Sylvie Lambert

Bride price is essential to marriage in West Africa, and its impact on wives’ well-being in their marital life is a matter of debate. According to our data from Senegal, transfers to the bride’s family characterize approximately 85% of marriages. Furthermore, although this is largely ignored in the literature, these marriages are also characterized by the simultaneous existence of other marriage payments, which flow in different directions between the stakeholders. This paper studies the relationship between these multiple marriage payments and the well-being of the wife in her household. We use a unique survey that asks separate questions about the different types of marriage payments. We highlight the strength of the link between what is given to the bride herself and her welfare, as opposed to the looseness of the relation between this welfare and what is given to her family.

Micro-economists are ill-equipped to analyze the behaviour of complex households. This paper advocates the construction of new theoretical and empirical tools and illustrates the benefits of adequately designed survey instruments in the case of Senegal.

Since the 1960s, the increased availability of modern seed varieties in developing countries has had large positive effects on households’ well-being. However, the effect of related land use changes on deforestation and biodiversity is ambiguous. This study examines this question through a randomized control trial in a remote area in the Congo Basin rainforest with weak input and output markets. Using plot-level data on land conversion combined with remote sensing data, we find that promotion of modern seed varieties did not lead to an increase in overall deforestation by small farmers. However, farmers cleared more primary forest and less secondary forest. We attribute this to the increased demand for nitrogen required by the use of some modern seed varieties, and to the lack of alternative sources of soil nutrients, which induced farmers to shift towards cultivation of land cleared in primary forest. Unless combined with interventions to maintain soil fertility, policies to promote modern seed varieties may come at the cost of important losses in biodiversity.

Intra-household inequalities have long been a source of concern for policy design, but there is very little evidence about their effects. The current practice of ignoring inequality within households could lead to an underestimation of both overall inequality and poverty levels, as well as to the misclassification of some individuals with regard to their poverty status. Using a novel survey for Senegal in which consumption data were collected at a disaggregated level, this paper quantifies these various effects. In total, two opposing effects, one on mean and one on inequality, compensate each other in terms of the overall poverty rate, but individual poverty statuses are affected. Intra-household consumption inequalities account for 14 percent of inequality in Senegal. This study has also uncovered the fact that household structure and organization are key correlates of intra-household inequality and individual risk of poverty.

The question of diverging interests and preferences within couples over the use of household resources and the consequences of these conflictual views has been present for a long time in the development literature, albeit in a somewhat scattered way. This paper selectively reviews the abundant literature that offers insights into the intra-household decision-making process, the strategies put in place by individuals to secure their access to private resources, and the role of the changing economic environment in altering these mechanisms. This paper bridges different strands of the social sciences and exemplifies the complementarities among them. The main features of household organization are described to set the scene for the individual strategies introduced to bypass intra-household negotiations and secure access to private resources. These strategies include efforts to maintain access to income-earning opportunities and secrecy about income and savings. This paper also discusses attempts to maintain or tilt the balance of power within the household through the use of violence, on the one hand, and marital and fertility choices on the other hand. Finally, this paper describes directions for future research aimed at improving the understanding of household behaviour and responses to economic stimuli.

Bride price is essential to marriage in West Africa, and its impact on wives’ well-being in their marital life is debated. According to our data from Senegal, transfers to the family of the bride characterize approximately 85% of marriages. Furthermore, although this feature is largely ignored in the literature, those marriages are also characterized by the simulta- neous existence of other marriage payments, which ow in di_erent directions between the stakeholders. This paper studies the relationship between these multiple marriage payments and the well-being of the wife in her household. We use a unique survey that enquires separately about the di_erent types of marriage payments. We highlight the strength of the link between what is given to the bride herself and her welfare, as opposed to the looseness of the relation between this welfare and what is given to her family.

The question of diverging interests and preferences within couples over the use of household resources and the consequences of these conflictual views has been present for a long time in the development literature, albeit in a somewhat scattered way. This paper selectively reviews the abundant literature that offers insights into the intra-household decision-making process, the strategies put in place by individuals to secure their access to private resources, and the role of the changing economic environment in altering these mechanisms. This paper bridges different strands of the social sciences and exemplifies the complementarities among them. The main features of household organization are described to set the scene for the individual strategies introduced to bypass intra-household negotiations and secure access to private resources. These strategies include efforts to maintain access to income-earning opportunities and secrecy about income and savings. This paper also discusses attempts to maintain or tilt the balance of power within the household through the use of violence, on the one hand, and marital and fertility choices on the other hand. Finally, this paper describes directions for future research aimed at improving the understanding of household behaviour and responses to economic stimuli.

This chapter assesses what economists and other social scientists have learned regarding the effectiveness of various education policies that have been implemented to increase enrollment and promote learning in developing countries. The education production function, which economists often use to portray the education process, is first introduced, along with several other relationships of interest. Estimation issues are also discussed. The chapter then reviews recent research on school enrollment and learning in developing countries; several policies have been shown to raise enrollment, but less is known about how to increase learning. The final section provides recommendations for further research.

Agricultural input subsidies are often considered key instruments to increase adoption of new technologies in developing countries. Using unique experimental data from Equa- teur province in DRC, we document the e_ectiveness of such interventions in increasing households adoption of modern seed varieties (MVs). High subsidy levels increase adop- tion, in particular when other access constraints were also relieved. Demand is highly price sensitive, but demand curves do not display strong discontinuity at low prices. We _nd very limited spillover e_ects on adoption by non-voucher recipients. Adoption persists to some extent in the season that follows voucher distribution.