Browsing by Subject "Ethiopia"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Essays in Development Economics and Applied Microeconomics
    (2017-12) Cuesta, Ana
    Human capital is gained throughout a person’s life. Most of those human capital investments are made in childhood, because the returns to these investments take time to materialize. There are different activities, conditions, and policies that can either boost or reduce human capital investments. Schooling is a fundamental dimension of human capital formation, and the activities that children perform during their school years yield consequences throughout their adult lives. School-age children residing in poor households in developing countries spend their time not only attending school, studying, and doing homework, but also performing additional activities such as work. The time devoted to work activities might have effects on these children’s learning (negative or positive), and will affect their human capital accumulation. The first two essays of this dissertation (Chapters 2 and 3) study two aspects of children’s acquisition of human capital in Ethiopia. Chapter 2 begins by exploring the effects of child work on academic achievement in Ethiopia. The goal of this chapter is to measure the effects of different types of work on test scores for children aged 8, 12, and 15 years old. Child work should be treated as endogenous in the process of human capital formation, so in Chapter 2, I propose to instrument child work with a set of variables related to sibling composition and household and environmental shocks faced by the child’s household. This analysis is performed using three rounds of data from the Young Lives study for Ethiopia. The Young Lives data are publicly available and well documented. This study has followed two cohorts of children since 2002. Since 2006 (Round 2 of the study), time use data have been collected as part of the survey, including the time spent in a typical day performing different activities that can be classified as domestic work or market work. In addition, the Young Lives study includes very detailed data on child, household, and community characteristics. The results of Chapter 2 show that child work negatively affects vocabulary test scores and that it has no effect on mathematics test scores. Chapter 3 analyzes the urban-rural test score gap in Ethiopia. Currently, more than 80 percent of the population of Ethiopia resides in rural areas, and there is very little rural to urban migration. This chapter is the first study that decomposes this educational gap for Ethiopia. The decomposition of the test score gap follows the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. This method allows one to decompose the test score gap between an explained portion (differences in endowments) and an unexplained portion (differences in coefficients). The main contributors to the explained portion of the test score gap are identified (hours of child work, parental education and socioeconomic status of the household). The chapter also presents some policies that could be implemented to increase the human capital accumulation process of the vast majority of the Ethiopian population that lives in rural areas. The last chapter of this dissertation is quite different from the first two, although it continues to examine social sector policies in developing countries. More specifically, it explores the impact of gaining access to health insurance on different types on investments in Mexico. The program studied in Chapter 4 is Seguro Popular, a large subsidized health insurance program that currently covers more than 55 million persons. The study focuses on the impact of this program on human capital investment decisions. The chapter develops a model of consumption under uncertainty that is used to interpret the empirical results. It distinguishes between household expenditures that are liquid investments, which are useful for insurance purposes, and other, less liquid investments. The main hypothesis of the paper is that, upon obtaining access to public health insurance, households will adjust their investment decisions. This analysis was performed using data from Mexico’s ENIGH household survey from 2008 to 2012 and suggests that there is a statistically significant increase in the allocation of savings to illiquid, high return investments, relative to liquid, low return investments for households that gained access to Seguro Popular compared to uninsured Mexican households.
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    Household Agriculture as a Determinant of Household Food Security and Child Undernutrition in Ethiopia
    (2020-07) Bakhtsiyarava, Maryia
    This work investigates the relationship between household agricultural activities, climatic conditions, household-level food security, and child undernutrition in Ethiopia. Given the rise in the number of people experiencing hunger in recent years, much attention has been directed toward identifying factors and strategies that can help protect people from hunger and undernourishment. This study explores what household agricultural activities are associated with household food security and child nutrition. The analyses rely on household survey data from the Ethiopia Living Standards Measurement Study, gridded data on rainfall, and satellite data on the state of vegetation. Specifically, the study explores transitions in household food security status and child stunting throughout 2011-2015 relative to household agricultural activities and rainfall conditions. This work also considers the role of household cropping and livestock rearing as distinct agricultural activities for household food security and child undernutrition. The results point to a dynamic and complex relationship between household agriculture, food security, and child undernutrition. Overall, household agricultural activities have a bigger impact on household food security compared to child undernutrition. The findings also reveal different associations depending on whether survey years represented a period with normal rainfall conditions or whether there was a drought at the time of at least one survey. A complicated nature of the relationship between the agricultural variables and the outcomes in this study is indicative of the limited role enhanced agricultural activities can play to improve food security and child undernutrition. Efforts aimed at improving food security and nutrition outcomes in Ethiopia and other low-income countries should also address women’s empowerment, disease prevention, and maternal education.
