significantly and positively related to the presence of interpersonal conflict between them. This relationship is particularly strong among kin. By contrast, the strength of risk aversion per se is not related to conflict. Further, we conduct simulations that suggest that the relationship cannot be solely explained by diverging attitudes after the severing of social ties as a result of interpersonal conflict.},

note = {Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.},

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@article{e6781db9c7504e2abdb1b02437f57b59,

title = {Investment behaviour, risk sharing and social distance},

author = {Ben D'Exelle and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1111/ecoj.12264},

issn = {0013-0133},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-05-01},

journal = {The Economic Journal},

volume = {125},

number = {584},

pages = {777–802},

publisher = {Wiley},

abstract = {Using a lab-in-the-field experiment in Uganda we study how risk sharing influences investment behaviour. Depending on the treatment, an investor may decide to share profits with a paired person, and/or the paired person may compensate the investor for investment losses. Following sharing norms in African societies, predicted investment is higher if loss sharing is possible, and/or profit sharing is not possible. Contrary to these predictions, we find that investment is higher when losses may not be shared or when profits may be shared with friends. A combination of directed altruism and expected reciprocity appears most plausible to explain these results.},

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}

@article{294fd45dcd35473d8dc38caa91342831,

title = {Intra-household efficiency: An experimental study from Ethiopia},

author = {Bereket Kebede and Marcela Tarazona and Alistair Munro and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1093/jae/ejt019},

issn = {0963-8024},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

journal = {Journal of African Economies},

volume = {23},

number = {1},

pages = {105–150},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {A common feature of many intra-household models is the assumption of efficiency. This paper uses an experimental design to directly test this. Data from 1,200 married couples in Ethiopia were collected using treatments that vary initial endowments of spouses, final allocation rules and information in a voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM). Efficiency is decisively rejected in all treatments. Information improves efficiency only in some treatments, suggesting that the role of information is context dependent. Husbands' expectations of their wives' contributions are higher than their wives' actual contributions, and wives' expectations of their husbands' contributions are lower than their husbands' actual contributions. These systematic errors in expected and actual behaviour imply that the attainment of equilibrium as in a game theoretic framework is unlikely. Statistical tests indicate that instead of efficiency, other considerations are likely important. Overall, most of the empirical results cast doubt on models of the household that assume Pareto efficiency.},

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}

@article{2c4218ac244145e9aadb9cc4bcfaad32,

title = {Autonomy and efficiency: An experiment on household decisions in two regions of India},

author = {Alistair Munro and Bereket Kebede and Marcela Tarazona-Gomez and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.jjie.2013.10.009},

issn = {0889-1583},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

journal = {Journal of the Japanese and International Economies},

volume = {33},

pages = {114–133},

publisher = {Academic Press Inc.},

abstract = {Dyson and Moore (1983) posit that women in South India enjoy relatively more agency than in the North. Their conclusions have become part of the standard picture of Indian rural society. In this paper, using experimental data we examine the implications of the regional contrast in female autonomy for the efficiency of family decision-making. With a sample of 1200 couples (one rural and one urban area in the North (Uttar Pradesh) and one rural area in the South (Tamil Nadu)), we find continuing significant differences between North and South in the nature of marital behaviour. In our experiments we see large-scale and robust evidence of inefficiency and hiding of assets when possible. Men invest more and are more generous to their partners. Women are more willing to invest in a common pool when their income is earned through working and when assets are publicly observable. There are differences between responses to treatment but the key and striking difference between the North and the South is that in both rural and urban sites in the North household efficiency is considerably greater than in the South.},

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@article{5cb9f73b011a46b89133b75a1eff0b86,

title = {Caste dominance and economic performance in rural India},

author = {Vegard Iversen and Adriaan Kalwij and Arjan Verschoor and Amaresh Dubey},

doi = {10.1086/675388},

issn = {0013-0079},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

journal = {Economic Development and Cultural Change},

volume = {62},

number = {3},

pages = {423–457},

publisher = {University of Chicago},

abstract = {Using household panel data for rural India covering 1993–94 and 2004–5, we test whether scheduled castes (SCs) and other minority groups perform better or worse in terms of income when resident in villages dominated by (i) upper castes or (ii) their own group. Theoretically, upper-caste dominance comprises a potential “proximity gain” and offsetting group-specific “oppression” effects. For SCs and other backward classes (OBCs), initial proximity gains dominate negative oppression effects because upper-caste-dominated villages are located in more productive areas: once agroecology is controlled for, proximity and oppression effects cancel each other out. Although the effects are theoretically ambiguous, we find large, positive own-dominance or enclave effects for upper castes, OBCs, and especially SCs. These village regime effects are restricted to the Hindu social groups. Combining pathway and income source analysis, we close in on the mechanisms underpinning identity-based income disparities; while education matters, landownership accounts for most enclave effects. A strong postreform SC own-village advantage turns out to have agricultural rather than nonfarm or business origins. We also find upper-caste dominance to inhibit the educational progress of other social groups, along with negative enclave effects on the educational progress of Muslim women and scheduled tribe men.},

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}

@article{90dce8209e314c72a50d5ff9296c1915,

title = {A test of the experimental method in the spirit of Popper},

author = {Shaun Hargreaves-Heap and Arjan Verschoor and Daniel John Zizzo},

doi = {10.1080/1350178X.2012.661068},

issn = {1350-178X},

year  = {2012},

date = {2012-03-01},

journal = {Journal of Economic Methodology},

volume = {19},

number = {1},

pages = {63–76},

publisher = {Routledge},

abstract = {Do the insights into human behavior generated by laboratory experiments hold outside the lab? This is a crucial question that naturally troubles both experimentalists and their critics. We address this question by adopting Popper’s injunction that hypotheses should be tested, not by seeking instances of confirmation, but through exposure to conditions where falsification is a serious possibility. We test the hypothesis ‘that experimental insights hold outside the lab’ by selecting a population where the non-experimental evidence points to behavior that is quite unlike what is typically found in the laboratory and we examine whether their experimental results track these untypical behaviors. In our case, they do.},

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}

@article{6ff8bbf1b1ba4e9b8b06257ed9ccc8eb,

title = {Gender and trade aspects of labour markets},

author = {Elissaios Papyrakis and Arjan Verschoor and Arlette Covarrubias},

doi = {10.1080/00220388.2011.561324},

issn = {0022-0388},

year  = {2012},

date = {2012-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Development Studies},

volume = {48},

number = {1},

pages = {81–98},

publisher = {Routledge},

abstract = {We provide a comprehensive up-to-date review of the large body of theory and evidence on the linkages between trade liberalisation and gender inequality in income, as well as two of the latter's key underlying determinants: wages and employment. On balance, the evidence for developing countries points to an overall beneficial impact of trade expansion on female employment, both relative to male employment and in absolute terms, although largely concentrated in unskilled manufacturing. By contrast, the bulk of the evidence suggests a widening gender wage gap as a result of freer trade.},

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tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{e4683eb8207542be98fecb093ac99600,

title = {Choice under uncertainty: evidence from Ethiopia, India and Uganda},

author = {Glenn W. Harrison and Steven J. Humphrey and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02303.x},

issn = {0013-0133},

year  = {2010},

date = {2010-03-01},

journal = {The Economic Journal},

volume = {120},

number = {543},

pages = {80–104},

publisher = {Wiley},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{3945ddd15ada408787354f4a4dc334fa,

title = {Job recruitment networks and migration to cities in India},

author = {Vegard Iversen and Kunal Sen and Arjan Verschoor and Amaresh Dubey},

doi = {10.1080/00220380902725688},

issn = {0022-0388},

year  = {2009},

date = {2009-04-01},

journal = {Journal of Development Studies},

volume = {45},

number = {4},

pages = {522–543},

publisher = {Routledge},

abstract = {Economists have focused on job search and supply-side explanations for network effects in labour transactions. This paper develops and tests an alternative explanation for the high prevalence of network-based labour market entry in developing countries. In our theoretical framework, employers use employee networks as screening and incentive mechanisms to improve the quality of recruitment. Our framework suggests a negative relationship between network use and the skill intensity of jobs, a positive association between economic activity and network use and a negative relationship between network use and pro-labour legislation. Furthermore, social identity effects are expected to intensify when compared to information-sharing and other network mechanisms. Using data from an all-India Employment Survey, we implement a novel empirical strategy to test these relationships and find support for our demand-side explanation.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{44981ebc4ff34692b85364dd31e33267,

