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With research staff from more than 70 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

David Spielman

David Spielman is the director of IFPRI’s Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit and has been with the institute since 2004. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agriculture and rural development policy; agricultural science, technology, and innovation; plant genetic resources and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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IFPRI currently has more than 480 employees working in over 70 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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partnerships

The Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development is a joint institute of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Vrije University (VU). It serves three core functions: a platform for researchers to catalyze scientific excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and policy development within and across various faculties of the two Amsterdam universities; a hub for education – at bachelors, masters and PhD level – across various faculties of the two Amsterdam universities; and a support facility aimed at integrated management of research and education projects within low- and middle-income countries focused on global health and development.

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Publications

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Journal Article

Health insurance, a friend in need? Impacts of formal insurance and crowding out of informal insurance

2018Geng, Xin; Janssens, Wendy; Kramer, Berber; van der List, Marijn
Details

Health insurance, a friend in need? Impacts of formal insurance and crowding out of informal insurance

Health insurance can improve health-seeking behaviors and protect consumption from health shocks but may also crowd out informal insurance. This paper therefore examines whether impacts of health insurance depend on households’ access to informal insurance, as proxied for by mobile money usage. Based on high-frequency financial diaries data collected in rural Kenya, we find that households with weaker access to informal insurance cope with uninsured health shocks by lowering subsequent non-health expenditures by approximately 25 percent. These same households are able to smooth consumption when health shocks are insured, due to lower out-of-pocket health expenditures. In contrast, households with access to informal insurance are able to smooth consumption even in the absence of formal health insurance. For this latter group, health insurance increases healthcare utilization at formal clinics and does not crowd out gifts and remittances during weeks with health shocks. These findings provide guidance for insurance schemes aiming to target the most vulnerable populations.

Year published

2018

Authors

Geng, Xin; Janssens, Wendy; Kramer, Berber; van der List, Marijn

Citation

Geng, Xin; Janssens, Wendy; Kramer, Berber; and van der List, Marijn. 2018. Health insurance, a friend in need? Impacts of formal insurance and crowding out of informal insurance. World Development 111(November 2018): 196-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.07.004

Keywords

Insurance; Informal Sector; Rural Population; Low Income Groups; Health Insurance; Shock; Household Expenditure; Capacity Development; Health Care

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.07.004 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

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Brochure

A4NH flagship 1: Food systems for healthier diets

2017International Food Policy Research Institute
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A4NH flagship 1: Food systems for healthier diets

Governments, businesses, and civil society groups increasingly realize the important need of supporting food systems to produce and supply diverse, nutritious, and safe foods for healthy lives. Flagship 1 responds to concerns about global diet trends and demands from countries on how to transform sustainable and systemic food system transformations for healthier diets to address unabated problems of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition. This flagship takes a holistic perspective of food systems, including production, distribution, waste disposal, and food consumption. The systems approach aims to understand the interactions between differ-ent parts and act upon how together they are effecting change, rather than improving specific components in isolation. This is necessary because a food system is multidimensional. It includes sociocultural, economic, environmental, and political aspects, with many actors (food producers, food-chain actors, and consumers) managing multiple, linked agri-food value chains within dynamic food environments.

Year published

2017

Authors

International Food Policy Research Institute

Citation

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 2017. A4NH flagship 1: Food systems for healthier diets. A4NH Note 1. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146223

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Vietnam; Nigeria; Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Southern Asia; Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Asia; South-eastern Asia; Deficiency Diseases; Waste Disposal; Production; Environmental Factors; Health; Consumption; Economic Behaviour; Agriculture; Nutrition; Trace Elements; Systems; Food Consumption; Distributaries; Food Systems

Language

English

Source

Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Brochure

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Working Paper

Liquid milk: Cash constraints and day-to-day intertemporal choice in financial diaries

2017Geng, Xin; Janssens, Wendy; Kramer, Berber
Details

Liquid milk: Cash constraints and day-to-day intertemporal choice in financial diaries

This paper analyzes implications of cash constraints for collective marketing, using the case of the Kenyan dairy sector. Collective marketing, for instance through cooperatives, can improve smallholder farmer income but relies on informal, nonenforceable agreements to sell outputs collectively. Side selling of output in the local market occurs frequently and is typically attributed to price differences between the market and cooperative. This paper provides an alternative explanation, namely that farmers sell in the local market when they are cash constrained because cooperatives defer payments while buyers in local markets pay cash immediately. Building on semiparametric estimation techniques for panel data, we find robust evidence of this theory. High-frequency, high-detail panel data show that farmers sell more in the local market, in particular to buyers who pay cash immediately, in weeks when they have low cash on hand. Moreover, households cope with health shocks by selling more milk in the local market and less to the cooperative, but only in weeks when they are not covered by health insurance. Increased flexibility in payment and the provision of insurance through agricultural cooperatives can potentially reduce side selling and improve the performance of collective marketing arrangements.

Year published

2017

Authors

Geng, Xin; Janssens, Wendy; Kramer, Berber

Citation

Geng, Xin; Janssens, Wendy;and Kramer, Berber. 2017. Liquid milk: Cash constraints and day-to-day intertemporal choice in financial diaries. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1602. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147965

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Dairy Cooperatives; Approximation; Economic Development; Liquidity; Households; Smallholders; Marketing; Agricultural Cooperatives; Finance; Dairy Industry

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper