Franziska Gassmann
Biographic Data
| ID | 4264320 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Franziska Gassmann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Franziska |
| FAMILY NAME | Gassmann |
| SIGNATURE | GASSMANN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | United Nations University – Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3767-831X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The impacts of integrating microfinance with agricultural extension on seasonal food insecurity
Neither microfinance alone nor bundled with agricultural extension reduces food insecurity. • Dietary diversity fell during harvest and lean seasons in the bundled group. • Rigid loan repayment misaligns with agricultural cash flows, limiting program synergies. We study the impact of bundling microfinance with farming extension services on seasonal food security in rural Uganda. Using an experimental design, we monitor seasonal changes through a …
Child Work in Developing Countries
Child work is still widely prevalent in many countries: it refers to both income-generating activities and unpaid care and domestic activities. However, the existing literature and international statistical standards either aggregate these two forms of work or focus exclusively on income-generating work. In this paper, we show the differences and similarities in the prevalence and determinants of paid and unpaid child work using data from nationa…
Perceived position on the social ladder and redistributive preferences – A survey experiment from the Kyrgyz Republic
Prior research has established that perceived inequality, and not actual inequality matters for redistributive preferences. Hence, misconceptions can alter public demand for government intervention. Survey experiments have found systematic biases in people's inequality perceptions and found that, in some contexts, the provision of correct information may alter their preferences for redistribution. This literature has, however, centered around hig…
Rural Roads, Child Labor, and Schooling in Rural Ethiopia
New roads bring new opportunities including access to employment. However, new employment opportunities might encourage early school dropout and school absenteeism. We investigate the link between rural roads, children’s labor allocation, and educational outcomes by focusing on the recent Ethiopian road construction program. In the analysis, we combine household panel data with novel road network data. To address endogeneity concerns, we combine …
Re-election incentives and the adoption of early childhood development programmes
What incentives matter for governments to adopt pro-poor early childhood development (ECD) policies? This paper addresses this question by employing a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to study the effect of mayoral re-election incentives on the adoption of the “Happy Child” ECD Programme in Brazil. The analysis finds that municipalities with first-term mayors (those that were eligible for re-election for another consecutive mandate) had a hi…
Leaving no one behind
Despite considerable achievements in the reduction of poverty over the last decades, poverty remains conspicuously high and profound. While fast urban population growth, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, has contributed to poverty reduction, new development challenges like the urbanisation of poverty emerge. However, little is known about the state and persistence of poverty in urban areas. This study investigates urban poverty within the theory …
Prioritarian rates of return to antipoverty transfers
A growing impact evaluation literature on antipoverty transfer programmes in low‐ and middle‐income countries measures changes in utilitarian terms, at their unit value. The paper argues that valuing antipoverty transfers is more appropriately done within a framework of prioritarian social welfare functions, as the very presence of these programmes indicates that polities place a greater value on gains and losses among the disadvantaged. The pape…
How Social Assistance Affects Subjective Wellbeing
This paper investigates the effects of social assistance on subjective well-being looking at the case of Kyrgyzstan. For this purpose, we exploit recent changes in the design of social assistance and apply a difference in difference (DiD) method combined with an inverse probability weighting (IPW) technique. In contrast to the existing literature, we find that in the short-term, the receipt of social assistance benefits is associated with lower l…
Determinants and drivers of young children’s diets in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Latin America and Caribbean region exhibit some of the lowest undernutrition rates globally. Yet, disparities exist between and within countries and countries in the region increasingly face other pressing nutritional concerns, including overweight, micronutrient deficiencies and inadequate child feeding practices. This paper reports findings from a regional analysis to identify the determinants and drivers of children’s diets, with a focus o…
The effect of institutional factors and people’s preferences on expenditure for social protection
This article analyses whether and to what extent social protection expenditure varies with institutional quality and people’s preferences using cross‐section and cross‐country panel data. It uses data on expenditure taken from the International Labour Office database focusing on 52 low‐ and middle‐income countries and on 80 high‐, low‐ and middle‐income countries. The results show that both factors have an impact for the group of low‐ and middle‐…
How Inclusive are the Local Economic Impacts of Social Protection in Uganda
Inclusive growth and development are essential for the sustainability of poverty reduction and growth. Social protection has been promoted as part of the inclusive growth and development agenda by emphasising the positive impacts of social transfers on people’s participation in economic processes. However, the focus on the positive economic impacts of social transfers has led to the neglect of concerns regarding inequality of opportunity. Taking …
Effect of Means-Tested Social Transfers on Labor Supply
Unpacking the Relationship between Parental Migration and Child well-Being
Using household survey data collected between September 2011 and December 2012 from Moldova and Georgia, this paper measures and compares the multidimensional well-being of children with and without parents abroad. While a growing body of literature has addressed the effects of migration for children 'left behind', relatively few studies have empirically analysed if and to what extent migration implies different well-being outcomes for children, …
Migration and the Multi-Dimensional Well-Being of Elderly Persons in Georgia
High rates of migration coupled with low formal social protection provisions may place many members of the elderly Georgian population in precarious living conditions that promote vulnerability and limit well-being achievement. This potential connection has been poorly explored in past literature, however, suggesting a need to better assess how the migration of an adult child may influence the multidimensional well-being of the elderly in Georgia…
Does it matter where the children are? The wellbeing of elderly people ‘left behind’ by migrant children in Moldova
This paper empirically evaluates the wellbeing of elderly individuals ‘left behind’ by their adult migrant children in Moldova. Using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted in 2011–12 in Moldova, the wellbeing outcomes of elderly individuals aged 60 and older with and without adult children living abroad are compared (N = 1,322). A multi-dimensional wellbeing index is constructed on the basis of seven indicators within f…
Switching off or switching source
The Energy Poverty Action Initiative of the World Economic Forum suggests that ‘access to energy is fundamental to improving quality of life and is a key imperative for economic development’. This is particularly true in Central Asia, where winters are harsh and long. Changes in energy prices affect the purchasing power of households, hitting the poor in particular. The impact very much depends on a household's energy basket and the available str…
Global Child Poverty and Well-Being
This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty.
To What Extent Does the Existing Safety Net Protect the Poor?
The objective of social protection \n policies is to help families, individuals and communities \n with the prevention and mitigation of social and economic \n risks. Social protection policies are a range of public \n interventions to support the poor and vulnerable, and assist \n families, individuals and communities to better manage \n social and economic risks. The objective of this paper is to \n assess the effectiveness of the Kyrgyz social…
False positives or hidden dimensions
Roelen K, Gassmann F, de Neubourg C. False positives or hidden dimensions: what can monetary and multidimensional measurement tell us about child poverty in Vietnam? A widely used division between poverty measures based on conceptual underpinnings and analytical outcomes is that of monetary versus multidimensional measures. Comparisons of the use and outcomes of the two methods have shown that they predominantly provide different pictures of pove…
How effective can efficient be? Social assistance in Kosovo and what it means for children
The primary objective of the majority of social assistance schemes is to reduce poverty, and targeting is often considered an important tool to reach this objective more efficiently and effectively. This paper investigates the efficiency and effectiveness of a targeted benefit scheme that uses a hybrid form of targeting and is subject to a tight budget constraint, namely the social assistance scheme in Kosovo. In recognition of the long-term detr…
Child Poverty in Vietnam
Despite a wide under-prioritization, the issue of child poverty has received increasing attention worldwide over the last decade. This paper proposes a country-specific, multidimensional and outcome-based approach for the measurement of the incidence, depth and severity of child poverty. It does so at the level of the individual child using household survey data. The development of such an approach at the level of the individual child presents an…
The Importance of Choice and Definition for the Measurement of Child Poverty—the case of Vietnam
Increased attention to childrens' special position within poverty measurement resulted in the development of various child poverty approaches in the last decade. Analysis shows that their development processes involve a similar set of steps and decisions, predominantly taken in the same sequence. However, it also becomes apparent that many of these decisions are made implicitly rather than explicitly, resulting in unclear and non-transparent unde…
Size matters
This article evaluates a policy change from universal to means-tested child allowances in terms of targeting efficiency and poverty reduction, taking the introduction of the latter form of benefits in Russia as a case-study. We use the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) from 2000 to 2004 to analyse the impact of the reforms and to simulate the effects of various means-tested and universal child benefit schemes. Since the reforms in 2000…
Child Poverty in Vietnam
Despite a wide under-prioritization, the issue of child poverty has received increasing attention worldwide over the last decade. This paper proposes a country-specific, multidimensional and outcome-based approach for the measurement of the incidence, depth and severity of child poverty. It does so at the level of the individual child using household survey data. The development of such an approach at the level of the individual child presents an…
False positives or hidden dimensions
Roelen K, Gassmann F, de Neubourg C. False positives or hidden dimensions: what can monetary and multidimensional measurement tell us about child poverty in Vietnam? A widely used division between poverty measures based on conceptual underpinnings and analytical outcomes is that of monetary versus multidimensional measures. Comparisons of the use and outcomes of the two methods have shown that they predominantly provide different pictures of pove…
Size matters
This article evaluates a policy change from universal to means-tested child allowances in terms of targeting efficiency and poverty reduction, taking the introduction of the latter form of benefits in Russia as a case-study. We use the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) from 2000 to 2004 to analyse the impact of the reforms and to simulate the effects of various means-tested and universal child benefit schemes. Since the reforms in 2000…
The Importance of Choice and Definition for the Measurement of Child Poverty—the case of Vietnam
Increased attention to childrens' special position within poverty measurement resulted in the development of various child poverty approaches in the last decade. Analysis shows that their development processes involve a similar set of steps and decisions, predominantly taken in the same sequence. However, it also becomes apparent that many of these decisions are made implicitly rather than explicitly, resulting in unclear and non-transparent unde…
Migration and the Multi-Dimensional Well-Being of Elderly Persons in Georgia
High rates of migration coupled with low formal social protection provisions may place many members of the elderly Georgian population in precarious living conditions that promote vulnerability and limit well-being achievement. This potential connection has been poorly explored in past literature, however, suggesting a need to better assess how the migration of an adult child may influence the multidimensional well-being of the elderly in Georgia…
Unpacking the Relationship between Parental Migration and Child well-Being
Using household survey data collected between September 2011 and December 2012 from Moldova and Georgia, this paper measures and compares the multidimensional well-being of children with and without parents abroad. While a growing body of literature has addressed the effects of migration for children 'left behind', relatively few studies have empirically analysed if and to what extent migration implies different well-being outcomes for children, …
Does it matter where the children are? The wellbeing of elderly people ‘left behind’ by migrant children in Moldova
This paper empirically evaluates the wellbeing of elderly individuals ‘left behind’ by their adult migrant children in Moldova. Using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted in 2011–12 in Moldova, the wellbeing outcomes of elderly individuals aged 60 and older with and without adult children living abroad are compared (N = 1,322). A multi-dimensional wellbeing index is constructed on the basis of seven indicators within f…
Switching off or switching source
The Energy Poverty Action Initiative of the World Economic Forum suggests that ‘access to energy is fundamental to improving quality of life and is a key imperative for economic development’. This is particularly true in Central Asia, where winters are harsh and long. Changes in energy prices affect the purchasing power of households, hitting the poor in particular. The impact very much depends on a household's energy basket and the available str…
How effective can efficient be? Social assistance in Kosovo and what it means for children
The primary objective of the majority of social assistance schemes is to reduce poverty, and targeting is often considered an important tool to reach this objective more efficiently and effectively. This paper investigates the efficiency and effectiveness of a targeted benefit scheme that uses a hybrid form of targeting and is subject to a tight budget constraint, namely the social assistance scheme in Kosovo. In recognition of the long-term detr…
Leaving no one behind
Despite considerable achievements in the reduction of poverty over the last decades, poverty remains conspicuously high and profound. While fast urban population growth, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, has contributed to poverty reduction, new development challenges like the urbanisation of poverty emerge. However, little is known about the state and persistence of poverty in urban areas. This study investigates urban poverty within the theory …
How Inclusive are the Local Economic Impacts of Social Protection in Uganda
Inclusive growth and development are essential for the sustainability of poverty reduction and growth. Social protection has been promoted as part of the inclusive growth and development agenda by emphasising the positive impacts of social transfers on people’s participation in economic processes. However, the focus on the positive economic impacts of social transfers has led to the neglect of concerns regarding inequality of opportunity. Taking …
Size matters
This article evaluates a policy change from universal to means-tested child allowances in terms of targeting efficiency and poverty reduction, taking the introduction of the latter form of benefits in Russia as a case-study. We use the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) from 2000 to 2004 to analyse the impact of the reforms and to simulate the effects of various means-tested and universal child benefit schemes. Since the reforms in 2000…
The Importance of Choice and Definition for the Measurement of Child Poverty—the case of Vietnam
Increased attention to childrens' special position within poverty measurement resulted in the development of various child poverty approaches in the last decade. Analysis shows that their development processes involve a similar set of steps and decisions, predominantly taken in the same sequence. However, it also becomes apparent that many of these decisions are made implicitly rather than explicitly, resulting in unclear and non-transparent unde…
Child Poverty in Vietnam
Despite a wide under-prioritization, the issue of child poverty has received increasing attention worldwide over the last decade. This paper proposes a country-specific, multidimensional and outcome-based approach for the measurement of the incidence, depth and severity of child poverty. It does so at the level of the individual child using household survey data. The development of such an approach at the level of the individual child presents an…
To What Extent Does the Existing Safety Net Protect the Poor?
The objective of social protection \n policies is to help families, individuals and communities \n with the prevention and mitigation of social and economic \n risks. Social protection policies are a range of public \n interventions to support the poor and vulnerable, and assist \n families, individuals and communities to better manage \n social and economic risks. The objective of this paper is to \n assess the effectiveness of the Kyrgyz social…
False positives or hidden dimensions
Roelen K, Gassmann F, de Neubourg C. False positives or hidden dimensions: what can monetary and multidimensional measurement tell us about child poverty in Vietnam? A widely used division between poverty measures based on conceptual underpinnings and analytical outcomes is that of monetary versus multidimensional measures. Comparisons of the use and outcomes of the two methods have shown that they predominantly provide different pictures of pove…
How effective can efficient be? Social assistance in Kosovo and what it means for children
The primary objective of the majority of social assistance schemes is to reduce poverty, and targeting is often considered an important tool to reach this objective more efficiently and effectively. This paper investigates the efficiency and effectiveness of a targeted benefit scheme that uses a hybrid form of targeting and is subject to a tight budget constraint, namely the social assistance scheme in Kosovo. In recognition of the long-term detr…
Global Child Poverty and Well-Being
This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty.
Switching off or switching source
The Energy Poverty Action Initiative of the World Economic Forum suggests that ‘access to energy is fundamental to improving quality of life and is a key imperative for economic development’. This is particularly true in Central Asia, where winters are harsh and long. Changes in energy prices affect the purchasing power of households, hitting the poor in particular. The impact very much depends on a household's energy basket and the available str…
Unpacking the Relationship between Parental Migration and Child well-Being
Using household survey data collected between September 2011 and December 2012 from Moldova and Georgia, this paper measures and compares the multidimensional well-being of children with and without parents abroad. While a growing body of literature has addressed the effects of migration for children 'left behind', relatively few studies have empirically analysed if and to what extent migration implies different well-being outcomes for children, …
Migration and the Multi-Dimensional Well-Being of Elderly Persons in Georgia
High rates of migration coupled with low formal social protection provisions may place many members of the elderly Georgian population in precarious living conditions that promote vulnerability and limit well-being achievement. This potential connection has been poorly explored in past literature, however, suggesting a need to better assess how the migration of an adult child may influence the multidimensional well-being of the elderly in Georgia…
Does it matter where the children are? The wellbeing of elderly people ‘left behind’ by migrant children in Moldova
This paper empirically evaluates the wellbeing of elderly individuals ‘left behind’ by their adult migrant children in Moldova. Using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted in 2011–12 in Moldova, the wellbeing outcomes of elderly individuals aged 60 and older with and without adult children living abroad are compared (N = 1,322). A multi-dimensional wellbeing index is constructed on the basis of seven indicators within f…
Effect of Means-Tested Social Transfers on Labor Supply
How Inclusive are the Local Economic Impacts of Social Protection in Uganda
Inclusive growth and development are essential for the sustainability of poverty reduction and growth. Social protection has been promoted as part of the inclusive growth and development agenda by emphasising the positive impacts of social transfers on people’s participation in economic processes. However, the focus on the positive economic impacts of social transfers has led to the neglect of concerns regarding inequality of opportunity. Taking …
Prioritarian rates of return to antipoverty transfers
A growing impact evaluation literature on antipoverty transfer programmes in low‐ and middle‐income countries measures changes in utilitarian terms, at their unit value. The paper argues that valuing antipoverty transfers is more appropriately done within a framework of prioritarian social welfare functions, as the very presence of these programmes indicates that polities place a greater value on gains and losses among the disadvantaged. The pape…
How Social Assistance Affects Subjective Wellbeing