title = {Some consequences of the 1994-1995 coffee boom for growth and poverty reduction in Uganda},

author = {Lindsay Chant and Scott McDonald and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1111/j.1477-9552.2007.00133.x},

issn = {0021-857X},

year  = {2008},

date = {2008-02-01},

journal = {Journal of Agricultural Economics},

volume = {59},

number = {1},

pages = {93–113},

publisher = {Wiley},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{5610d9a151174235830dc8705eaec965,

title = {Not by growth alone: the role of the distribution of income in regional diversity in poverty reduction},

author = {Adriaan Kalwij and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.euroecorev.2006.06.003},

issn = {0014-2921},

year  = {2007},

date = {2007-05-01},

journal = {European Economic Review},

volume = {51},

number = {4},

pages = {805–829},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {This study examines the role of the distribution of income in determining the responsiveness of poverty to income growth and changes in income inequality using panel data of 58 developing countries for the period 1980–1998. We show that the large cross-regional variation in the capacity of income growth to reduce poverty, i.e. the income elasticity, is largely explained by differences in the initial distribution of income and present region and time specific estimates of the income and Gini elasticities of poverty. We find that the income elasticity of poverty in the mid-1990s equals −1.31 on average and ranges from −0.71 for Sub-Saharan Africa to −2.27 for the Middle East and North Africa, and that the Gini elasticity of poverty equals 0.80 on average and ranges from 0.01 in South Asia to 1.73 in Latin America. Furthermore we show that while differing income growth rates account for most of the regional diversity in poverty trends, the additional impact of differences across regions in rates of inequality change and income and inequality elasticities of poverty is almost always significant and far too large to be ignored, most notably so in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{b5eb2429300e462b9a8fcb92aa1de9d9,

title = {Does intra-household discrimination account for the bulk of India's 'missing women'?},

author = {Amaresh Dubey and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1177/097317410600200106},

issn = {0973-1741},

year  = {2007},

date = {2007-01-01},

journal = {Journal of South Asian Development},

volume = {2},

number = {1},

pages = {1–18},

publisher = {Sage Publications},

abstract = {Are adverse sex ratios in India largely due to intra-household discrimination of females? Received wisdom holds that the answer is ‘yes’. We have two reasons to doubt this. First, we show that poverty is associated with better, not worse, sex ratios in India. Second, we quantify the number of missing women in India due to its actual sex ratio at birth and find that it is considerably larger than the number due to excess postnatal female mortality. We estimate that between 25 and 40 per cent of missing women as conventionally computed is due to excess postnatal female mortality. Our findings taken together suggest that the masculinity of the birth ratio is positively associated with socio-economic status. Factors that may account for this association include parental lifestyle and disease, a higher incidence of sex-selective abortions among richer groups, and a sex-neutral reduction in foetal wastage as maternal well-being improves. None of these factors reflect female discrimination within the household, and ‘missing women’ is, therefore, potentially seriously biased as an indicator of the lethal consequences of intra-household discrimination.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{c5b539e6ed9b44c6aa7a0d09019409b1,

title = {The Trojan Horse principle in development assistance: A reading of Uganda's experience with aid},

author = {Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1111/j.1467-9361.2007.00365.x},

issn = {1363-6669},

year  = {2007},

date = {2007-01-01},

journal = {Review of Development Economics},

volume = {11},

number = {1},

pages = {78–91},

publisher = {Wiley},

abstract = {The World Bank recommends “ideas, not money” as a guiding principle to donors for dealing with badly governed countries. This paper challenges that principle on the basis of a study of the evolution in Uganda of pro-growth policies in the early to mid 1990s and pro-poor policies in the late 1990s. The analysis of Uganda’s experience with aid is accommodated within the theoretical framework of a principal–agent conditionality game, in which policy objectives of the recipient (the agent) evolve over time. The key finding of the paper is that the apparent conditionality failure of the period 1987–91 has paved the way for later reform. Financial aid given during this period suspended the necessity of reforms and bought donor proximity to recipient policy deliberations, as a result of both of which the policy learning could take place that led to later successful reform measures.},

note = {mid:14093 dc:ueastatus:post-print formatted dc:ueahesastaffidentifier:0111590074516},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{ac3a11d152e542e3b602bded34c406a3,

