The authors use the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey to examine the gender dimensions of public works. They use three rounds of a panel conducted in 1994-95 to explore the determinants of participation in, days worked, wages, and earnings from wage labor, food-for-work (FFW), and self-employment. Then they analyze public works data collected in 1997, together with program data collected in 2003. FFW operates in a similar fashion with other labor markets in Ethiopia where female participation is low. Gender differences are important in the participation decision, but operate differently in different types of labor markets. Better-educated women are more likely to participate in the wage labor market, while higher livestock holdings diminish participation more for women. Females with more schooling are also more likely to participate in FFW. Men’s and women’s participation in FFW and self-employment responds differently to household and community shocks. After controlling for selection in which gender plays an important role, gender disadvantages in the wage labor market and FFW are insignificant. Returns to schooling and height are consistently positive in both wage labor and FFW, suggesting returns to human capital investment, even in the low-skill labor markets of rural Ethiopia. Program characteristics significantly affect participation, with differential effects on men and women. Participation, days worked, wages, and earnings vary according to the type of project. Relative to infrastructure projects, water, social services, and other projects decrease participation probabilities. Distance has a strong negative effect on women’s participation relative to men’s.<BR>

Gift

Several ecological, genetic, and environmental factors are known to influence tannin concentration in plant tissues. In this study, the effects of seasonality, water availability, and sex of the plant on tannin concentration in the dioecious shrub Baccharis dracunculifolia were assessed. The effects of water availability on plant shoot growth and its relationship to tannin concentration were also experimentally evaluated. Tannins occurred in B. dracunculifolia from November to May, peaking during the summer (December to March). However, no relationship between tannin concentration, rainfall and temperature was found. No difference in tannin concentration and shoot growth was found between plants in the irrigated and control treatments, this suggesting that tannin production was affected by factors other than water availability, such as light intensity or plant phenology. There was a negative relationship between tannin concentration and shoot growth, possibly due to a trade-off between these metabolic activities. Plant gender did not influence tannin concentration and shoot growth, indicating that B. dracunculifolia did not show a differential resource allocation between male and female individuals.<br>Vários fatores ecológicos, genéticos e ambientais podem influenciar a concentração de taninos em tecidos de uma planta. Neste estudo, os efeitos da sazonalidade, disponibilidade de água e sexo da planta sobre a concentração de taninos no arbusto dióico Baccharis dracunculifolia foram avaliados. Também foram verificados os efeitos da disponibilidade de água sobre o crescimento de ramos da planta e a relação com a concentração de taninos. Os indivíduos de B. dracunculifolia produziram taninos de novembro a maio, apresentando maiores concentrações durante o verão (dezembro a março). Entretanto, não foram encontradas relações entre a concentração de taninos e a precipitação e a temperatura, assim como também não foram observadas diferenças na concentração de taninos e crescimento de ramos entre plantas irrigadas e controle, sugerindo que a produção dessas substâncias seja afetada por outros fatores, como intensidade de luz ou fenologia da planta. Houve relação negativa entre a concentração de taninos e o crescimento de ramos, possivelmente em virtude de um "trade-off' entre estas atividades metabólicas. Não foram observadas diferenças intersexuais na concentração de taninos e crescimento de ramos, indicando que B. dracunculifolia não apresenta distribuição diferencial de recursos entre indivíduos masculinos e femininos.