David E Sahn
Biographic Data
| ID | 237197 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David E Sahn |
| GIVEN NAMES | David E |
| FAMILY NAME | Sahn |
| SIGNATURE | SAHN D E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 315 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Childhood determinants of internal youth migration in Senegal
Internal migration, mostly composed of young adults and the poor, constitutes the largest flow of people in developing countries. Few studies document the patterns and determinants of internal youth migration in sub-Saharan Africa
Adjusting to Policy Failure in African Economies
In this timely volume sixteen specialists examine the external and domestic factors that precipitated Africa's economic crisis and the nature and consequences of the process of reform designed to restore macroeconomic stability and accelerate the rate of economic growth. The authors explore the efforts of ten diverse countries in sub-Saharan Africa to rectify economic distortions of the past and weaknesses in institutional structures. Their case …
Early Childbearing, School Attainment, and Cognitive Skills: Evidence From Madagascar
Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in sub-Saharan Africa, and so has the risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. We analyze the impact of teenage pregnancy on young women’s human capital using longitudinal data in Madagascar that capture the transition from adolescence to adulthood for a cohort aged 21–24 in 2012, first interviewed in 2004. We find that early childbearing increases the likelihood of dropping out o…
The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal
This article examines the role of education and family background on age at marriage, age at first birth, and age at labor market entry for young Senegalese women. We use a multiple-equation framework that allows us to account for the endogeneity that arises from the simultaneity of the four decisions that we model. Our results highlight the importance of a woman’s own education in delaying marriage and that the relationship between her education…
Public and Private Returns to Investing in Nutrition
The authors examine the impact of nutrition on productivity at both the micro and macro levels and conclude that large economic returns to investing in nutrition. These can be measured at both the individual level as well as through economy-wide indicators such as aggregate incomes and gross domestic product. The evidence comes from a range of methodologies and disciplines, including the work of economic historians, cross-country models, microsim…
Schooling, marriage, and age at first birth in Madagascar
The low school attainment, early marriage, and low age at first birth of females are major policy concerns in less developed countries. This study jointly estimated the determinants of educational attainment, marriage age, and age at first birth among females aged 12-25 in Madagascar, explicitly accounting for the endogeneities that arose from modelling these related outcomes simultaneously. An additional year of schooling results in a delay to m…
Household Water Supply Choice and Time Allocated to Water Collection: Evidence from Madagascar
This article uses household survey data from Madagascar to examine water supply choice and time spent in water collection. We find that the choice of water source is strongly influenced by a number of household characteristics, as well as distance to sources. There are also strong substitution effects across sources. For example, increasing the distance to a public tap by 1 km increases the probability of using a well by 43 per cent in urban area…
Comparing population distributions from bin-aggregated sample data: An application to historical height data from France
Explaining stunting in nineteenth-century France
We examine the share of French men with stunted growth during the nineteenth century using data on potential army conscripts. The share of stunted men (those whose height was below 1.62 metres) in France's 82 departments declined dramatically across the century, especially in the south and west. Our models examine the role of education expenditure, health care personnel, local wages, asset distribution, and a dummy variable for Paris as determina…
Weights on the rise: Where and for whom
Are Africans Practicing Safer Sex? Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys for Eight Countries
We use repeated rounds of Demographic and Health Survey data from eight African countries to examine changes in and determinants of three HIV risk behaviors: age at first intercourse, number of current sexual partners, and use of condoms. As a prelude, we assess the within‐country comparability of DHS surveys over time. We find some evidence of changes in sample composition, which is easily handled in a multivariate framework. More problematic is…
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 o…
Changes in HIV/Aids knowledge and testing behavior in Africa: How much and for whom
Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons
We demonstrate how to make poverty comparisons using multidimensional indicators of well-being, showing in particular how to check whether the comparisons are robust to aggregation procedures and to the choice of multidimensional poverty lines. In contrast to earlier work, our methodology applies equally well to what can be defined as 'union', 'intersection' or 'intermediate' approaches to dealing with multidimensional indicators of well-being. T…
Improvements in children’s health: Does inequality matter
The demand for primary schooling in Madagascar: Price, quality, and the choice between public and private providers
Socioeconomic Determinants of Children's Health in Russia: A Longitudinal Study
This article explores dynamic links among the health status of children, measured by standardized height, socioeconomic characteristics of their parents and communities, and related shocks, using a 4‐period‐long panel of children from Russia's Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Specific attention is given to the endogenous effect of lagged height on current height, which can be thought of as the catch‐up effect or the lingering effect of poor health…
Urban-Rural Inequality in Living Standards in Africa
In this paper we examine the relative importance of rural versus urban areas in terms of monetary poverty and seven other related living standards indicators. We present the levels of urban–rural differences for several African countries for which we have data and find that living standards in rural areas lag far behind those in urban areas. Then we examine the relative and absolute rates of change for urban and rural areas, and find no overall e…
Decomposing world health inequality
Exploring Alternative Measures of Welfare in the Absence of Expenditure Data
We consider an asset‐based alternative to the standard use of expenditures in defining well‐being and poverty. Our motivation is to see if there exist simpler and less demanding ways to collect data to measure economic welfare and rank households. This is particularly important in poor regions where there is limited capacity to collect consumption, expenditure and price data. We evaluate an index derived from a factor analysis on household assets…
Parental Preferences for Nutrition of Boys and Girls: Evidence from Africa
This article models the determinants of pre-school age malnutrition in Africa using the Demographic Health Surveys. By examining the differences in the impact of mother's and father's education on the nutrition of boys and girls, we draw inferences from our reduced-form equations regarding the existence of non-unified preferences. In a bargaining framework, women with more schooling are able to earn more, which improves their fallback position. T…
Progress Toward the Millennium Development Goals in Africa
Schooling of girls and boys in a West African country: The effects of parental education, income, and household structure
Poverty Comparisons Over Time and Across Countries in Africa
A Reply to De Maio, Stewart, and van der Hoeven
Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons
We demonstrate how to make poverty comparisons using multidimensional indicators of well-being, showing in particular how to check whether the comparisons are robust to aggregation procedures and to the choice of multidimensional poverty lines. In contrast to earlier work, our methodology applies equally well to what can be defined as 'union', 'intersection' or 'intermediate' approaches to dealing with multidimensional indicators of well-being. T…
Poverty Comparisons Over Time and Across Countries in Africa
The demand for primary schooling in Madagascar: Price, quality, and the choice between public and private providers
Progress Toward the Millennium Development Goals in Africa
Structural Adjustment Reconsidered: Economic Policy and Poverty in Africa
On the determinants of nutrition in Mozambique: The importance of age-specific effects
The literature indicates mixed results regarding the impact of income and other variables on the age and gender standardized height-for-age of children. This paper uses data from Maputo, Mozambique to show that the impact of household resources or health inputs may be masked if diverse age groups are aggregated. For example, increases in household incomes affect only the nutritional status of children two years of age and older. Conversely, for y…
The effects of human capital on wages, and the determinants of labor supply in a developing country
Exchange rate, fiscal and agricultural policies in Africa: Does adjustment hurt the poor
Trade, exchange rate, fiscal, and agricultural sector policy reforms are the pillars of structural adjustment programs in Africa. Results indicate that trade and exchange rate reforms are associated with a large decline in economic rents and a shift in relative prices that favor the rural and urban poor. Fiscal reforms have not brought about draconian belt-tightening measures, although the incidence of public spending, particularly in the social …
Public expenditures in sub-Saharan Africa during a period of economic reforms
Public expenditure restraint is the most direct means of reducing balance-of-payments and budget deficits, and is consequently a key aspect of macroeconomic adjustment programs. The results of this study indicate a steady increase in total central government and social services spending during 1977–1989 in sub-Saharan Africa. The growth in population, however, contributed to an overall erosion in per capita expenditures. While total government ex…
Gender and Education Impacts on Employment and Earnings in West Africa: Evidence from Guinea
The stagnation of smallholder agriculture in Malawi