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    Imagining and Navigating the Future: Educational Aspirations and Agency of Economically Disadvantaged Ethiopian Secondary School Students
    (2022-05) Wedajo, Hanna
    In Ethiopia, economically disadvantaged students are not equally represented in the education system, in terms of enrollment and attendance. A high drop out and low completion rates of these groups widen the educational inequalities in the country. The government of Ethiopia has sought to allocate resources to narrow the educational inequality, but the policy framework is not based on the capabilities of students or their ability to utilize resources to move forward to their aspired futures. This dissertation examines how economically disadvantaged secondary school age youth in Ethiopia imagine and pursue their aspired future amidst supporting and constraining conditions. My study also explores how these students exercise their agency towards choosing and pursuing their educational aspirations. I situate the capability to aspire (the degree of freedom the youth have to aspire) and capacity to aspire (the ability to explore the future) within a relational capability theory, where aspirations are imagined with and for others. In this dissertation, I narrate the life history of six secondary school age youth in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, exploring their educational aspirations and their abilities to work towards their aspired futures. The stories reveal that economically disadvantaged youth do have aspirations to improve their overall socio-economic well-being and the well-being of others, ranging from supporting one’s parents and positively contributing to their community. Nonetheless, they might be constrained in their navigational capacity to explore alternative futures without the support of family, teachers, and society, and availability of meaningful opportunities. The youths’ accounts further demonstrate that personal conditions, especially family economic situations, are mainly limiting, and societal support and teachers’ guidance are crucial for economically disadvantaged youth to pursue their desired futures. Therefore, I argue that there is a need to shift the emphasis from equality of resources in the Ethiopian context to equality of capabilities (real opportunities). This includes considering familial and socio-economic conditions influencing students’ education and their educational aspirations. Keywords: capability approach; aspirations; agency; the capability to aspire; the capacity to aspire; narrative inquiry; Ethiopia; Sub-Saharan Africa
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    Knowledge-behavior gap in condom use to prevent HIV infection: a case study of Ethiopian urban youth.
    (2011-06) Shoakena, Blen
    Why are there low levels of condom use in a population that lives in an area with high HIV prevalence and that has knowledge about protective nature of condoms? This incongruity between knowledge of the effectiveness of condoms as a measure to protect from HIV infection and lack of condom use is the issue examined in this thesis. Specifically, a study of Ethiopian youth suggests that the gap between knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP-gap) is present because knowledge of the benefits of a behavior is necessary but not sufficient to elicit behavioral intent. This thesis proposes that condom use self-efficacy is needed to translate knowledge into behavioral intent. A multi-method approach was used by first reviewing published research to determine levels of condom use self-efficacy among Ethiopian youth. Next, a qualitative analysis of 162 Ethiopian print health communication materials was conducted to determine presence of condom use self-efficacy in extant media material. This study found low self-efficacy to be an explanation for the condom use knowledge-behavior gap among urban Ethiopian youth. In addition, health messages available to urban youth in Ethiopia incorporated few self-efficacy messages. The study confirmed that knowledge is not enough to move people to behavior change. For health messages to be effective in increasing condom use behavior among this population, the salient predictors of condom use behavior identified using behavioral theory along with messages that increase condom use self-efficacy need to be incorporated into educational interventions.
