Ruerd Ruben
Biographic Data
| ID | 135194 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ruerd Ruben |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ruerd |
| FAMILY NAME | Ruben |
| SIGNATURE | RUBEN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wageningen University & Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5217-2339 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 254 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Why direct payments are more effective for combatting poverty than fair prices
Voluntary certification initiatives for tropical commodities intend to reduce rural poverty by guaranteeing higher prices to local smallholder farmers and paying premiums to their local communities. These market-based strategies are important to support farmer organization, but the effects on household income and food security remained fairly modest. Reforms of market mechanism are necessary but usually not sufficient for supporting smallholder f…
Policy incentives for smallholder adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices
There is a large and growing literature on the potential use of policy instruments for stimulating the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices amongst smallholders. The objective of this article is to review and understand how the array of potential policy incentives can serve as mechanisms for enhancing adoption and upscaling of potential CSA practices by small-scale farmers in low-income countries. The review follows a matrix appr…
The ambivalent links between internal migration and food security in Uganda
This study examines the drivers for and consequences of internal migration to household food security in Uganda. Based on the Ugandan National Panel Surveys conducted between 2010/11 and 2015/16, we estimate differences in food energy adequacy of households receiving internal migrants from elsewhere. Besides food energy consumption, this study applies household food consumption score (FCS) and looks at vulnerability in terms of household’s expend…
Gender Segregation and Income Differences in Nicaragua
Despite having higher average education levels, Nicaraguan women still earn much less than men. Furthermore, the country has one of the highest levels of occupational gender segregation in Latin America. This paper aims to explain the gender income gap in Nicaragua, taking into account individual characteristics, engagement in specific occupations and sectors, and geographical location. Using a multilevel framework, the study finds that while a c…
Does certification improve hired labour conditions and wageworker conditions at banana plantations
Certification of banana plantations is widely used as a device for protecting and improving socio-economic conditions of wageworkers, including their incomes, working conditions and—increasingly—voice [related to labour relations and workplace representation]. However, to date, evidence about the effectiveness of certification in these domains is scarce. We collected detailed field data on (1) economic benefits for improving household income, (2)…
Disentangling Poor Smallholder Farmers’ Risk Preferences and Time Horizons: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Ethiopia
Women Empowerment Through Self-Help Groups: The Bittersweet Fruits of Collective Apple Cultivation in Highland Ethiopia
n Contains fulltext :\n 192378.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
The Long Shadow of Faith-based Social Networks on Agricultural Performance: Evidence from Ethiopian Apple Growers
Quality upgrading in Ethiopian dairy value chains: Dovetailing upstream and downstream perspectives
In this article, we analyze opportunities and constraints for upgrading product quality in the dairy value chain in Ethiopia. Our analysis is based on an integrated understanding of supply chain performance both from producer and from consumer perspectives. We outline as main drivers for quality upgrading: (a) factors that influence producers’ willingness to invest toward intensification by smallholder dairy farmers and cooperatives and (b) facto…
Transforming Gender Relations through the Market: Smallholder Milk Market Participation and Women`s Intra-household Bargaining Power in Ethiopia
We study the relationship between smallholder milk market participation and women`s intra-household bargaining position in Ethiopia, using a quasi-experiment and propensity score matching. In market participant households, milk income is higher and its control has shifted from women to men. Our data also indicate that men transfer this income partly to their wives. Qualitative findings indicate that men see this as recognition for their wife’s ho…
How African Households Shop: Evidence from Dairy Chains in Ethiopia
Constraining Is Enabling? Exploring the Influence of National Context on Civil Society Strength
This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four key dimensions: level of democracy, political stability, rule of law and economic development. Whereas existing studies mainly focus on Western and post-communist countries, we explicitly include developing countries in our analysis. We use associational membership as proxy for civil society strength and include data of 53 countries. Rule of law, econo…
Cooperative membership and dairy performance among smallholders in Ethiopia
Smallholder Milk Market Participation and Intra-household Time Allocation in Ethiopia
The Ambivalent Impact of Coffee Certification on Farmers’ Welfare: A Matched Panel Approach for Cooperatives in Central Kenya
Gender Systems and Women’s Labor Force Participation in the Salmon Industry in Chiloé, Chile
This paper, which follows the emergence of the salmon industry in the 1990s in Chiloé, Chile, demonstrates that factors restricting women’s participation in labor force and wage differences between women and men are related to the gender systems operating in Chiloe. Results indicate that these systems reflect the territory’s demographic and agrarian history and that local gender systems have a positive influence on women’s participation in the la…
Family planning decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples in Mwanza, Tanzania: A qualitative study
Family Planning programs should adapt the promotion of communication as well as joint decision-making on FP among couples as a strategy aimed at enhancing FP use
Social Capital, Governance and Performance of Ethiopian Coffee Cooperatives
The performance of agrarian cooperatives strongly depends on the interaction between internal cohesion and external exchange. Empirical assessments of social capital and trust within cooperatives suggest that market involvement could enhance collective action. This relationship may not hold, however, under circumstances of heterogeneous membership and strong state control. We use field data from a comparative sample of 500 coffee farmers belongin…
Can Migratory Contacts and Remittances Contribute to Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Rwanda
Migratory contacts may have a positive or a negative influence on local processes of reconciliation and reconstruction. However, their impact on individual attitudinal and behavioural attributes remains a largely underexposed topic. Migrants from post‐conflict Rwanda maintain substantive contacts with their relatives through social networks and the resources that they send. Reconstruction and reconciliation programmes in post‐conflict Rwanda heav…
The Impact of Fair Trade Certification for Coffee Farmers in Peru
Can Religion Contribute to Development? The Road from ‘Truth’ to ‘Trust’
Religion has played a rather ambivalent role in the study of development. This can partly be attributed to the common emphasis on its role for providing insurance and risk reduction. Current challenges for enhancing poverty alleviation in settings of civic conflict increasingly ask attention for social mediation and new identity building. Religion can then become a key driver for supporting bridging and linking networks. This requires, however, t…
Insuring against earthquakes: Simulating the Cost-Effectiveness of Disaster Preparedness
Ex-ante measures to improve risk preparedness for natural disasters are generally considered to be more effective than ex-post measures. Nevertheless, most resources are allocated after an event in geographical areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters. This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of ex-ante adaptation measures in the wake of earthquakes and provides an assessment of the future role of private and public agencies in disaster r…
Raising Societal Support for Development Cooperation: The Role of Students’ Exchange Programs
This article analyzes the development education and exchange activities of the Dutch development organization Edukans with its longstanding experience in the “Going Global” program among secondary schools in The Netherlands. Based on a survey with 186 direct participants in the foreign exchange program and 608 schoolmates at 126 secondary schools, a detailed analysis is made of differences in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior with respect to int…
What Determines the Embeddedness of Forced-Return Migrants? Rethinking the Role of Pre- and Post-Return Assistance
Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re-embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not ob…
Measuring the impact of fair trade on development
This study of the impact of fair trade relies on new field data from coffee and banana co-operatives in Peru and Costa Rica, including a detailed assessment of its welfare effects by comparing FT farmers with non-FT farmers as a benchmark. Attention is focused on three major effects: (a) direct tangible impact of FT arrangements on the income, welfare, and livelihoods of rural households; (b) indirect effects of fair trade for improving credit ac…
The Impact of Fair Trade Certification for Coffee Farmers in Peru
Cooperative membership and dairy performance among smallholders in Ethiopia
Nonfarm Employment and Poverty Alleviation of Rural Farm Households in Honduras
What Determines the Embeddedness of Forced-Return Migrants? Rethinking the Role of Pre- and Post-Return Assistance
Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re-embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not ob…
Women Empowerment Through Self-Help Groups: The Bittersweet Fruits of Collective Apple Cultivation in Highland Ethiopia
n Contains fulltext :\n 192378.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
The Ambivalent Impact of Coffee Certification on Farmers’ Welfare: A Matched Panel Approach for Cooperatives in Central Kenya
