This dissertation studies a number of issues related to Development Economics. The first chapter explains how we can use multiple correspondence analysis to calculate an asset index, and then offers an inequality analysis using the asset index. The second chapter provides a theoretical explanation of an odd relationship between child labor and per capita land holding in a household, and then provides empirical evidence for the explanation. Finally, the third chapter represents the results of a study of the behavior of rural households during shocks. Across the entire dissertation, we use three cross sectional surveys, conducted in 2001, 2007-8 and 2010-11 in Zimbabwe. / Ph. D. / In chapter 1, we explain an alternative for measuring household wealth to conduct poverty and inequality analysis in cases in which data on income and consumption expenditures are not available, are difficult to collect, or the data suffer from a large amount of mis-measurement.
In chapters 2 and 3 we study child labor, defined based on school attendance, in rural areas of the Zimbabwe. As reductions in child labor result in more educational attainment which is associated with higher economic growth, it is valuable to identify factors associated with use of child labor. In chapter 2, we show that both very poor households (poor based on land holdings) and households with medium-sized holdings are likely to have a high incidence of child labor. Policy makers wishing to reduce child labor should focus on both classes of households. The latter group would be excluded if poverty were thought to be the sole cause of child labor. It is even possible that small land holders might be less likely to send their children to work than households whose land holding is in an intermediate range. Intuition might say that rural children are put to work more during negative shocks (e.g. macroeconomic crisis, price fall in agricultural products, drought, pest attack, etc) and less during positive shocks in comparison to normal conditions. But we show in chapter 3 that children might be pulled out of schools during positive shocks and inverse during negative shocks in Zimbabwe, so policy makers should be worried during positive shocks and they may lower costs of education and increase incentives for keeping children in school during positive shocks by providing voucher programs and subsidies to the school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/72965 |
| Date | 20 September 2016 |
| Creators | Oryoie, Ali Reza |
| Contributors | Economics, Science, Alwang, Jeffrey R., Tideman, Nicolaus, You, Wen, Norton, George W. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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