Book Description

This dissertation explores various innovative approaches that can be used in development economics in order to more closely examine economic realities of the developing world. This dissertation provides guidance on how methods not used up to this point can be best used to provide a better understanding of the potential impacts of development projects, and also highlights potential areas of improvement in existing methods and practices of data collection and project evaluation. The first essay examines two major channels of social networks influence on the gender norms of young men and women, using the interviews conducted with members of ten camps in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Inequitable gender norms have been identified as one of the major factors to negatively influence HIV-related behavior, domestic violence, and parenting. There is a need for a better understanding of the factors that contribute to inequitable gender norms, and one potential method to change individual gender norms is through social networks. While there are numerous studies dealing with the social networks influence, there are not many that examine the social networks influence on personal norms. Social network influence is examined using the network autoregressive model that takes into account interdependencies among network members, and the results imply that the gender norms of the network actors are correlated with the gender norms of their alters, indicating a similarity of genders norms among closest network members. When different types of network relationships are pooled, actors' attitudes are not correlated with those of their network contacts. Network actors' and their alters' attitudes are significantly correlated in work and problem-solving relationships. The second essay explores whether and how can spatial econometric methodology be used to examine the spatial spillovers of conditional cash transfers. Conditional cash transfer programs are considered to be one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to support the poor in the developing countries. Many studies have been performed that show positive impact of conditional cash transfer on beneficiaries' consumption, health, education, etc. However, spatial inter-village spillovers of these programs are potential impacts of spillovers are mostly neglected. The results of the analysis indicate that there are spatial spillovers that reinforce the effects of the program, and there are benefits in using spatial econometrics methods as additional tool in the impact evaluation of conditional cash transfers and other programs. Using the experimental setup of the Progresa-Oportunidades program in Mexico, we find evidence of positive effects of program density on junior and senior high school enrollment among the poor beneficiaries in treated villages. The third essay analyses the impact of gender and marriage perceptions on reporting about labor outcomes using a survey conducted in Ghana. When the standard surveys are conducted in developing countries, they mostly rely only on household heads to provide information about all household members. An alternative approach is taken within the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) initiative which attempts to conduct interviews with all household members above a certain age. However, there are only a few empirical studies that attempt to provide a framework for understanding the potential advantages and disadvantages of using self and proxy reporters in developing countries. The impact of different factors on labor reporting is examined using the standard models for corner solutions and ordinary least squares. The results of the estimations provide evidence of the influence of gender and marriage perceptions on labor reporting.