The impact of malaria control on infant mortality in Kenya

Since the early 2000s there has been a rapid intensification of malaria control efforts across Africa. I exploit baseline differences in the regional incidence of malaria coupled with the sharp timing of the intensified campaign to investigate the impact on infant mortality in Kenya. Post-intervention, I find a significant reduction in postneonatal mortality in the malarious regions relative to the non-malarious regions. In contrast, I find no evidence of impact on neonatal mortality which is consistent with epidemiological literature that finds neonates enjoy significant protection from malaria. I rule out alternative explanations such as differential pre-existing trends, changes in maternal and infant care, or the contemporaneous expansion of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. I find that the malaria campaign reduced postneonatal mortality by 33% in the malarious regions during 2004-2008

Public distribution system reforms and consumption in Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh's public distribution system reforms have been lauded as a model for the National Food Security Act, and as one that other states can emulate. Previous research has shown that PDS rice consumption increased in Chhattisgarh following reforms by the Raman Singh government, which began in 2004. However, one-third of PDS rice consumption growth in Chhattisgarh took place before 2004. This finding suggests that the pre-2004 reforms to fair price shop ownership and state procurement by the Ajit Jogi government contributed to PDS consumption growth. Our findings suggest that sustained reforms, when coupled with political and social will, can improve PDS access, and that improvements may not be substantial or sustained in the absence of these factors

Medicines and vaccines for the world's poorest: Is there any prospect for public-private cooperation?

This paper reviews the current status of the global pharmaceutical industry and its research and development focus in the context of the health care needs of the developing world. It will consider the attempts to improve access to critical drugs and vaccines, and increase the research effort directed at key public health priorities in the developing world. In particular, it will consider prospects for public-private collaboration. The challenges and opportunities in such public-private partnerships will be discussed briefly along with a look at factors that may be key to success. Much of the focus is on HIV/AIDS where the debate on the optimal balance between intellectual property rights (IPR) and human rights to life and health has been very public and emotive

System Synergy of Farming System and Common Property Resources in Mountain Regions: A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh

The study conducted in the hilly region of Himachal Pradesh has revealed that the average size of operational holding in the region is small (0.69 ha) and therefore the common property resources (CPRs) assume significant importance for sustaining the livelihood of people. The ‘kuhls’ emanating water of CPRs are the main sources of irrigation. The consumption of different products from CPR lands has been found to increase with decrease in the size of landholdings, which underlines the need to increase the productivity of CPR lands. The analysis of linkages between different farm sectors has revealed strong forward linkages of CPRs with livestock and agriculture and weak backward linkages with other sectors. The farm forestry and CPR lands have depicted weak linkage, but strong indirect linkages. The gravity water irrigation kuhls (channels) have also revealed strong linkages with agriculture and livestock. The analysis of linkages has suggested that there is a need to strengthen the backward linkages of agriculture, livestock and farm forestry with CPRs. The study has suggested to strengthen the management and conservation of CPRs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Driving Under the (Cellular) Influence: The Link Between Cell Phone Use and Vehicle Crashes

The link between cell phone use while driving and crash risk has in recent years become an area of active research. The most notable of the over 125 studies has concluded that cell phones produce a four-fold increase in relative crash risk comparable to that produced by illicit levels of alcohol. In response, policy makers in fourteen states have either partially or fully restricted driver cell phone use. We investigate the causal link between cellular usage and crash rates by exploiting a natural experiment induced by a popular feature of cell phone plans in recent years'the discontinuity in marginal pricing at 9 pm on weekdays when plans transition from 'peak' to 'off-peak' pricing. We first document a jump in call volume of about 20-30% at 'peak' to 'off-peak' switching times for two large samples of callers from 2000-2001 and 2005. Using a double difference estimator which uses the era prior to price switching as a control (as well as weekends as a second control), we find no evidence for a rise in crashes after 9 pm on weekdays from 2002-2005. The 95% CI of the estimates rules out any increase in all crashes larger than .9% and any increase larger than 2.4% for fatal crashes. These estimates are at odds with the crash risks implied by the existing research. We confirm our results with three additional empirical approaches'we compare trends in cell phone ownership and crashes across areas of contiguous economic activity over time, investigate whether differences in urban versus rural crash rates mirror identified gaps in urban-rural cellular ownership, and finally estimate the impact of legislation banning driver cell phone use on crash rates. None of the additional analyses produces evidence for a positive link between cellular use and vehicle crashes.