Rural diversity and heterogeneity in less-favoured areas: The quest for policy targeting
Gender Systems and Women’s Labor Force Participation in the Salmon Industry in Chiloé, Chile
This paper, which follows the emergence of the salmon industry in the 1990s in Chiloé, Chile, demonstrates that factors restricting women’s participation in labor force and wage differences between women and men are related to the gender systems operating in Chiloe. Results indicate that these systems reflect the territory’s demographic and agrarian history and that local gender systems have a positive influence on women’s participation in the la…
Social Capital, Governance and Performance of Ethiopian Coffee Cooperatives
The performance of agrarian cooperatives strongly depends on the interaction between internal cohesion and external exchange. Empirical assessments of social capital and trust within cooperatives suggest that market involvement could enhance collective action. This relationship may not hold, however, under circumstances of heterogeneous membership and strong state control. We use field data from a comparative sample of 500 coffee farmers belongin…
Competing Claims on Natural Resources: What Role for Science
Giller, K. E., C. Leeuwis, J. A. Andersson, W. Andriesse, A. Brouwer, P. Frost, P. Hebinck, I. Heitkönig, M. K. van Ittersum, N. Koning, R. Ruben, M. Slingerland, H. Udo, T. Veldkamp, C. van de Vijver, M. T. van Wijk, and P. Windmeijer. 2008. Competing claims on natural resources: what role for science?. Ecology and Society 13(2): 34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02595-130234
Why Nicaraguan Peasants Stay in Agricultural Production Cooperatives
Despite the official support for parcellation of agricultural production cooperatives created under the Sandinista land reform in Nicaragua, a substantial number of peasants have decided to continue membership. Although theory suggests that individual farms are more productive and more efficient, Nicaraguan cooperatives did not fully split up. We aim to identify the factors that govern the choice of Nicaraguan peasants between staying in a cooper…
Constraining Is Enabling? Exploring the Influence of National Context on Civil Society Strength
This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four key dimensions: level of democracy, political stability, rule of law and economic development. Whereas existing studies mainly focus on Western and post-communist countries, we explicitly include developing countries in our analysis. We use associational membership as proxy for civil society strength and include data of 53 countries. Rule of law, econo…
Measuring the impact of fair trade on development
This study of the impact of fair trade relies on new field data from coffee and banana co-operatives in Peru and Costa Rica, including a detailed assessment of its welfare effects by comparing FT farmers with non-FT farmers as a benchmark. Attention is focused on three major effects: (a) direct tangible impact of FT arrangements on the income, welfare, and livelihoods of rural households; (b) indirect effects of fair trade for improving credit ac…
Gender Segregation and Income Differences in Nicaragua
Despite having higher average education levels, Nicaraguan women still earn much less than men. Furthermore, the country has one of the highest levels of occupational gender segregation in Latin America. This paper aims to explain the gender income gap in Nicaragua, taking into account individual characteristics, engagement in specific occupations and sectors, and geographical location. Using a multilevel framework, the study finds that while a c…
Does certification improve hired labour conditions and wageworker conditions at banana plantations
Certification of banana plantations is widely used as a device for protecting and improving socio-economic conditions of wageworkers, including their incomes, working conditions and—increasingly—voice [related to labour relations and workplace representation]. However, to date, evidence about the effectiveness of certification in these domains is scarce. We collected detailed field data on (1) economic benefits for improving household income, (2)…
Land Markets, Risk and Distress Sales in Nicaragua: The Impact of Income Shocks on Rural Differentiation
Farmers in the Nicaragua countryside face substantial risk due to legal uncertainty regarding property rights, price fluctuations and limited access to rural financial markets. Income shocks can lead to obligations to sell land, can fuel differentiation processes, and can drive people into poverty. We review empirical evidence on income shocks and related distress sales by households of different wealth endowments. From panel data of the 1995 and…
Insuring against earthquakes: Simulating the Cost-Effectiveness of Disaster Preparedness
Ex-ante measures to improve risk preparedness for natural disasters are generally considered to be more effective than ex-post measures. Nevertheless, most resources are allocated after an event in geographical areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters. This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of ex-ante adaptation measures in the wake of earthquakes and provides an assessment of the future role of private and public agencies in disaster r…
