Is the Glass Half Empty Or Half Full?: Issues in Managing Water Challenges and Policy Instruments

Kochhar, Kalpana; Pattillo, Catherine; Sun, Yan; Suphaphiphat, Nujin; Swiston, Andrew J; Tchaidze, Robert; Clements, Benedict; Fabrizio, Stefania; Flamini, Valentina; Redifer, Laure; Finger, Harald

doi:10.5089/9781484391198.006

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Among its manifold privatization conditionalities, water privatization has been imposed by the IMF in developing countries (43). Against the backdrop of previous research, our findings suggest that the more educatedwho tend to also have higher socioeconomic status-stand out as the principal beneficiaries of this measure.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Impact of International Monetary Fund programs on child health

Daoud

Nosrati

Reinsberg

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Parental education is located at the center of global efforts to improve child health. In a developing-country context, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays a crucial role in determining how governments allocate scarce resources to education and public health interventions. Under reforms mandated by IMF structural adjustment programs, it may become harder for parents to reap the benefits of their education due to wage contraction, welfare retrenchment, and generalized social insecurity. This study assesses how the protective effect of education changes under IMF programs, and thus how parents' ability to guard their children's health is affected by structural adjustment. We combine cross-sectional stratified data (countries, 67; children, 1,941,734) from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. The sample represents ∼2.8 billion (about 50%) of the world's population in year 2000. Based on multilevel models, our findings reveal that programs reduce the protective effect of parental education on child health, especially in rural areas. For instance, in the absence of IMF programs, living in an household with educated parents reduces the odds of child malnourishment by 38% [odds ratio (OR), 0.62; 95% CI, 0.66-0.58]; in the presence of programs, this drops to 21% (OR, 0.79; 95% CI,. In other words, the presence of IMF conditionality decreases the protective effect of parents' education on child malnourishment by no less than 17%. We observe similar adverse effects in sanitation, shelter, and health care access (including immunization), but a beneficial effect in countering water deprivation.International Monetary Fund | education | child health | development | structural adjustment

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Impact of International Monetary Fund programs on child health

Daoud

Nosrati

Reinsberg

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…For example, Kochhar et al [14] estimate that the quantity of drinking water subsidies worldwide for the year 2012 accounted for an estimated value of 456 trillion dollars-this represents 0.6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) worldwide. Furthermore, the increase of water subsidies in vulnerable sectors, such as low-income households, contributes to reductions in poverty and improves well-being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The few studies on water distribution among households show that access to water is, in general, unequal when comparing its distribution among different groups of society [14]. As with other natural resources-such as soil, woodlands and so forth-water distribution is not equitable among different segments of the population and it is envisaged that water scarcity and inequality will rise in the future [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies concentrate on examining the magnitude of the subsidy [33], comparing its efficiency in the form of social fees [29,34], verifying its impact on the number of connections [30,35] and measuring its impact in water consumption, which in general ends up being inequitable when comparing its distribution among different groups of society [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inequality in Access to Drinking Water and Subsidies between Low and High Income Households in Mexico City

Morales-Novelo

Rodríguez-Tapia

Revollo-Fernández

2018

Water

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Economic and population growth in Mexico City (CDMX) is the main cause of an increase in water demand against a naturally limited endowment, which increases the gap between water demand and supply. In a water scarcity environment, households are facing pressure to maintain their involvement in the city's only operating body, the Water System of Mexico City (SACMEX) total supply. The objective of this work is to measure the inequality in the distribution of drinking water and water subsidies between households connected to the public network of CDMX in order to generate objective indicators of the phenomenon. Having such information provides a baseline scenario of the problem and allows for the delineation of a policy covering the minimum levels of well-being in the supply of drinking water that is appropriate for the most important city in the country. The method consists of measuring inequality through continuous variables estimating the Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient, the targeting coefficient and elasticity in water consumption and in water subsidies among households in CDMX. Data comes from a household survey carried out in 2011, Consumption Habits, Service and Quality of Water by Household in Mexico City (EHCSCA). Results show that drinking water and subsidies present a regressive distribution, benefit high-income households and, to a lesser degree, the poorest households in the city and highlight the urgency and importance for SACMEX to redefine its policy on water distribution, fees and subsidies. The present study's scope can contribute to the monitoring of the distribution of drinking water and of subsidies among household groups. The study justifies that the indicators employed in this work can be used and are recommended as a valuable tool in water management, especially in a dynamic environment.

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“…sin embargo, la magnitud de los subsidios que se otorgan a los usuarios de servicios públicos puede representar un costo de oportunidad para el gasto público del estado y para los costos de operación y mantenimiento de las empresas que prestan los servicios de agua. Por ejemplo, Kochhar et al (2015) estiman que la cantidad de subsidios al agua potable a nivel mundial para el año 2012 implicaba un valor aproximado de 456 billones de dólares, esto es, 0.6 por ciento del producto interno bruto mundial (pib). Por otra parte, aumentar el acceso al agua de sectores vulnerables, como los hogares con bajos ingresos, contribuye a la reducción de la pobreza y la mejora de su bienestar.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified