The impact of household income on child labour in urban Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of child labour in urban Turkey with a special reference to low household income or poverty as one of its root causes. Studies done elsewhere have produced mixed results which necessitate the relationship to be studied at country-level. The data from urban Turkey indicate that children from poorer families stand at a higher risk of employment. This finding is confirmed using various measures of household material well-being. Simulation results have further pointed out that current interventions are not likely to produce a sizeable impact on the child labour problem.     

Uncertainty,risk, and wealth and income distribution in peasant agriculture

An ethical justification of the market system is that while generating inequality of income distribution it nevertheless provides an equal opportunity for people to improve their material well‐being (1, p. 169). It is argued that the market system creates a society of unequals, but that it is a fluid society in which, though all may not improve absolutely and relatively, the opportunity to do so is randomly distributed through the population. In terms of economic development, this implies that within a free market framework, the distribution of the gains from growth need not be biased towards any economic class. To use a cliche, one of the justifications of a competitive market system is that there is nothing inherent in its operation which makes ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. The main barriers to economic and social mobility are thus treated as imperfections in the market—racial and ethnic discrimination, differential access to capital markets, traditional constraints on job choice, and so on.

Recently Michael Lipton has suggested an analytical framework for explaining the optimizing behaviour of peasant cultivators which challenges this sanguine view (2). His ‘survival algorithm’ implies that inherent in the market organization of economic society is a tendency for the benefits from economic development to be distributed systematically in favour of the wealthier groups in the society.

In the following section I shall summarize Lipton's hypothesis and demonstrate its implications for the distribution of wealth and income over time in the agricultural sector of developing countries. In Section III policy conclusions of the analysis are presented.     

Domestic credit and the balance of payments in Ghana

This model strives to assess the relationship between domestic credit and the balance of payments in Ghana during the 1961—75 period in an effort to guide policymakers in generating credit policies aimed at reaching a particular balance of payments objective. An equation is derived and estimated which specifies the relationship between domestic credit, exports, capital flows, and net foreign assets within a constraint imposing balance of payments equilibrium. The general conclusions of the analysis are that excessive increases in domestic credit were the principal cause for the balance of payments deficits incurred by Ghana during the period considered.     

Exploring income inequality in rural,coastal Viet Nam

Income inequality has been rising in parallel with the economic liberalisation process in the former centrally planned economies. The opportunities for non‐agricultural income associated with the market liberalisation process in former centrally planned economies would seem to be important in determining inequality within the rural sector. This article reviews the trends in inequality in Viet Nam examining differential trends and hypothesised causes. Inequality is important because of its relationship to other factors in the evolution of the agricultural economy such as the incidence of poverty and the sustainability of emerging income sources. This article analyses income inequality based on data collected by the author in two Districts in coastal northern Viet Nam. The results demonstrate that non‐agricultural income sources, specifically aquaculture and wage and remittance, contribute more to present inequality than any other income source. Simulation shows that the emergence of aquaculture since the late 1980s has been driving the inequality increase in that period. Hence the analysis provides evidence that non‐agricultural income increases inequality even without asset concentration. This concentration of income is important in the north Viet Nam context since it is concurrent with present‐day land allocation and will affect the structure of future income growth.     

Economic growth,income inequality and poverty in china under economic reforms

China's gross domestic product (GDP) more than quadrupled between 1978 and 1996 under economic reforms. Per capita disposable incomes more than tripled in the cities and almost quadrupled in the rural areas. However, rapid economic growth brought about large income inequality which slowed down poverty reduction. In 1995, there were still 70–170 million people living in poverty. This article aims to assess the relationship between economic growth, income inequality and poverty using both secondary and household survey data. The main findings are (1) urban/rural divide and spatial inequality are two major factors accounting for overall income inequality; (2) non‐wage and non‐farm incomes are more unequally distributed than wage and farm incomes; and (3) the incidence of poverty is very sensitive to the changes in per capita income and inequality.     

Small-Scale irrigation and income distribution in Ethiopia

Abstract

Irrigation stimulates agricultural productivity and economic growth, but this may come at the cost of growing inequality. Using data at community and household level, this paper analyzes the distributional impacts of irrigation in Ethiopia. Regression analyses reveal the direct effects of irrigation on expenditures and labour demand, and the indirect effects of irrigation on food prices and expenditures of non-irrigation households. The results indicate that past development of irrigation stimulated growth without deepening inequality, and that irrigation decreased dependence on food-for-work programs. Thus, irrigation has played a positive role in the development of Ethiopia.     

Interagency implementation of government policy: Strategic management of maternal and child health care in texas

Focusing on a joint effort of the Texas Department of Health and the Texas Department of Human Services, this study examined the interagency implementation of maternal and infant health policy in the state. Thompson's typology of implementation⁽¹⁾ was integrated with the Montjoy and O’Toole⁽²⁾ model of overhead influence on intraorganizational factors in public policy implementation for analysis. The findings provide some support to the Montjoy and O’Toole model.⁽³⁾ The data suggested Type A Mandate Effects and Expected Activity for both departmental programs. Reciprocal Operating Interdependence existed between the two state departments.     

