QAT EXPENDITURES IN YEMEN AND DJIBOUTI: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Milanovic, Branko (2007): QAT EXPENDITURES IN YEMEN AND DJIBOUTI: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS.

Abstract

Using household surveys from Yemen and Djibouti, the paper analyzes determinants of qat consumptions in two countries. The results confirm huge importance of qat in daily life: with between one-half (in Djibouti) and 70 percent (in Yemen) of all households reporting at least one user. But in Yemen, qat consumption is remarkably flat across income groups, age, and between rural and urban areas. Qat is a normal good and there is no indication that its use substitutes for food. In Djibouti, however, qat consumption increases with income, and appears to act as a substitute for food consumption. In both countries however there is a strong gender bias in the use: men are much more likely to use qat than women.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: World Bank
• Language: English
• Keywords: qat; Horn of Africa; consumption
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D12 - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I12 - Health Behavior

References

Ainslie, George (1986), “Beyond microeconomics: conflict among interest in multiple self as a determinant of value”, Studies in Rationality and Social Change series Cambridge; New York and Sydney: Cambridge University Press; in collaboration with Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, pp. 133-75.

Ainslie, George (1991), “Derivation of rational economic behavior from hyperbolic discount curves”, American Economic Review, May 1991, vol. 81, No.2, pp. 334-340.

Ainslie, George (1993), “Specious reward: A behavbioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control”, Economics and psychology., vol. 26, pp. 83-116.

Becker, Gary and Kevin M. Murphy (1988), “A Theory of Rational Addiction,” Journal of Political Economy vol. 96 (August 1988): pp. 675-700.

Becker, Gary, M. Grossman and Kevin Murphy (1991), “Rational addiction and the effect of price over time”, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, vol. 81, pp. 237-241.

Chaloupka, Frank, Prabhat Jha, Joy de Beyer and Peter Heller (2004), “The economics of tobacco control”, Briefing notes in economics, December 2004-January 2005.

Cross-Najafi, Rowena (no date), “Djibouti”, Available at http://www.state.gov/www/publications/statemag/statemag_dec98/pomtxt.html

Deaton, Angus (1997), The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconomic Approach to Development Policy, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.:The Johns Hopkins University Press and the World Bank.

Fryer, Roland G., Paul S. Heaton, Steven D. Levitt and Kevin M. Murphy (2005), “Measuring the impact of crack cocaine”, NBER Working paper No. 11316, National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at http://www.nber.org/papers/w11318.pdf.

Gibson, John, Jikun Huang and Scott Rozelle, (2001), “Why is income inequality so low in China compare to other countries? The effect of household survey methods”, Economic Letters, vol. 71 , No. 3, pp. 329-333.

Grossman, Michael, Frank J. Chaloupka, and Charles Brown (1996), “The Demand for Cocaine by Young Adults: a Rational Addiction Approach, NBER Working Paper 5713, August 1996.

Grossman, Michael, Frank J. Chaloupka, and Ismail Sirtalan (1998), “An empirical analysis of alcohol addiction: results from the monitoring the future panels”, Economic Inquiry, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, January.

Herrnstein, R.J. (1991), “Experiments in stable suboptimality in individual behavior”, American Economic Review, May 1991, vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 360-364.

International Monetary Fund (2006), “The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: Selected issues and statistical appendix”, Washington D.C.:IMF.

Jha, Prabhat and Frank Chaloupka, eds. Tobacco Control in. Developing Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000.

Lancaster, John (1997), “A letter from Yemen: chewing the khat: a lumpy dud”, The Washington Post, December 5, 1997.

Mochrie, Robert I. (1996) “Modelling addiction as a special case of sequential choice”, Department of Economics, Harriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, January. Available also on http://www.ssrn.com.

Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo (1997), “Women and substance use: are women less susceptible to addiction?”, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, vol. 87 , May, pp. 454-459.

Pantelis, Christos, Charles C. Hindler, and John C. Taylor (1989), “Use and abuse of khat (Catla edulis): a review of pharmacology, side effects and a description of psychosis attributed to khat chewing”, Psychological Medicine, 1989, vol. 19, pp. 657-668.

Stevenson, Jonathan (1992), “Krazy khat: Somalia’s deadly drug war”, The New Republic, vol. 207, No. 22, November.

Ward, Christopher (2000), “Qat”, Yemen CRD, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Available at http://imagebank.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2005/09/26/000090341_20050926121133/Rendered/PDF/335780YE1Qat.pdf.

World Bank (1997), Djibouti: Crossroads at the Horn of Africa: Poverty Assessment, Report Number 16543-DJI. Washington D.C.: World Bank.

World Bank (2001), “Yemen: country assistance evaluation”, Operations evaluations department, Washington, D.C.: World Bank, January 29, 2001.

World Bank Yemen Office (2001), “Yemen economic update”, Sanaa, Yemen: World Bank, September 2001.

Yitzhaki, Shlomo and J. Lewis (1996), “Guidelines on searching for a Dalton-improving tax reform: An illustration with data from Indonesia”, World Bank Economic Review, vol. 3, No. 3,. pp. 541-562.

Yitzhaki, Shlomo and Joel Slemrod (1991), “Welfare dominance: An application in commodity taxation”, American Economic Review, vol. 81, pp. 480-496.