Malawi's efforts at structural adjustment have revolved around reforming the marketing and pricing of outputs and inputs in smallholder agriculture. In practice the price-oriented adjustment policies were not thorough enough and have led to disappointing results. There is clearly a need to push for further reforms in pricing. However, structural adjustment in Malawi will have to go beyond just getting prices right. Policies must also concentrate …
Schooling, marriage, and age at first birth in Madagascar
The low school attainment, early marriage, and low age at first birth of females are major policy concerns in less developed countries. This study jointly estimated the determinants of educational attainment, marriage age, and age at first birth among females aged 12-25 in Madagascar, explicitly accounting for the endogeneities that arose from modelling these related outcomes simultaneously. An additional year of schooling results in a delay to m…
Changes in the living standards of the poor in Sri Lanka during a period of macroeconomic restructuring
Changes in HIV/Aids knowledge and testing behavior in Africa: How much and for whom
The Effect of Food Subsidies on Labor Supply in Sri Lanka
The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal
This article examines the role of education and family background on age at marriage, age at first birth, and age at labor market entry for young Senegalese women. We use a multiple-equation framework that allows us to account for the endogeneity that arises from the simultaneity of the four decisions that we model. Our results highlight the importance of a woman’s own education in delaying marriage and that the relationship between her education…
Are Africans Practicing Safer Sex? Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys for Eight Countries
We use repeated rounds of Demographic and Health Survey data from eight African countries to examine changes in and determinants of three HIV risk behaviors: age at first intercourse, number of current sexual partners, and use of condoms. As a prelude, we assess the within‐country comparability of DHS surveys over time. We find some evidence of changes in sample composition, which is easily handled in a multivariate framework. More problematic is…
The emergence of parallel markets in a transition economy: The case of Mozambique
The food rationing scheme in Maputo, Mozambique was intended to ensure food security for the poor. An analysis of survey data reveals that even households that possess ration cards are mainly reliant on parallel markets, instead of the ration system, for their purchases. The results indicate that market liberalization, including eliminating rationing, will at worst be neutral for the poor, and more likely be beneficial since the treasury will cap…
The impact of export crop production on nutritional status in Côte d'Ivoire
The Evolution of States, Markets, and Civil Institutions in Rural Africa
Sinceindependence most sub-Saharan African countries have retrogressed from an early period of rising expectations and optimism to growing difficulties in the 1970s and early 1980s, followed by a painful era of stabilisation and structural adjustment measures. A large part of the blame for so many unfavourable developments, notably stagnating growth and untenable domestic and external account imbalances, can be attributed to the nature of the Afr…
Childhood determinants of internal youth migration in Senegal
Internal migration, mostly composed of young adults and the poor, constitutes the largest flow of people in developing countries. Few studies document the patterns and determinants of internal youth migration in sub-Saharan Africa
Weights on the rise: Where and for whom
Improvements in children’s health: Does inequality matter
Socioeconomic Determinants of Children's Health in Russia: A Longitudinal Study
This article explores dynamic links among the health status of children, measured by standardized height, socioeconomic characteristics of their parents and communities, and related shocks, using a 4‐period‐long panel of children from Russia's Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Specific attention is given to the endogenous effect of lagged height on current height, which can be thought of as the catch‐up effect or the lingering effect of poor health…
Modeling the Nutritional and Distributional Effects of Taxing Export Crops
Assessing the uses of food aid: P.L. 480 Title II in India
Food commodities donated by the U.S. to India under P.L. 480 Title II were used in maternal and child health, school feeding and food for work programs. Maternal and child health feeding programs generally did not achieve their intended nutritional goals because of leakages in the food supplement due to substitution, sharing and poor targeting. Food did act as an incentive to use health services, but most programs did not make these available. Sc…
Changes in the living standards of the poor in Sri Lanka during a period of macroeconomic restructuring
The effects of human capital on wages, and the determinants of labor supply in a developing country
The Effect of Price and Income Changes on Food-Energy Intake in Sri Lanka
The impact of export crop production on nutritional status in Côte d'Ivoire
Food subsidies and exchange rate distortions in Mozambique
The stagnation of smallholder agriculture in Malawi
Malawi's efforts at structural adjustment have revolved around reforming the marketing and pricing of outputs and inputs in smallholder agriculture. In practice the price-oriented adjustment policies were not thorough enough and have led to disappointing results. There is clearly a need to push for further reforms in pricing. However, structural adjustment in Malawi will have to go beyond just getting prices right. Policies must also concentrate …