Development strategies for less-favoured areas
Policy incentives for smallholder adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices
There is a large and growing literature on the potential use of policy instruments for stimulating the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices amongst smallholders. The objective of this article is to review and understand how the array of potential policy incentives can serve as mechanisms for enhancing adoption and upscaling of potential CSA practices by small-scale farmers in low-income countries. The review follows a matrix appr…
Smallholder Milk Market Participation and Intra-household Time Allocation in Ethiopia
Can Migratory Contacts and Remittances Contribute to Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Rwanda
Migratory contacts may have a positive or a negative influence on local processes of reconciliation and reconstruction. However, their impact on individual attitudinal and behavioural attributes remains a largely underexposed topic. Migrants from post‐conflict Rwanda maintain substantive contacts with their relatives through social networks and the resources that they send. Reconstruction and reconciliation programmes in post‐conflict Rwanda heav…
Does Marketisation of Aid Reduce the Country-level Poverty Targeting of Private Aid Agencies
Labour, leisure and household income in rural settlements: An empirical assessment in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica
The relationship between labour use, the availability of leisure time and the generation of income in rural farm households is often depicted as an implicit or explicit trade-off. This article presents a review of current theories regarding the supply, demand and use of labour at farm household level, followed by an empirical assessment of time allocation of labour and the composition of farm household income in a sample of peasant households loc…
Technical coefficients for bio-economic farm household models: A meta-modelling approach with applications for Southern Mali
Nonfarm Employment and Poverty Alleviation of Rural Farm Households in Honduras
Labour, leisure and household income in rural settlements: An empirical assessment in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica
The relationship between labour use, the availability of leisure time and the generation of income in rural farm households is often depicted as an implicit or explicit trade-off. This article presents a review of current theories regarding the supply, demand and use of labour at farm household level, followed by an empirical assessment of time allocation of labour and the composition of farm household income in a sample of peasant households loc…
Land Markets, Risk and Distress Sales in Nicaragua: The Impact of Income Shocks on Rural Differentiation
Farmers in the Nicaragua countryside face substantial risk due to legal uncertainty regarding property rights, price fluctuations and limited access to rural financial markets. Income shocks can lead to obligations to sell land, can fuel differentiation processes, and can drive people into poverty. We review empirical evidence on income shocks and related distress sales by households of different wealth endowments. From panel data of the 1995 and…
Rural diversity and heterogeneity in less-favoured areas: The quest for policy targeting
Development strategies for less-favoured areas
Why Nicaraguan Peasants Stay in Agricultural Production Cooperatives
Despite the official support for parcellation of agricultural production cooperatives created under the Sandinista land reform in Nicaragua, a substantial number of peasants have decided to continue membership. Although theory suggests that individual farms are more productive and more efficient, Nicaraguan cooperatives did not fully split up. We aim to identify the factors that govern the choice of Nicaraguan peasants between staying in a cooper…
Small-Scale irrigation and income distribution in Ethiopia
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 i…
Does Marketisation of Aid Reduce the Country-level Poverty Targeting of Private Aid Agencies
Farmers, Markets and Contracts: Chain Integration of Smallholder Producers in Costa Rica
Contract farming is frequently considered as an appropriate mechanism for integrating smallholders into dynamic markets. We discuss the rationale for the variety in contractual arrangements between small-scale producers and agro-processing firms in the Northern and Central region of Costa Rica. Different market configurations give rise to delivery conditions, ranging from spot market negotiations to verbal or written contracts. We analyse which t…
Competing Claims on Natural Resources: What Role for Science
Giller, K. E., C. Leeuwis, J. A. Andersson, W. Andriesse, A. Brouwer, P. Frost, P. Hebinck, I. Heitkönig, M. K. van Ittersum, N. Koning, R. Ruben, M. Slingerland, H. Udo, T. Veldkamp, C. van de Vijver, M. T. van Wijk, and P. Windmeijer. 2008. Competing claims on natural resources: what role for science?. Ecology and Society 13(2): 34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02595-130234
Raising Societal Support for Development Cooperation: The Role of Students’ Exchange Programs