title = {Aid, social policies and pro-poor growth},

author = {Arjan Verschoor and Adriaan Kalwij},

doi = {10.1002/Jid.1248},

issn = {0954-1748},

year  = {2006},

date = {2006-01-01},

journal = {Journal of International Development},

volume = {18},

number = {4},

pages = {519–532},

publisher = {Wiley},

abstract = {Recent literature reports that foreign aid contributes to economic growth when economic policies are good. This paper claims that aid can contribute not just to growth but also to pro-poor growth, through increasing the responsiveness of social indicators to economic growth. The empirical evidence we present is in favour of this claim, suggesting that both aid itself and a recipient government's budget share allocated to social services tend to increase the (absolute) size of the income elasticity of poverty and infant mortality, and that, moreover, aid tends to increase this budget share.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{294c726c9e184c49baf1ef561411669f,

title = {Aid, government expenditure, and aggregate welfare},

author = {Karuna Gomanee and Oliver Morrissey and Paul Mosley and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.09.005},

issn = {0305-750X},

year  = {2005},

date = {2005-03-01},

journal = {World Development},

volume = {33},

number = {3},

pages = {355–370},

publisher = {Elsevier},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{d8376816676f4585b4420e90060defef,

title = {Risk attitudes and the ‘vicious circle of poverty’},

author = {Paul Mosley and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1080/09578810500066548},

issn = {0957-8811},

year  = {2005},

date = {2005-01-01},

journal = {European Journal of Development Research},

volume = {17},

number = {1},

pages = {59–88},

publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.},

abstract = {The article reconsiders the view that the poor are trapped into poverty as a result of their risk aversion, precluding the level of investment needed to lift them out of poverty. The starting point is the experimental methods of Binswanger who found no significant association between risk aversion and low income. Using experimental data from Uganda, Ethiopia and India the article confirms these early findings, and provides estimates of the correlation between the variables involved in the 'vicious circle of poverty'. The paper concludes that there is generally little relationship between risk aversion and an income measure of poverty, but a strong relationship between the latter and asset levels and returns.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{4f5eecb143874521b1b3b5018fe25f09,

title = {The probability weighting function: experimental evidence from Uganda, India and Ethiopia},

author = {Steven J. Humphrey and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1016/j.econlet.2004.02.015},

issn = {0165-1765},

year  = {2004},

date = {2004-09-01},

journal = {Economics Letters},

volume = {84},

number = {3},

pages = {419–425},

publisher = {Elsevier},

abstract = {We use the common consequence effect to investigate whether rank-dependent theory with an inverse S-shaped probability weighting function describes the risky choices of rural Ethiopians, Indians and Ugandans. We find that behaviour is better described by an S-shaped weighting function.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{db421d3a57de4b5e8a1938ee7d7a07a5,

title = {Aid, poverty reduction and the 'new conditionality'},

author = {Paul Mosley and John Hudson and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1111/j.1468-0297.2004.00220.x},

issn = {0013-0133},

year  = {2004},

date = {2004-05-01},

journal = {The Economic Journal},

volume = {114},

number = {496},

pages = {F217–F243},

publisher = {Wiley},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{a4fa3bef099e456e8e9d7486a7362d7b,

title = {Decision-making under risk among small farmers in east Uganda},

author = {Steven J. Humphrey and Arjan Verschoor},

doi = {10.1093/jae/13.1.44},

issn = {0963-8024},

year  = {2004},

date = {2004-01-01},

journal = {Journal of African Economies},

volume = {13},

number = {1},

pages = {44–101},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {We report an experimental test of individual decision-making behaviour under risk conducted in rural east Uganda. The test employs an incentive compatible design where subjects were paid according to the outcome of one of their choices. We find that the risk preferences of east Ugandan farmers exhibit systematic and predictable deviations from expected utility maximisation. These include violations of the independence and transitivity axioms of expected utility theory, and reference-dependent preferences. Not all deviations are the same as those which emerge from tests using (generally) student subjects at First World universities (e.g., we observe an S-shaped rather than an inverse S-shaped probability weighting function). We also find evidence of a substantial stochastic component to behaviour. The implications of our findings in terms of the appropriate characterisation of risk preferences in applied policy analyses are discussed.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}