World poverty is a persistent phenomenon despite international efforts and the improvements achieved in the last few decades. For many people it can be a chronic condition. This thesis aims at testing that the main reason some people are poor is due to a poverty trap, i.e., to some contextual mechanisms which limit their ability to escape poverty, reproducing it over time. To investigate this hypothesis, this thesis is guided by three different questions. First, does a poverty trap emerge in the aftermath of an extreme weather shock? Second, do communities in a humanitarian context have the same wealth dynamics? Third, what is the role of income diversification for agricultural households for asset accumulation, and does it depend on their wealth? The analysis focuses (a) on the case of Nigeria and a devastating flood, (b) on refugees and host communities in Uganda and (c) on agricultural households in Tanzania, respectively. Results show that Nigerian flooded households have poverty traps dynamics, condemning the poorest in a destitute state over time. Refugees and host communities in Uganda have similar wealth dynamics but both converge to a low-wealth equilibrium, suggesting a structural poverty trap that worse for refugees. Income diversification in Tanzania shows important nonlinearities according to households’ wealth: it fosters the accumulation of durable assets for better-off households only, while helping the poorest to accumulate livestock. These findings shed light on the interaction of low-income conditions and contextual challenges and opportunities, suggesting policy actions able to lift poor people above a wealth threshold, improve their living conditions and favouring their profitability.

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The Zambian government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), provides maize seed and fertilizers to farmers at heavily subsidised prices under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP). MACO’s narrow evaluation of FISP, based on estimated production without quantifying the significant changes in production and other critical socioeconomic factors, fails to adequately highlight and service the benefits of subsidies to intended beneficiaries. Furthermore, MACO estimates of the impact of FISP never consider the question of how much beneficiary farmers would have produced in its absence, leading to potentially misleading assessments. The key question addressed in this study is whether using more rigorous econometric methods that account for heterogeneity in socioeconomic factors between participants and non-participants would still confirm the positive impact of FISP on maize productivity and poverty reduction, hence justifying the huge government expense on the programme. The study utilised cross-sectional data obtained from 497 randomly selected households, collected in 2011 from six provinces of Zambia to assess the causal effect of FISP on beneficiary households’ maize yields and asset accumulation. The data was analysed using well-grounded matching techniques that account for differences in observable characteristics between programme participants and non-participants. The study also tested for possible unobserved selection effects using the Rosenbaum bounds. The results indicated that participating in FISP increased maize yields and assets accumulation and hence might directly or indirectly positively affect beneficiary poverty levels. There were also no influences of unobserved characteristics on the estimated maize yield and asset level differences between participants and non-participants. On average, FISP increased maize yields by about 451 kg per hectare, with an improvement of about 0.5 on the wealth index (score used to rank households according to asset levels). The positive impact on maize yields and asset accumulation on the participating farmers therefore justifies government’s continued implementation of FISP. / Dissertation (MScAgric)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MScAgric / Unrestricted

Diese Arbeit ist eine Sammlung von Studien, welche sowohl die makro-, als auch die mikroökonomischen Aspekte und Charakteristika von Rücküberweisungen pakistanischer Migranten in ihr Heimatland analysieren, sowie deren ökonomische Auswirkungen auf das Konsumverhalten und die Vermögensbildung der Empfängerhaushalte. Es zeigt sich, dass internationale Überweisungen im Vergleich zu anderen finanziellen Mittelflüssen eine stabile und stabilisierende Quelle für Devisen darstellen. Des Weiteren weisen sie mit Blick auf die heimische Wirtschaft ein antizyklisches Verhalten auf, während ihr Verhalten mit Blick auf die Wirtschaft des Gastlandes als azyklisch beschrieben werden kann.  Die Überweisungsströme werden maßgeblich von ihren Transaktionskosten beeinflusst, so dass Migranten in Zeiten hoher Transaktionskosten Rücküberweisungen ins Heimatland entweder einstellen oder informelle Kanäle zum Überweisen nutzen. Im Rahmen dieser Studie stellt sich außerdem heraus, dass Rücküberweisungen als hauptsächlich kurzfristige Einnahmequelle betrachtet werden. Aufgrund dessen werden die Zuflüsse oftmals in die Förderung von Humankapital investiert, wobei dieser Effekt stark abhängig vom Einkommensniveau des Empfängeraushalts ist.  Ferner führen internationale Überweisungen zu einem erheblichen Anstieg des Haushaltsvermögens, wohingegen Inlandsübweisungen keine signifikanten Vermögensänderungen mit sich bringen. Überdies ermöglichen internationale Rücküberweisungen den Empfängerhaushalten das Aufstocken vorsorglicher Ersparnisse.