Farming System Approach for Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Mountain Regions — A Case of Himachal Pradesh

This paper has examined the emerging issues, extent of transitions and their implications for the sustainable and balanced development of agriculture in the mountain areas of the country. The study undertaken in low and mid-hill regions of Himachal Pradesh is based upon the data collected during the period 2002-03 from 200 sample households selected from 10 villages, representing five major mountain farming systems (MFS), viz. maize-based, paddy-based, vegetable-based, fruit-based and livestock-based. It has been found that over a period of time lot of changes have taken place in the socio-economic milieu and agricultural practices in mountains. The cropping pattern, extent of diversification and commercialization have been found to vary considerably across different MFS. A high degree of externalities has developed particularly under vegetable- and fruit-based farming systems. The proportion of purchased inputs has increased while the share of farm-produced inputs (own seeds, FYM, family labour, bullock labour, feed and fodder, etc.) has decreased. Thus, the system interlinkages and in-built complementary relations among sub-systems are getting distorted with commercialization through vegetables and fruits. The shortage of fodder, decrease in the number of farm animals and thus FYM-scarcity, are the burgeoning signs of unsustainability, particularly on vegetable- and fruit-based systems. Therefore, the sustainable plans developed for different systems have revealed the possibility of increasing profitability by optimum combination of sub-components like cereals, pulses, vegetable crops, fruits, fodder resources and livestock and thus maintaining the crucial balance to harness in-built complementary relations of the sub-systems. The increasing externalities in the MFS clearly show the crucial role of markets and marketing in the agricultural development that needs greater policy support in future.Agricultural and Food Policy,

For whom the phone does (not) ring? Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India

Using an audit experiment carried out on of India’s largest real estate websites, we document striking variations between landlords’ treatment of upper-caste Hindus, Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes, and Muslims. We find strong evidence of discrimination against Muslim applicants, both in terms of probability of being contacted and the number of contacts, relative to upper-caste Hindu (UC) applicants, in the rental housing market in Delhi and its largest suburbs. While the probability that a landlord responds to an upper-caste applicant is 0.35, this is only 0.22 for a Muslim applicant. We also find suggestive evidence that when landlords respond to both UC and Muslim applicants, they call back the UC applicant sooner. Muslim applicants are especially disadvantaged when applying to rent one-bedroom houses; there is an additional 20 percentage points reduction in the probability of a callback. In contrast, we find no clear evidence that landlords are less likely to respond to Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. However, our estimates may understate the true differentials in callback ratios as a result of our failure to perfectly link all callbacks to a listing

The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity

We investigate the health consequences of changes in the supply of fast food using the exact geographical location of fast food restaurants. Specifically, we ask how the supply of fast food affects the obesity rates of 3 million school children and the weight gain of over 1 million pregnant women. We find that among 9th grade children, a fast food restaurant within a tenth of a mile of a school is associated with at least a 5.2 percent increase in obesity rates. There is no discernable effect at .25 miles and at .5 miles. Among pregnant women, models with mother fixed effects indicate that a fast food restaurant within a half mile of her residence results in a 2.5 percent increase in the probability of gaining over 20 kilos. The effect is larger, but less precisely estimated at .1 miles. In contrast, the presence of non-fast food restaurants is uncorrelated with obesity and weight gain. Moreover, proximity to future fast food restaurants is uncorrelated with current obesity and weight gain, conditional on current proximity to fast food. The implied effects of fast-food on caloric intake are at least one order of magnitude smaller for mothers, which suggests that they are less constrained by travel costs than school children. Our results imply that policies restricting access to fast food near schools could have significant effects on obesity among school children, but similar policies restricting the availability of fast food in residential areas are unlikely to have large effects on adults.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Food price subsidies and nutrition: evidence from state reforms to India's public distribution system

We investigate whether food price subsidies affect household nutrition using a dramatic expansion of the availability of subsidized rice in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh in the early 2000's. Households in Chhattisgarh improved their nutritional intake relative to households in districts bordering the state as the availability of subsidized rice expanded. This increase is driven by households most likely to be eligible for rice subsidies, and we do not find evidence that households least likely to be eligible changed their diet. These results differ from recent studies suggesting that food subsidies may have little eff ect on nutrition