This article analyzes the development education and exchange activities of the Dutch development organization Edukans with its longstanding experience in the “Going Global” program among secondary schools in The Netherlands. Based on a survey with 186 direct participants in the foreign exchange program and 608 schoolmates at 126 secondary schools, a detailed analysis is made of differences in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior with respect to int…
What Determines the Embeddedness of Forced-Return Migrants? Rethinking the Role of Pre- and Post-Return Assistance
Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re-embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not ob…
Measuring the impact of fair trade on development
This study of the impact of fair trade relies on new field data from coffee and banana co-operatives in Peru and Costa Rica, including a detailed assessment of its welfare effects by comparing FT farmers with non-FT farmers as a benchmark. Attention is focused on three major effects: (a) direct tangible impact of FT arrangements on the income, welfare, and livelihoods of rural households; (b) indirect effects of fair trade for improving credit ac…
Insuring against earthquakes: Simulating the Cost-Effectiveness of Disaster Preparedness
Ex-ante measures to improve risk preparedness for natural disasters are generally considered to be more effective than ex-post measures. Nevertheless, most resources are allocated after an event in geographical areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters. This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of ex-ante adaptation measures in the wake of earthquakes and provides an assessment of the future role of private and public agencies in disaster r…
The Impact of Fair Trade Certification for Coffee Farmers in Peru
Can Religion Contribute to Development? The Road from ‘Truth’ to ‘Trust’
Religion has played a rather ambivalent role in the study of development. This can partly be attributed to the common emphasis on its role for providing insurance and risk reduction. Current challenges for enhancing poverty alleviation in settings of civic conflict increasingly ask attention for social mediation and new identity building. Religion can then become a key driver for supporting bridging and linking networks. This requires, however, t…
Social Capital, Governance and Performance of Ethiopian Coffee Cooperatives
The performance of agrarian cooperatives strongly depends on the interaction between internal cohesion and external exchange. Empirical assessments of social capital and trust within cooperatives suggest that market involvement could enhance collective action. This relationship may not hold, however, under circumstances of heterogeneous membership and strong state control. We use field data from a comparative sample of 500 coffee farmers belongin…
Can Migratory Contacts and Remittances Contribute to Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Rwanda
Migratory contacts may have a positive or a negative influence on local processes of reconciliation and reconstruction. However, their impact on individual attitudinal and behavioural attributes remains a largely underexposed topic. Migrants from post‐conflict Rwanda maintain substantive contacts with their relatives through social networks and the resources that they send. Reconstruction and reconciliation programmes in post‐conflict Rwanda heav…
Family planning decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples in Mwanza, Tanzania: A qualitative study
Family Planning programs should adapt the promotion of communication as well as joint decision-making on FP among couples as a strategy aimed at enhancing FP use
Gender Systems and Women’s Labor Force Participation in the Salmon Industry in Chiloé, Chile
This paper, which follows the emergence of the salmon industry in the 1990s in Chiloé, Chile, demonstrates that factors restricting women’s participation in labor force and wage differences between women and men are related to the gender systems operating in Chiloe. Results indicate that these systems reflect the territory’s demographic and agrarian history and that local gender systems have a positive influence on women’s participation in the la…
Smallholder Milk Market Participation and Intra-household Time Allocation in Ethiopia
The Ambivalent Impact of Coffee Certification on Farmers’ Welfare: A Matched Panel Approach for Cooperatives in Central Kenya
Transforming Gender Relations through the Market: Smallholder Milk Market Participation and Women`s Intra-household Bargaining Power in Ethiopia
We study the relationship between smallholder milk market participation and women`s intra-household bargaining position in Ethiopia, using a quasi-experiment and propensity score matching. In market participant households, milk income is higher and its control has shifted from women to men. Our data also indicate that men transfer this income partly to their wives. Qualitative findings indicate that men see this as recognition for their wife’s ho…
How African Households Shop: Evidence from Dairy Chains in Ethiopia
Economics (30 works) · Business (18 works) · Economic growth (17 works) · Geography (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (15 works) · Agriculture (14 works) · Agricultural Innovations and Practices (12 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Agricultural economics (8 works)