Browsing by Author "Alderman, Harold"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Aligning evidence generation and use across health, development, and environment
    Tallis, Heather; Kreis, Katharine; Olander, Lydia P.; Ringler, Claudia; Ameyaw, David; Borsuk, Mark E.; Fletschner, Diana; Game, Edward; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Jeuland, Marc; Kennedy, Gina; Masuda, Yuta J.; Mehta, Sumi; Miller, Nicholas; Parker, Megan; Pollino, Carmel; Rajaratnam, Julie; Wilkie, David; Zhang, Wei; Ahmed, Selena; Ajayi, Oluyede C.; Alderman, Harold; Arhonditsis, George; Azevedo, Ines; Badola, Ruchi; Bailis, Rob; Balvanera, Patricia; Barbour, Emily; Bardini, Mark; Barton, David N.; Baumgartner, Jill; Benton, Tim G.; Bobrow, Emily; Bossio, Deborah; Bostrom, Ann; Braimoh, Ademola; Brondizio, Eduardo; Brown, Joe; Bryant, Benjamin P.; Calder, Ryan S. D.; Chaplin-Kramer, Becky; Cullen, Alison; DeMello, Nicole; Dickinson, Katherine L.; Ebi, Kristie L.; Eves, Heather E.; Fanzo, Jessica; Ferraro, Paul J.; Fisher, Brendan; Frongillo, Edward A.; Galford, Gillian; Garrity, Dennis; Gatere, Lydiah; Grieshop, Andrew P.; Grigg, Nicola J.; Groves, Craig; Gugerty, Mary Kay; Hamm, Michael; Hou, Xiaoyue; Huang, Cindy; Imhoff, Marc; Jack, Darby; Jones, Andrew D.; Kelsey, Rodd; Kothari, Monica; Kumar, Ritesh; Lachat, Carl; Larsen, Ashley E.; Lawrence, Mark; DeClerck, Fabrice; Levin, Phillip S.; Mabaya, Edward; Gibson, Jacqueline MacDonald; McDonald, Robert; Mace, Georgina; Maertens, Ricardo; Mangale, Dorothy; Martino, Robin; Mason, Sara A.; Mehta, Lyla; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Merz, Barbara; Msangi, Siwa; Murray, Grant; Murray, Kris A.; Naude, Celeste E.; Newlands, Nathaniel K.; Nkonya, Ephraim; Peterman, Amber; Petruney, Tricia; Possingham, Hugh; Puri, Jyotsna; Remans, Roseline; Remlinger, Lisa; Ricketts, Taylor H.; Reta, Bedilu; Robinson, Brian E.; Roe, Dilys; Rosenthal, Joshua; Shen, Guofeng; Shindell, Drew; Stewart-Koster, Ben; Sunderland, Terry; Sutherland, William J.; Tewksbury, Joshua; Wasser, Heather; Wear, Stephanie; Webb, Chris; Whittington, Dale; Wilkerson, Marit; Wittmer, Heidi; Wood, Benjamin DK K.; Wood, Stephen; Wu, Joyce; Yadama, Gautam; Zobrist, Stephanie (Elsevier, 2019-08-01)
    Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice collaboration, presents principles and recommendations that help harmonize methods for evidence generation and use. Recommendations were generated in the context of designing and evaluating evidence of impact for interventions related to five global challenges (stabilizing the global climate, making food production sustainable, decreasing air pollution and respiratory disease, improving sanitation and water security, and solving hunger and malnutrition) and serve as a starting point for further iteration and testing in a broader set of contexts and disciplines. We adopted six principles and emphasize three methodological recommendations: (1) creation of compatible results chains, (2) consideration of all relevant types of evidence, and (3) evaluation of strength of evidence using a unified rubric. We provide detailed suggestions for how these recommendations can be applied in practice, streamlining efforts to apply multi-objective approaches and/or synthesize evidence in multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary teams. These recommendations advance the necessary process of reconciling existing evidence standards in health, development, and environment, and initiate a common basis for integrated evidence generation and use in research, practice, and policy design.
