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This paper analyzes the socioeconomic, fiscal, and governance impact of gold mining in Mali. The analysis finds that, at the national level, mining plays an important role by contributing to export earnings and overall government fiscal revenue. In 2013, the mining sector represented 7 percent of gross domestic product, contributed 1.5 percent to growth in total gross domestic product, and accounted for 65 percent of total export earnings and 25 percent of total government budget revenues. At the local level, despite higher population growth, there is some evidence that outcomes (poverty and infrastructure services) are marginally better in mining communes compared with non-mining communes. Local governments receive fiscal windfalls that are spent significantly on education capital expenditures and current expenditures (salaries and non-salaries). Non-salary current expenditures are 10 times higher in mining areas. Analysis of the political economy of public service provision at the local level suggests that technical or absorptive capacities may be the bottleneck to increasing the local benefit of mining instead of corruption or accountability.

Debt markets --- Finance and financial sector development --- Governance --- Local impact --- Macroeconomics and economic growth --- Natural resources --- Sanitation and sewerage --- Wastewater treatment --- Water supply and sanitation --- Welfare

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Current measures of fiscal impoverishment and gains are not consistent with the law of diminishing returns. This paper proposes new measures of fiscal impoverishment and gains that are consistent with the law of diminishing returns, based on a methodology that gives more significance to greater income gaps, and more importance to the experience of the poorest individuals within the fiscal system. The new indicators are decomposable and cover the incidence, intensity, and severity of fiscal impoverishment and gains. An empirical illustration using the 2014 household consumption data reveals that, overall, in Niger the fiscal system is improving the welfare of the population: only 33.2 percent of the population has become poorer due to the fiscal system, while the remaining 66.8 percent has become richer because of it. Moreover, the mean relative fiscal loss (0.014), is 11 percent lower than the mean relative fiscal gain (0.126).

Diminishing Returns --- Economic Adjustment and Lending --- Education for All --- Educational Populations --- Fiscal Gains --- Fiscal Impoverishment --- Fiscal Losses --- Food Security --- Gender --- Gender and Development --- Inequality --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Poverty Reduction --- Welfare

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Social protection programs, common in developing countries, can be wide ranging. Expenditures on social schemes are large, but their effectiveness and ability to act as safety nets against shocks can be limited. This paper devises a tractable empirical framework to explore several hypotheses in social protection schemes in Niger. The analyses document two important results. First, non-poverty status and household consumption expenditures decline remarkably when exposed to extreme shocks, that is, declines between 31 and 48 percentage points and 24,278 and 47,549 CFA, respectively. In response, affected households employ a vector of strategies to deal with realized shocks, ranging from the use of livestock holdings to doing nothing. There is evidence of substitution across the shock-strategy set over time. Engaging in migration as a coping mechanism leads to worse household outcomes. This result can be explained by theories of asymmetric information between migrants and their families, and unfavorable labor market conditions at migrants' destination. Second, social transfers are crucial only in the second quarter of the calendar year. Social assistance provided within the second quarter appear to be effective on average and significantly dampens the impact of shocks on households' consumption and vulnerability. The paper interprets this finding as evidence against the long-standing incentive-hypothesis that providing social assistance is a disincentive for households to engage in possible coping strategies, and makes them more sensitive to external shocks for behavioral reasons. The results have important implications for the design and delivery of social assistance programs.

Access of Poor to Social Services --- Disability --- Economic Assistance --- Gender --- Gender and Development --- Household Consumption --- Incentives --- Inequality --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction --- Services and Transfers to Poor --- Shocks and Vulnerability --- Social Interventions --- Social Protections and Assistance --- Social Protections and Labor

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This paper documents some of the first estimates of the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on food security in a low- and middle-income country context. It combines nationally representative pre- pandemic household survey data with follow-up phone survey data from Mali and exploits sub- national variation in the intensity of pandemic-related disruptions between urban and rural areas. These disruptions stem from both government policies aiming to slow the spread of the virus and also individual behavior motivated by fear of contracting the virus. The paper finds evidence of increasing food insecurity in Mali associated with the pandemic. Difference-in-difference estimates show that moderate food insecurity increased by about 8 percentage points - a 33 percent increase - in urban areas compared with rural areas in Mali. The estimates are substantially larger than existing predictions of the average effect of the pandemic on food security globally and therefore highlights the critical importance of understanding effect heterogeneity.

Coronavirus --- COVID-19 --- Disease Control and Prevention --- Food Security --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Inequality --- Pandemic Impact --- Poverty --- Poverty and Health --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural Urban Linkages --- Urban Development

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Developing countries: economic development problems --- Mining industry --- natuurlijke grondstoffen --- Africa