Journal of Development Economics
Volume 116, Pages 1-266 (September 2015)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03043878/115

.
Watchdogs of the Invisible Hand: NGO monitoring and industry equilibrium
Original Research Article
Pages 28-42
Gani Aldashev, Michela Limardi, Thierry Verdier
Abstract
Globalization has been accompanied by rising pressure from advocacy non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on multinational firms to act in socially-responsible manner. We analyze how NGO pressure interacts with industry structure, using a simple model of NGO-firm interaction embedded in an industry environment with endogenous markups and entry. We explain three key empirical patterns in developing-country industries under activist pressure: the degree of exit under more intense activist pressure, the differential response of industries to NGO activism, and the general rise of NGO activism following globalization.
.
All in the family: Explaining the persistence of female genital cutting in West Africa
Original Research Article
Pages 252-265
Marc F. Bellemare, Lindsey Novak, Tara L. Steinmetz
Abstract
Why does female genital cutting (FGC) persist in certain places but has declined elsewhere? We study the persistence of FGC—proxied for by whether survey respondents are in favor of the practice continuing—in West Africa. We use 38 repeated cross-sectional country-year data sets covering 310,613 women aged 15 to 49 in 13 West African countries for the period 1995–2013. The data exhibit sufficient within-household variation to allow controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity between households, which in turn allows determining how much variation is due to factors at the levels of the individual, household, village, and beyond. Our results show that on average, 87% of the variation in FGC persistence can be attributed to household- and individual-level factors, with contributions from those levels of variation ranging from 71% in Nigeria in 2011 to 93% in Burkina Faso in 2006. Our results also suggest that once invariant factors across women aged 15 to 49 in the same household are accounted for, women who report having undergone FGC in West Africa are on average 16 percentage points more likely to be in favor of the practice.