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    Changes in consumption and saving behavior before and after economic shocks: Evidence from Zimbabwe
    Ersado, Lire; Alderman, Harold; Alwang, Jeffrey R. (University of Chicago Press, 2003-10)
    This study examines the effects of drought and macroeconomic changes on household consumption and savings behavior in Zimbabwe, using two nationally representative cross_sectional data sets that straddle a period of economic volatility. Specifically, the article (1) analyzes changes in consumption and saving behavior before and after economic shocks and (2) investigates the effectiveness of savings as a means of cushioning the impacts of covariate shocks.
  • Economic reform and food prices: Evidence from markets in Ghana
    Alderman, Harold; Shively, Gerald E. (Elsevier, 1996)
    The paper investigates trends in food prices in Ghana between 1970-93, during which time a range economic reforms were instigated. Regression results confirm that real wholesale prices of food have been declining since the 1970s. Price trends in the 1980s are characterized by a downward shift at the beginning of the post reform period and a subsequent continuing downward trend. Despite falling grain prices, it is found that agricultural wage rates failed to provide an adequate basis for subsistence, particularly during periods of large seasonal price rises. Many farmers hold grain for both speculation and to smooth income. This view is supported by evidence regarding seasonal price spreads that have been increasing since 1984. No support was found, however, for conclusions of trader manipulation of marketing margins during the adjustment period.
  • Gender differentials in farm productivity: Implications for household efficiency and agricultural policy
    Alderman, Harold; Hoddinott, John; Haddad, Lawrence; Udry, Christopher (Elsevier Science Ltd, 1995)
    This article illustrates how current allocating features within some African household farms could be negatively affecting their resource output. One of their main objectives is to conclude whether gendered authority and control are potential variables in determining the quantity of product. Using an agronomic data set from the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and econometric techniques, they tested for productive efficiency and estimates, while accounting for gender. The results concluded that by restructuring currently used methods of production, farmers can increase their yield by 10 to 20 percent. They suggest that in order to develop successful agricultural policies, household models needs to be studied from a unified perspective, as well as a multifaceted perspective.
  • Intrahousehold resource allocation in developing countries: Models, methods and policies
    Haddad, Lawrence; Hoddinott, John; Alderman, Harold (International Food Policy Research Institute, 1997)
    This book examines the complexity of household decision-making and resource allocation, and the need for policies to consider the identity and bargaining power of individuals within a household in order to successfully address issues and impact people. Nineteen contributors from various disciplines analyze the factors that impact decisions at the household level, and argue that the alleviation of individual and household poverty cannot occur without policies that address both levels of decision-making. They suggest that even policies that do take intrahousehold behavior into account may fail, but there are serious consequences of neglecting those processes completely.
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    Three Essays in Development Economics: Savings Behavior and Risk; Health and Public Investments; and Sequential Technology Adoption
    Ersado, Lire (Virginia Tech, 2001-07-23)
    This dissertation explores household risk and savings behavior in Zimbabwe, and agricultural technology adoption, and the impact of public investments on the economy and community health in Ethiopia. The first paper analyzes changes in per capita consumption and savings behavior in Zimbabwe before and after a range of financial and weather-related shocks using comparable national income, consumption and expenditure surveys of 1990/91 and 1995/96. The empirical results show that before droughts and macroeconomic adjustments Zimbabweans used savings to smooth consumption. In contrast, risk management strategies were severely limited after the shocks; consumption tracked income more closely in the latter period. The inability to effectively address the risks arising from droughts and economy-wide structural changes implies that any subsequent economic and social uncertainty will have serious welfare consequences. The second paper examines the interaction between public investments, community health, and productivity- and land-enhancing technology adoption decisions by farm households in Northern Ethiopia. It models technology adoption as a sequential process where the timing of choices can matter. The econometric test results indicate that the decision and intensity of technology adoption are highly correlated with the sequential nature of adoption. The most striking results concern the importance of disease - the amount of time spent sick and time spent caring for sick family members are inversely associated with both the decision and intensity of technology adoption. Finally the third paper looks at the welfare impacts of a public water resource development project with health side effects in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. It uses a model of a social planner to characterize the optimal implementation of such projects over time, showing how health and production are important considerations in this decision. The empirical analysis shows that the marginal net benefits of Tigray's current microdam investments are positive. The lost income households suffer from increased time away from productive activities (due to sickness) is compensated for by increased yields and market opportunities brought about through irrigated agriculture. However, it should be noted that this conclusion is based on efficiency and not equity.