As of 2020, 770 million people still lack access to electricity worldwide and 10% of this population is in Nigeria. Nevertheless, the country has received so far little attention in this respect from the academic community. The economic literature also does not generally agree on the impact of...

We compare real wage differences between centralized and peripheral areas and highly centralized and peripheral areas using vast information of German administrative data that contains more than 2.8 Million individuals and 660,000 firms. We provide substantial empirical evidence that most of the...

The ambitious Indian economic goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy can be achieved through a thrust on rural entrepreneurship, among other things. ICTs can make significant contributions in encouraging rural entrepreneurship because they offer better process efficiencies and ease participation...

This paper examines whether workers living in rural areas are more likely to be self-employed, compared with those in urban areas. We provide evidence for 35 European countries, using the European Working Conditions Survey for the year 2015. We also study the time devoted to market work, and...

Rural households in developing countries have limited capacity to cope with and manage shocks, thereby resulting in chronic poverty, indebtedness, and a decline in overall well-being. Therefore, this study analyzes the effects of health shocks on overindebtedness in rural Viet Nam using four...

Most entrepreneurship studies have an urban focus, and it is studied mainly from the perspective of opportunity exploitation. Rural entrepreneurship presents different characteristics, and it requires analysis from a resource-based view since this kind of entrepreneurial behavior takes place in...

This paper employs a hurdle model approach to ask whether the extent of gender bias in education expenditure within rural households in India changed over time from 1995 to 2017-18. Our most striking finding is that there has been a change over time in the way that gender bias is practiced...

Internal migration flows from rural to urban areas have greatly contributed to population declines in many rural areas across both Europe and the US. At the same time there is mounting evidence for a tight connection between internal migration and shifts in labor demand, with the latter being...

Climate variability has become much more obvious as a result of global climate change. Livelihood diversification including crop and income diversification is one of the most remarkable strategies to manage risk and cope with economic and climate shocks in order to improve rural livelihood. We...

This paper contributes to the literature by showing that motherhood penalty does not require the actual arrival of a child. The discrimination against expected fertility is enough to impede young female workers' occupational paths. We exploit the universal two-child policy (UTCP), which allows...

Local Action Groups (LAGs), which is a promising development approach underpinning the participation of all local actors (community-led rural development) as the main pre-condition for generating and sustaining economic development in rural regions, has gained prominence across the world....

This study examines improved biomass cookstove use in the longer run in Ethiopia, using electronically-monitored stove use data collected at five points in time over a period of three-and-a-half years. We explore retention of the stoves and if longer-run use and dis-adoption are impacted by...

Die Sicherstellung der Versorgung in Bezug auf das menschliche Dasein umfasst neben Aufgabenbereichen wie Energie, Wasser oder medizinischer Versorgung zunehmend auch digitale Infrastrukturen und Angebote. Ländliche Räume stehen dabei infolge geringerer Siedlungsdichte und des demografischen...

There is a growing interest in understanding the economic consequences of religious belief. Using unique dataset which surveys thousands of villages, this paper investigates the effect of religious beliefs on rural elderlies’ self-employment in China. The empirical results show that,...

Previous studies on ozone pollution primarily focus on the characterization of ozone on a large regional scale, yet much less attention has been paid towards the contrast between urban and surrounding suburban-rural areas. As anthropogenic emissions are projected to decrease in the coming...

Health systems globally face increasing morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases, yet many - especially in low- and middle-income countries - lack strong chronic disease management in primary health care (PHC). We provide evidence on China’s efforts to promote PHC management using unique...

The term 'recreation county' designates counties that meet certain metrics indicative of regions of high levels of tourism. In rural Oregon, there are seven recreation counties. This article reviews the qualities used to designate these counties as recreation counties, then compares metrics in...

Examining the impact of basic medical insurance integration on households’ welfare is essential for finding policy solutions for health and welfare inequality. Based on the various implementation time of the urban-rural medical insurance integration in different prefectural cities of China, we...

This paper examines the role of search and information frictions on wage dispersion. Job search costs are high in rural labor markets in developing countries. The flow of information on jobs and wages is limited, and wages tend to be dispersed. To lower search costs, I develop an SMS-based...

The aim of the paper is to assess disparities in social development of rural areas in Poland in the context of sustainable development. Social development is a multidimensional process; therefore, it requires a two-stage research procedure. The first stage consists in the analysis of the...

Started as a pilot in 200 of the poorest districts of India in February 2006, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a demand-based public works programme which entitles every rural household in India to 100 days of waged employment. MGNREGA envisages women’s...

Organophosphate esters (OPEs) in the environment have been the focus of increasing attention due to their ubiquity and potential toxicity. However, there is little information on the occurrence and characteristics of OPEs in rural areas, especially those with cold year-round temperatures and...

The municipal solid waste (MSW) generation and disposal are one of the significant environmental problems in both urban and rural communities due to the increasing population especially in developing countries and the lack or absence of a proper waste management service. The present work aims to...

Education plays a significant impact in determining gender roles in society and influencing the socioeconomic and health conditions of a community. Education, as a human right, benefits both men and women and, in the end, equalizes their relationships. Women's access to high-quality education is...

Energy subsidy reform is regarded as a potential instrument to reduce GHG emission across the world. However, the welfare implications of such reform remain largely unknown, especially in the developing countries. This paper investigates the welfare impacts of coal subsidy removal on rural...

Economists have come to understand that human choices are not only driven by self-interest but also “social preferences” – a person’s concern over resources allocated to other people. Moreover, such preferences may be affected by the environment in which such choices are made, especially...

Witch-hunting is the process of finding people who use black magic and bring bad luck to others. When such “witches” are identified, they are often physically punished for their use of black magic. Most of the time, the accused have been women. In many cases, some victims of witch-hunting...

The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the lives and livelihoods of people around the world. The impact of COVID-19 has been especially devastating for low-income families in rural areas of India. Food insecurity became pervasive in rural areas soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced, as...

This work ascertained the socioeconomic effects of COVID-19 pandemic on rural farm families’ well-being and food systems in Imo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to examine farm families’ awareness of COVID-19 pandemic; identify information sources on COVID-19 pandemic, and...

Governmental fiscal transfers can be important tools for redistributing resources and enhancing public services in areas with limited local resources. Meanwhile, politicians can use fiscal transfers to build patronage networks, weaken opposition candidates, or engage in rent-seeking. An...

This study contributes to the current understanding of what drives physicians to practice in rural areas by analyzing new, comprehensive survey data of practicing physicians in the United States. This research confirmed that rural origin is an important and reliable predictor for rural practice...

Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale school meal program in rural China on the health and nutritional status of compulsory education students aged 6-16. We use data from...

We study the effects of sons versus daughters on parental joint time allocation between thelabor market and the household. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Surveyfrom 1989 to 2006, we apply a fixed-effects model to control for cross-household hetero-geneity in son preference. We...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sudden transition from face to face to online teaching and learning practices in various parts of the world. Meanwhile, the level of awareness and adoption of mobile learning (M-learning) by means of smartphones in many rural parts of Africa...

This paper studies the relationship between land revenue systems and the levels of agricultural income inequality in colonial India. The first district-level comparative estimates of agricultural income inequality are introduced using wage/income ratios for 1916. The presence of permanently...

Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale school meal program in rural China on the health and nutritional status of compulsory education students aged 6-16. We use data from...

Property rights are powerful. They fundamentally shape both the physical world and our social relations within it. Property choices impact how land and other resources are used (or conserved) and who has access to those resources (or who is excluded). At the same time, cultural discourses about...