The Impact of Hurricane Matthew on School Attendance: An Analysis from Rural Haiti

This study identifies the impact of Hurricane Matthew on school attendance in an agricultural community in rural Haiti. We conducted a survey of parents whose children attended a rural school prior to Hurricane Matthew to determine the mechanism by which hurricanes impact school attendance. We determined the marginal effect of family size and school enrollment using a probit model. Parents identified two primary causes for their children leaving school: a loss of income—through crop damage and livestock deaths—and requiring the children’s labor on the family farm. In our sample 96 children, 46% of the children enrolled in school, stopped attending because of the hurricane. No parent reported that their child(ren) left school because of illness or injury. Families with more children in school before the storm were 5% (p < 0.001) more likely to have a child remain in school. Families with some children not attending school before the hurricane were 7.6% (p < 0.001) more likely to leave school after the storm. The survey and probit model both suggest that an income constraint caused children to leave school. There is limited empirical evidence that students leave school to provide labor on family farms, and no evidence they leave school because of illness or injury.

Organic Farming: To Pursue or Not to Pursue? An Exploratory Study Based on Evidence from Bangladesh

In the field of agricultural food production, the transition between organic and inorganic farming methods has been an issue of much debate. The debate, on one hand, stresses the urgency for the transition in order to preserve environment and health; and, on the other hand, emphasizes the pressure of maintaining food production for a large growing population. Thus, the dilemma is how to find an agricultural system that would balance between obtaining food security and ensuring a safe sustainably environment-friendly food production system. This article focuses on the debate, in the context of Bangladesh, and questions whether it is the proper time, and stage in the development&nbsp;process, to attempt the transition from inorganic conventional food production methods to organic food production methods.&nbsp;This article contemplates why the organic rice market is not expanding in Bangladesh, and attempts to explain the slow growth of the market through the two main factors of income constraint and lack of awareness among people about the environmental and health detriments of inorganic farming methods.&nbsp;The study is exploratory in nature, and finds that it is not mainly the lack of awareness but the income constraint that can be principally attributed to the slow expansion of the organic rice market in Bangladesh.&nbsp;Through exploring consumers&rsquo; awareness about organic farming methods and their demand for organic products, this study shows how income as the major constraint, besides price, affects consumers demand for organic and inorganic rice in Bangladesh. Income being identified as the major barrier reveals the potential of the organic rice market to grow in the future, as Bangladesh continues its journey towards becoming a middle-income country.

Consumer’s Tastes Preferences and Priorities for Pricey Durablesas Revealed by Actual Purchases in National Capital Region of Delhi

especially the pricey consumer durables in a highly competitive globalized Indian market. Conventional wisdom postulates that price and income constraints are the major determinants of consumers’/buyers’ choices and resultant purchase decisions. Income constraint is overcome by access to finance, but prices have no such options except the choice of inferior quality lower priced goods/models. In fact, there is a wide range of options to choose from and many white Goods have relatively cheaper local brands available in the market. There exists highly marked market segmentation based on product prices and paying capacity of the buyers. Price constraint may constitute the bottleneck for only buyers in one segment of the market. A substantial proportion of low/moderate income group of buyers also tend to use finance to overcome their income constraint in order to buy high priced white consumer goods. The high income upward mobile and trendsetting consumers choose pricey options; they often go for newly produced goods on low scales which enter the market for the first time and which command extremely high prices. Greater the price of such goods, lower is demand for the same and higher is their conspicuousness, distinctiveness and snob value even among the higher income peer groups (See, Baghati, Arvind, 2012, Shri Prakash, 2010, and Shri Prakash, Shalini Sharma and Arvind Baghati, 2010). Generally, such products as enter the market for the first time embody entirely new designs and models while new designs and new models of existing products command extremely high prices due to production on a lower scale, high cost of innovation embodied in the evolving of new product or designs and attractive features, and high cost of market exploration and marketing (Cf. Cramer, 1972). High price, in its turn, limits the market size. This also adds to demonstration effect and snob value for the owners. First group of buyers of such new market entrant goods become the lead buyers for subsequent purchasers of these goods; they in fact act as advertisers of such goods without getting paid for it by the producers. They act as the leading consumers and trend setters in society and activate urges in others for the acquisition for these goods. This makes such buyers/owners of such goods feel not to be a part of the crowd and as ones who belong to exclusive class like the erstwhile Maharajas and Nobabs. Price is, however, also supposed to be a proxy of quality; higher the price, greater is the perceived quality, and the snob or demonstration value for the owners. All above facets reflect psychological urges and drivers of motivation, which directly or indirectly influences buyers’/consumers’ tastes and preferences. Tastes and preferences have, however, remained hidden behind the invisible curtain simply because these are neither observable directly nor measurable quantitatively. Therefore, tastes and preferences have generally been taken as given and fixed at the given point in time, though no one questions the validity of the hypothesis the tastes and preferences tend to change through time in ad dynamically growing economy due to (i) increase in incomes, (ii) rise in social status, (iii) upward movement in occupational ladder, (iv) Increased level of education of the younger members and their influence on purchase decisions of the households, and (iv) continuous entry of new and better products or models in the market. This study assumes that observed buying behavior of purchasers/consumers reveal their tastes and preferences. Under the given price and income conditions confronting buyers/consumers at any given time, actual purchases reflect the choices based on tastes and preferences; tastes and preferences are the real drives of choices reflected by actual purchases. For example, if m models of a pricey good are available at Pm, m=1,2,…j,……. m. The following relation is satisfied by the observed prices: P1 less than P2 less than P3 less than Pj>Pj+1>….> Pm. Thus, Pj is the highest observed price at the given time. If we observe one or some buyers opting for j-th model, he/she has displayed his/her preference for model j. His tastes and preferences afe defined by this choice. This notion of tastes and preferences is based on Marshall’s adage that the ‘strength of’ abstract and unobservable factors and forces ‘such as motivation’ is defined by the outcome(s) that have emanated from the operative influence of these factors on human behavior. This paper explores the influence of tastes and preferences and factors affecting the same on consumer’s choices involved in purchase decisions of pricey white goods. The determinants of tastes and preferences lie in the domain of psychological urges/ motivation/drivers. One may be motivated by the desire to move up the social ladder by keeping up with peers or group leaders, or to maintain the current status, or move from lower to higher lifestyle, or to catch up with neighbors, friends and relatives. Pushed by needling of spouse and children, taunts or sneering by neighbors, friends, colleagues and/or desire to acquire snob value or satisfy the urge to show off, and backed by purchasing power people opt for the best available in the market. In some cases, income constraint induces to opt for 2nd or 3rd best. But psychological urges/drivers cannot be translated into actuality without the backing of adequate purchasing power and willingness to part with the money required for the purchase of a chosen good. This paper explores and examines these facets of purchase behavior of consumers. The study is based on primary data collected from households residing in National capital region of Delhi. The sample comprises 600 respondents through geographically stratified systematic random sampling procedure. The study focuses on purchases related to White goods. Both quantitative and non-parametric methods are used in data analysis.

Mode Choice, Transport Pricing, and Urban Form

The paper examines, within the framework of the standard von Thünen type model with no congestion, the market equilibrium urban form under a regime of commuters who use both the auto and the transit modes, but with no transfers, for their journey to work. There is an extension, however, in that households are assumed to be operating under both an income constraint and a time constraint. The rent and density gradients are obtained in closed forms. Comparative statics are performed, and some policies regarding parking fees, pricing, and investment in the two modes are tested. It is shown that the city may consist of three rings, where the residential location of the user of one mode is split by the residences of the users of the second mode.

The Demand for Police

This paper is concerned with the estimation of a demand schedule for a public service–police protection. The paper's object is to determine the wage elasticity of demand for policemen, since if police demand is wage-inelastic, then police unions could have a powerful future. The paper follows a simple public choice framework by postulating a citizen utility function and income constraint in order to determine utility maximization conditions. It is shown that the quantity of policemen demanded–which was used as a proxy for police service–should be positively related to the citizen's income and wealth, and negatively related to the police wage. Further, other variables such as other government expenditures, crime rates, traffic congestion, and class status were also related to the police variable. The demand equation was estimated for a pooled, cross-sectional sample of California cities. Two-stage least squares was the estimation technique. Most of the signs of the significant variables were as anticipated. Especially interesting was the result that the demand for policemen is quite wage-inelastic.

Residential Preferences: An Alternate View of Intraurban Space

Maps of the intraurban residential preferences of a large sample of respondents in the Los Angeles metropolitan area are presented as an alternate way of viewing intraurban space. Some technical problems associated with the analysis of residential preferences are discussed, and an income constraint is introduced as an integral part of the analysis. The results suggest that it is possible to present a meaningful map of the urban area in terms of residential preferences, and that the preference patterns displayed by minority groups indicate the importance of ethnic ties.