This paper investigates the effects of social assistance on subjective well-being looking at the case of Kyrgyzstan. For this purpose, we exploit recent changes in the design of social assistance and apply a difference in difference (DiD) method combined with an inverse probability weighting (IPW) technique. In contrast to the existing literature, we find that in the short-term, the receipt of social assistance benefits is associated with lower l…
Determinants and drivers of young children’s diets in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Latin America and Caribbean region exhibit some of the lowest undernutrition rates globally. Yet, disparities exist between and within countries and countries in the region increasingly face other pressing nutritional concerns, including overweight, micronutrient deficiencies and inadequate child feeding practices. This paper reports findings from a regional analysis to identify the determinants and drivers of children’s diets, with a focus o…
The effect of institutional factors and people’s preferences on expenditure for social protection
This article analyses whether and to what extent social protection expenditure varies with institutional quality and people’s preferences using cross‐section and cross‐country panel data. It uses data on expenditure taken from the International Labour Office database focusing on 52 low‐ and middle‐income countries and on 80 high‐, low‐ and middle‐income countries. The results show that both factors have an impact for the group of low‐ and middle‐…
Leaving no one behind
Despite considerable achievements in the reduction of poverty over the last decades, poverty remains conspicuously high and profound. While fast urban population growth, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, has contributed to poverty reduction, new development challenges like the urbanisation of poverty emerge. However, little is known about the state and persistence of poverty in urban areas. This study investigates urban poverty within the theory …
Perceived position on the social ladder and redistributive preferences – A survey experiment from the Kyrgyz Republic
Prior research has established that perceived inequality, and not actual inequality matters for redistributive preferences. Hence, misconceptions can alter public demand for government intervention. Survey experiments have found systematic biases in people's inequality perceptions and found that, in some contexts, the provision of correct information may alter their preferences for redistribution. This literature has, however, centered around hig…
Rural Roads, Child Labor, and Schooling in Rural Ethiopia
New roads bring new opportunities including access to employment. However, new employment opportunities might encourage early school dropout and school absenteeism. We investigate the link between rural roads, children’s labor allocation, and educational outcomes by focusing on the recent Ethiopian road construction program. In the analysis, we combine household panel data with novel road network data. To address endogeneity concerns, we combine …
Re-election incentives and the adoption of early childhood development programmes
What incentives matter for governments to adopt pro-poor early childhood development (ECD) policies? This paper addresses this question by employing a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to study the effect of mayoral re-election incentives on the adoption of the “Happy Child” ECD Programme in Brazil. The analysis finds that municipalities with first-term mayors (those that were eligible for re-election for another consecutive mandate) had a hi…
Child Work in Developing Countries
Child work is still widely prevalent in many countries: it refers to both income-generating activities and unpaid care and domestic activities. However, the existing literature and international statistical standards either aggregate these two forms of work or focus exclusively on income-generating work. In this paper, we show the differences and similarities in the prevalence and determinants of paid and unpaid child work using data from nationa…
The impacts of integrating microfinance with agricultural extension on seasonal food insecurity
Neither microfinance alone nor bundled with agricultural extension reduces food insecurity. • Dietary diversity fell during harvest and lean seasons in the bundled group. • Rigid loan repayment misaligns with agricultural cash flows, limiting program synergies. We study the impact of bundling microfinance with farming extension services on seasonal food security in rural Uganda. Using an experimental design, we monitor seasonal changes through a …
Economics (21 works) · Economic growth (17 works) · Income, Poverty, and Inequality (15 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (14 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Demographic economics (10 works) · Poverty (10 works) · Development economics (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Public economics (7 works)