This thesis critically examines the role of indigeneity in urban policies and planning in a context of constitutional changes that have taken place in Bolivia and Ecuador in the recent decade. It departs from previous academic and policy research which mainly studied indigenous rights in rural areas and focused on urban indigenous peoples as outlawed, excluded, or insurgent subjects. Instead, it conceptualises the translation of indigenous rights into urban policies as a complex process in which a multiplicity of social actors – including government officials and urban indigenous groups – are involved. Drawing on the practice-centric literature on urban policy and planning, it recognises that the work of government officials is influenced by multiple factors such as constitutional texts as well as their personal views, interest group demands, and the wider structural and political environment surrounding them. Government attempts to translate indigenous rights are contrasted to urban indigenous peoples’ own understandings of indigeneity and associated interests and demands. In addition, this thesis uses an asset accumulation framework as well as the concept of tactics to identify how urban indigenous peoples address and negotiate their interests and demands and try to influence decision-making processes from the bottom-up. The thesis relies on La Paz (Bolivia) and Quito (Ecuador) as ‘illustrative cases’ to study the role of indigeneity in urban policies. As both La Paz and Quito represent capital cities, it was possible to approach government officials operating at multiple scales – international, national and local – as well as ordinary urban indigenous residents. Methodologically, the thesis employs a qualitative, case study comparison and draws on information derived from semi-structured interviews, document analysis, participant observation and participatory focus groups conducted during eleven months of fieldwork. In terms of comparison, this thesis makes use of a variation-finding approach. By explaining variations between the cases through focusing on the unique processes and factors that shaped the translation of indigenous rights within each city, it intends to offer a more nuanced and context-responsive approach for studying urban indigeneity and addressing indigenous rights in cities. A central finding of this thesis is that the incorporation of indigeneity into urban policies and indigenous people’s own practices to fulfil their specific demands were characterised by a set of conflicting realities: First, for government officials the translation of indigenous rights into urban policies sometimes clashed with other priorities – such as addressing universal rights and interests of non-indigenous pressure groups – or with their own views of the city as a ‘white’, ‘western’, and ‘modern’ places. Second, urban indigenous peoples articulated multiple and contradictory identities. They mainly did this by voicing specific demands for land – an important asset which they associated with the preservation of a communal and traditional lifestyle but also with aspirations to lead a modern and capitalist life in the city. Third, the findings reveal that indigenous peoples – particularly their community leaders – had to enter in negotiations with governments to access different assets such as land, housing, or education. In these processes leaders manoeuvred between different worlds. They had to conform to political agendas and – particularly in the case of Bolivia – to official spatialized understandings of identity and rights which often conflicted with their own sense of being indigenous in the city.

企業內勞資雙方所扮演的角色屬於社會夥伴的形式，此種社會夥伴關係的發展，牽涉到整體經濟發展的成果分配形式；然而社會經濟的發展不應僅以工資及盈餘作為分配企業經濟成果的唯一管道，加上我國近年來貧富差距不斷的擴大，政府應當盡可能擴大勞動者的儲蓄，直接參與生產資本的投入，分享企業的經營成果，以創造更多的社會財富分配管道。 所謂勞工財務參與乃勞工參與企業經營成果之形式，不論是以利潤分享或是股票持有的形式，均得以自歐盟過去十五年的議程之間所見。因此，本研究透過比較研究之方式，以歐盟六個成員國（包含法、德、 英、愛爾蘭、荷蘭及比利時）為研究對象，藉此分析其勞工財務參與制度及社會夥伴觀點。此外，本文歸納整理歐盟成員國實施勞工財務參與所產生之問題，並介紹其建議解決方法，作為我國參考之經驗。 最後，本研究自歐盟勞工財務參與之角度，將我國企業內勞工財務參與計劃之內容（包含年終獎金、利潤分享計劃及員工所有權計劃三種類型）作一比較後，提出相關制度缺失；透過檢視歐盟勞工財務參與之八大原則，我國於制度上缺乏平等原則，成為圖利少數管理人員之工具。因此，為有效推行我國勞工財務參與制度，本研究建議勞資政三方自以下方向著手：一、政府層面：明確定義計劃中「勞工」之範圍，董監事兼具勞工身分者應排除適用；條件式地提供稅賦誘因，以促進計畫的實施；儲蓄理財制度的健全發展，協助勞工財產之形成。二、勞工層面：加強勞工財務參與之教育宣導，增進勞工的認知；建議政府設立專責主管單位監督勞工財務參與計畫之設立及運作，以確保計畫之公平性。三、雇主層面：促進企業實施勞工財務參與制度；實施廣泛勞工基礎的財務參與計劃，避免淪為少數高階人員自肥的工具；不應限制計劃的投資標的，分散投資風險性；並訂定實施辦法及專責機構辦理，以便於企業推行、增加勞工的參與率。