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    Matrifocal Retentions in Ethiopian Orthodox Traditions: The Madonna as Ark & Queen Makeda as Prefiguration of Mary; with Egyptian Queen Tiye & Pharaoh Hatshepsut as reference
    (Taylor & Francis' African Identities, 2021-11-16) Spencer, Steffan
    This article examines one of the most fascinating dynamics within the foundation story of Ethiopia’s Royal Solomonic Dynasty, the Kebra Nagast (Glory of Kings), the metaphor that connects Mother Mary with the biblical Ark of the Covenant. Throughout the Kebra Nagast, it is written that just as the Ark served as the vehicle by which the Ten Commandments of the Law were given unto humanity, so too would Mary serve as the perfected and purified vehicle for Christ. The prominence of women such as Mary and Queen Makeda (the Queen of Sheba) in the theology and polity of Ethiopia is indicative of African traditions that have been described as matriarchal, matrilineal, dual-sex and matrifocal. These traditions explain the prominence of Mary and Makeda within Ethiopian Orthodox traditions, as an African matrifocality reaching from the Old to the New Testaments, with Queen Makeda serving as a prefiguration of Mother Mary. This matrifocality is informed by pre-Axumite archeological finds of female statues in northern Ethiopia, and the historical reigns of Egyptian Queen Mother Tiye, and the Lady Pharaoh Hatshepsut. This represents a retention of women-centered African values within Ethiopian Orthodox traditions. Values once prominent and shared throughout the Nile Valley.
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    Oromia Human Rights Abuse Coverage: Cataloging the Coverage of Human Rights Abuses in the Oromia Region
    (2024-05-01) Adema-Jula , Biftu; Dakwa-Agyekum, Oketekyie; Diis, Abdirizak
    Utilizing a literature review, this project catalogs and analyzes the coverage of human rights abuses in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. The Oromia region, like other parts of Ethiopia, has been blighted by ethnically motivated civil conflicts for decades. Our client, the Oromo Legacy Leadership and Advocacy Association, sought to understand any discernible trends in the level of human rights abuse coverage the Oromia region received over the last six years and the nature of that coverage. We tallied the amount of coverage human rights issues in Oromia received from 2018 to 2023 for seven select media organizations and human rights-focused international non-governmental organizations (INGO). We highlighted any discernible trends in the level of coverage the region received from the selected organizations. Additionally, we analyzed the formal human rights abuse reporting prepared by four human rights-focused governmental bodies to identify the amount of coverage focused on human rights abuses received by the region, recurring themes across their reporting, and analyzed the major themes noted for congruence with the prevailing socio-political situation in Ethiopia at the time. To provide some comparative basis from other regions in the country we also completed the steps detailed above for tallying coverage for the Amhara and Tigray regions for the years 2018 and 2020. We also analyzed the reporting on the Amhara and Tigray regions in the formal report reviewed in conjunction with the Oromia region. We found that 2020 represented the peak year of coverage for the Oromia region but only as a by-product of the increased focus on the fledgling conflict in the Tigray region despite the conflict in the Oromia region having been ongoing for years by then. We also found that the onset of the Tigray conflict brought with it an increased level of coverage in the formal human rights reporting that was absent from ongoing conflicts in other regions. We recommend additional research here with an expanded timeline and more defined parameters to analyze the articles and reports published by the media and INGOs for a comprehensive and qualitative analysis.
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    The state of subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia: sources of output growth and agricultural inefficiency.