Domestic credit and the balance of payments in Ghana: A comment

This article provides evidence from a randomised control trial conducted among potato farmers in Ecuador about the impact of mobile phone text messages on farmer knowledge about and adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) practices. Using psychological constructs, we examine competing explanations for non-standard decision-making leading to low adoption of beneficial agricultural technologies. Farmers who received text messages have significantly higher knowledge and are more likely to adopt most IPM practices than those in the control group. Findings provide evidence that text messages lead to behavioural changes by reducing inattention and sub-optimal heuristics in the face of complex decisions.     

Urbanization,personal income,and physical quality of life: The case of Kenya

This paper addresses a variety of methodological, theoretical, and historical problems associated with previous research on urbanization and development in Kenya. The first part of the paper discusses several general theories of Third World urbanization and development. Next, these perspectives are examined within the context of recent historical circumstances in Kenya. The final part of the paper presents an entirely new quantitative study of urbanization and development in Kenya. It improves on earlier research by using (1) data fromall urban regions of the country, (2) a statistical model that testschange over time, and (3) several new variables. Overall, the analysis shows that both the causes and effects of urbanization are more complex than what was indicated in previous studies. The quantitative findings can be explained by reference to various theoretical and historical concerns discussed in the paper.     

Funding,capabilities and the use of child soldiers

Recent years have seen increased scholarly attention given to the issue of child soldiering. Primarily dedicated to the decision-making calculus of rebel groups, this body of work has generally emphasised supply-side versus demand-side arguments. We contribute to this growing literature by explicitly investigating a previously untested aspect of the latter. Prior scholarship has made vague references to a potential association between economic endowments and child soldiering, including natural resource wealth, but scant empirical attention has been given. We argue that the specific type of endowment has important consequences for the decision to utilise child soldiers. We argue access to and exploitation of lootable natural resources (e.g. gemstones) to be especially likely to promote the use of child soldiers due to their ease of access, the low skills required to harness them and the heightened likelihood that groups will become more profit-oriented. A systematic cross-national investigation of rebel groups provides robust evidence that lootable resources such as diamonds and gemstones are strongly associated with the use of children, while non-lootable resources such as oil are not.     

Dominant discourses, debates and silences on child labour in Africa and Asia

Drawing on the relevant literature, this article explores key debates and controversies on child labour in the context of Africa and Asia. It first identifies and analyses three dominant discourses on child labour: 1) the work-free childhoods perspective; 2) the socio-cultural perspective; and 3) the political economy perspective. Against the backdrop of these discourses, the article goes on to critically examine aspects of child labour that are underrepresented in the literature and in international policy circles. It concludes by highlighting the importance of grounding children's gendered work within the complex material social practices of interconnected histories and geographies in which their livelihoods unfold.     

Rural income and poverty in a time of radical change in Malawi

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa. There is widespread, though not universal, agreement about the shape of poverty in the country and the policy challenge this sets. Agriculture continues to be the most obvious means to stimulate broad-based rural growth and to provide levels of food security and income needed for the majority rural population. A longitudinal study over a decade during which radical policy and political changes occurred provides the data and basis for discussing the appropriate policy directions for reducing poverty.     

The joint demand for health care,leisure, and commodities: Implications for health care finance and access in Vietnam

This paper explores linkages between the demand for health care providers and the consumption of food, non-food goods, and leisure in Vietnam, using a mixed continuous/discrete dependent variable model. Cross-price elasticities calculated from the model suggest there are strong substitution effects between health care, leisure, and certain commodities. The model allows us to explore the implications of replacing user fees with alternative forms of health care finance, such as commodity taxes. In particular, the results suggest financing public health care services with a non-food sales tax rather than user fees would be more progressive and would improve access to care.     

Kindergarten killers: Morality,murder and the child soldier problem

The argument advanced refers to the problem of children serving as soldiers in various military or quasi-military groups around the world. It looks to international law for guidelines on how this situation might be brought to an end, examining legislation currently in force, and also why enforcement has proved to be problematical. Given the apparent inadequacies of legal instruments to prevent this type of issue occurring, this article takes a closer examination of the conditions that create underage combatants, together with analysis of the effects this has on the young people involved. In support of these observations, the text offers a real world look at the problem in Sierra Leone, a country that has suffered years of divisive internecine warfare featuring the extensive use of children in combat roles. In a postwar situation, the study includes analysis of the difficulties of rehabilitating Sierra Leonian children traumatised by combat experiences, which reflects on the larger dilemma of national reconciliation and peace building.     

Determinants and effects of income diversification amongst farm households in Burkina Faso

Using four years of household data from three agroecological zones in Burkina Faso ‐ Sahelian, Sudanian, and Guinean ‐ the article examines the determinants and effects of household income diversification. Harvest shortfalls and terms of trade are found to drive diversification, but land constraints do not. Income diversification is associated with higher incomes and food consumption, and more stable income and consumption over years.