Public expenditures in sub-Saharan Africa during a period of economic reforms
Public expenditure restraint is the most direct means of reducing balance-of-payments and budget deficits, and is consequently a key aspect of macroeconomic adjustment programs. The results of this study indicate a steady increase in total central government and social services spending during 1977–1989 in sub-Saharan Africa. The growth in population, however, contributed to an overall erosion in per capita expenditures. While total government ex…
Modeling the Nutritional and Distributional Effects of Taxing Export Crops
The Evolution of States, Markets, and Civil Institutions in Rural Africa
Sinceindependence most sub-Saharan African countries have retrogressed from an early period of rising expectations and optimism to growing difficulties in the 1970s and early 1980s, followed by a painful era of stabilisation and structural adjustment measures. A large part of the blame for so many unfavourable developments, notably stagnating growth and untenable domestic and external account imbalances, can be attributed to the nature of the Afr…
Reducing the size of the public sector workforce: Institutional constraints and human consequences in Guinea
Public sector employment reduction programmes have become an important component of economic reform efforts in sub‐Saharan Africa. This article examines the fiscal, institutional and human consequences of an employment reduction programme in the West African state of Guinea. While fiscal benefits appear to have been marginal and compensation schemes well targeted, the human costs of the programme were significant due to long spells of unemploymen…
The emergence of parallel markets in a transition economy: The case of Mozambique
The food rationing scheme in Maputo, Mozambique was intended to ensure food security for the poor. An analysis of survey data reveals that even households that possess ration cards are mainly reliant on parallel markets, instead of the ration system, for their purchases. The results indicate that market liberalization, including eliminating rationing, will at worst be neutral for the poor, and more likely be beneficial since the treasury will cap…
Adjusting to Policy Failure in African Economies
Exchange rate, fiscal and agricultural policies in Africa: Does adjustment hurt the poor
Trade, exchange rate, fiscal, and agricultural sector policy reforms are the pillars of structural adjustment programs in Africa. Results indicate that trade and exchange rate reforms are associated with a large decline in economic rents and a shift in relative prices that favor the rural and urban poor. Fiscal reforms have not brought about draconian belt-tightening measures, although the incidence of public spending, particularly in the social …
The Effect of Food Subsidies on Labor Supply in Sri Lanka
On the determinants of nutrition in Mozambique: The importance of age-specific effects
The literature indicates mixed results regarding the impact of income and other variables on the age and gender standardized height-for-age of children. This paper uses data from Maputo, Mozambique to show that the impact of household resources or health inputs may be masked if diverse age groups are aggregated. For example, increases in household incomes affect only the nutritional status of children two years of age and older. Conversely, for y…
Gender and Education Impacts on Employment and Earnings in West Africa: Evidence from Guinea
A Reply to De Maio, Stewart, and van der Hoeven
Structural Adjustment Reconsidered: Economic Policy and Poverty in Africa
Schooling of girls and boys in a West African country: The effects of parental education, income, and household structure
Poverty Comparisons Over Time and Across Countries in Africa
Parental Preferences for Nutrition of Boys and Girls: Evidence from Africa
This article models the determinants of pre-school age malnutrition in Africa using the Demographic Health Surveys. By examining the differences in the impact of mother's and father's education on the nutrition of boys and girls, we draw inferences from our reduced-form equations regarding the existence of non-unified preferences. In a bargaining framework, women with more schooling are able to earn more, which improves their fallback position. T…
Progress Toward the Millennium Development Goals in Africa
Urban-Rural Inequality in Living Standards in Africa
In this paper we examine the relative importance of rural versus urban areas in terms of monetary poverty and seven other related living standards indicators. We present the levels of urban–rural differences for several African countries for which we have data and find that living standards in rural areas lag far behind those in urban areas. Then we examine the relative and absolute rates of change for urban and rural areas, and find no overall e…
Decomposing world health inequality
Economics (38 works) · Economic growth (28 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (19 works) · Demographic economics (15 works) · Geography (15 works) · Political science (12 works) · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics (11 works) · Demography (10 works) · Development economics (10 works) · Sociology (10 works)