    (2009-06) Bachewe, Fantu
    Agriculture dominates the Ethiopian economy, accounting for about 50 percent of its GDP and 82 percent of its employment. However, the sector has always performed poorly; about one-half of the rural residents in Ethiopia live below the national poverty line, and the rural population is endowed with few and poorly provided social amenities. Sectoral-level data shows that the farmers in Ethiopia use little modern inputs and output per hectare is low. With rural population increasing at a fast pace, land holdings have been increasingly fragmented. Although fertilizer is the most widely used modern input, application rates are abysmally low, even by Sub-Sahara Africa standards. Use of improved seeds and pesticides is almost nonexistent. Among a group of other comparable countries (Sub-Saharan Africa, developing, the poorest five, and Ethiopia's neighboring countries) the Ethiopian agriculture performed the poorest. If Ethiopian farmers were to achieve the average yield levels reported in these comparable countries it would at least be self-sufficient in cereals production; other scenarios show output could grow substantially. Descriptive and comparative analysis conducted on the agroecologic zones included in 5 out of 6 Ethiopian Rural Household Surveys (ERHS) conducted between 1994 and 2004 shows that crop yields increased marginally while the area under cultivation expanded more rapidly. Moreover different zones tended to specialize in one or two crops. Household data indicates that subsistence farmers suffer from shortage of credit, have little exposure to modern production know-how, and most importantly suffer from shortage of rainfall that frequently turns to drought. In a country with ample water resources and where a large majority the population is engaged in rain-fed agriculture, which has become increasingly risky due to persistent drought, will be key to improving the lives of most Ethiopians. In addition to a descriptive and comparative analysis, this study used panel data from ERHS to statistically analyze the sources of output growth and technical efficiency in subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia. Assessing the sources of increased production, and examining the extent and sources of measured production inefficiencies can reveal options for ameliorating the bleak conditions confronting Ethiopian agriculture. A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) was used to assess the variation in technical efficiency in addition to accounting for the sources of growth in agricultural output. There are indications that most of the increase in output in such subsistence agriculture was attained by increased use of traditional inputs, notably the amount of rainfall, the area and quality of cultivated land, and the numbers of oxen and hoes. By contrast, the rate of fertilizer application contributed the least for increase in output. However, participation in a nationally conceived extension program contributed significantly to output gains. Each agro-ecological zone included in the study gained from Hicks-neutral technological improvements during the study period. The average level of farming efficiency for the surveyed farmers across all the years was 0.4, indicating that most of the farmers were less than one-half as efficient as those producing on the frontier. Farm households' level of farming efficiency is improved by reducing labor bottlenecks and increased education. Households that have diversified risk from plots that are located sufficiently apart appear more efficient.
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    Variegated Work Regimes: A Comparative Analysis Of Chinese Companies In Ethiopia
    (2018-05) Fei, Ding
    The dissertation investigates the variegated work regimes in multiple sectors of Chinese investment in Ethiopia. The bourgeoning literature on Africa-China relations has contributed both policy-level analyses of China’s strategic agenda in Africa and field-based studies on everyday Chinese practices in specific African countries. However, scholars have yet to unpack the nexus of state, firms, and employees that collectively shape the micro-power geometries in Chinese workplaces in Africa. To address this gap, comparative case studies were conducted with three Chinese companies in construction, telecommunication, and auto assembly, respectively, as well as a group of manufacturers in the Chinese Eastern Industrial Zone, to uncover the everyday geographies of Chinese capital and labor engagements in Ethiopia. The dissertation problematizes the stereotypical groupings of Chinese investments into state and private capitals by identifying the complex contractual, competitive, and complementary networks developed among Chinese firms – implied by their varied capacities and constraints – to engage in transnational production. It also examines the promising and challenging elements of employee agency and the effectiveness of government intervention. Rather than presuming a nationality-based management structure in Chinese companies, the dissertation argues that power is articulated along multiple lines of social locations and economic positions, resulting in empowerment and marginalization for both Chinese and Ethiopian employees. It thus adds to the efforts of “situating agency” by explicating how Chinese and Ethiopians navigate multiple circumstances for their own economic and professional benefit through work. By revealing how states, firms, places and individuals are mobilized to pursue diverse and highly flexible globalization trajectories, the dissertation contributes to a comparative-relational understanding of the everyday politics of work-life encounters under shifting global power dynamics of South-South cooperation.