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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

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researcher spotlight

Samuel Benin

Samuel Benin is the Acting Director for Africa in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. He conducts research on national strategies and public investment for accelerating food systems transformation in Africa and provides analytical support to the African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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Manuel Hernandez

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Manuel Hernandez is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit of IFPRI. He has more than 20 years of experience in diverse projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia on development issues related to agricultural and labor markets, food security and nutrition, industrial organization and regulation, price analysis, and the informal economy. His current line of research focuses on impact evaluation linked to rural development and food security projects, migration, functioning of oligopoly markets and value chains, and price volatility. He received his PhD in Economics from Texas A&M University and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universidad del Pacifico, Lima.

Languages spoken: English, Spanish

Publications

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Google Scholar Profile

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Publications

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Working Paper

Corporate taxes and labor market informality evidence from China

2024Deng, Guoying; Du, Pengcheng; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Xu, Shu
Details

Corporate taxes and labor market informality evidence from China

This paper examines the association between corporate income taxes and labor market informality. We present a theoretical framework showing that a higher tax enforcement can push firms to pass on the burden to workers by reducing their social security compliance as well as downsizing and lowering wages. The model propositions are tested using a regression discontinuity design that exploits a national corporate tax reform in China. We find that for every one percentage point increase in the effective tax rate, firms reduce their probability of making basic social security contributions by 0.8%, their compliance rate by 1.4 percentage points, and the probability of making supplementary contributions by 0.6%, while the number of workers and wages fall by 4.4% and 0.7%, respectively. We observe that the effects are more salient among firms privately owned and controlled, large businesses, and in locations where social security contributions are directly collected by the social security administration. The findings suggest that workers not only bear part of the higher corporate taxes faced by firms, but an increase in firms’ tax burden contributes to social security evasion and informality in labor markets. JEL Codes: H32, H55, J30, J23, H25

Year published

2024

Authors

Deng, Guoying; Du, Pengcheng; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Xu, Shu

Citation

Deng, Guoying; Du, Pengcheng; Hernandez, Manuel A.; and Xu, Shu. 2024. Corporate taxes and labor market informality evidence from China. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2244. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140480

Country/Region

China

Keywords

Asia; Eastern Asia; Taxes; Labour Market; Social Security; Remuneration

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Journal Article

COVID-19 and extreme weather: Impacts on food security and migration attitudes in the rural area of Guatemala

2024Ceballos, Francisco; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Paz, Cynthia
Details

COVID-19 and extreme weather: Impacts on food security and migration attitudes in the rural area of Guatemala

This paper examines the continuing effects of COVID-19 and exposure to weather extremes on income, dietary, and migration outcomes in the rural area of Guatemala. We rely on a comprehensive longitudinal survey of 1,612 smallholder farmers collected over three survey rounds in 2019, 2020, and 2021. We find improvements in incomes, food security, dietary diversity, and animal source foods (ASF) consumption in 2021 relative to 2020, but with levels still below pre-pandemic ones in 2019. We also find a substantial increase in the intention to emigrate that was not observed in the onset of the pandemic. In terms of the channels mediating the variations in dietary diversity and migration intentions, income shocks seem to have played a role, in contrast to direct exposure to the virus, local mobility restrictions, and food market disruptions. Importantly, households exposed to ETA and IOTA tropical storms, in addition to COVID-19, were considerably more prone to exhibit larger increases in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecure episodes and larger decreases in their diet quality and ASF consumption. The study provides novel evidence on vulnerable households’ wellbeing in the aftermath of a global crisis, including the effects of compound shocks.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ceballos, Francisco; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Paz, Cynthia

Citation

Ceballos, Francisco; Hernandez, Manuel A.; and Paz, Cynthia. 2024. COVID-19 and extreme weather: Impacts on food security and migration attitudes in the rural area of Guatemala. World Development 173(2024): 106422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106422

Country/Region

Guatemala

Keywords

Latin America; Covid-19; Food Security; Extreme Weather Events; Households; Income; Diet; Migration; Rural Areas; Shock

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106422 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Brief

Feed the Future Guatemala Value Chains Project: Summary of impact evaluation study

2023Hernandez, Manuel A.; Ceballos, Francisco; Paz, Cynthia; Espinoza, Alvaro
Details

Feed the Future Guatemala Value Chains Project: Summary of impact evaluation study

Guatemala experiences high and continued chronic malnutrition and poverty rates, with a particular concentration around predominantly rural and indigenous areas in the Western Highlands. Agricultural development is similarly low in the region, with farmers generally cultivating small landholdings, showing low agricultural productivity, and having limited ability for capital investment and an overall lack of market opportunities, combined with a relatively weak government support. This brief presents the main findings of the impact evaluation of USAID’s Feed the Future (FTF) Guatemala Value Chains Project that aimed to increase agricultural incomes, strengthen resilience, and improve nutritional outcomes of small farmers and their families in the Western Highlands of the country. The Project was created in 2017, building on the successes and lessons learned from the previous five years of implementation of the FTF Initiative in Guatemala, and relying on four expected results: improving agricultural productivity and diversifying income generation alternatives; expanding access to markets; increasing resilience through implementation of climate-smart and nutrition sensitive agriculture; and strengthening the agriculture and food security enabling environment.

Year published

2023

Authors

Hernandez, Manuel A.; Ceballos, Francisco; Paz, Cynthia; Espinoza, Alvaro

Citation

Hernandez, Manuel A.; Ceballos, Francisco; Paz, Cynthia; and Espinoza, Alvaro. 2023. Feed the Future Guatemala Value Chains Project: Summary of impact evaluation study. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137042

Country/Region

Guatemala

Keywords

Latin America; Central America; Northern America; Investment; Farmers; Malnutrition; Markets; Agricultural Development; Food Security; Poverty; Rural Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137042 Source record

Record type

Brief

Blogs

Forced migration: Policy responses to improve outcomes
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 20, 2023

Forced migration: Policy responses to improve outcomes

By Manuel Hernandez

Exploring the significance of World Refugee Day and the complex dynamics of global migration.

No end in sight yet for the global food price crisis
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 27, 2022

No end in sight yet for the global food price crisis

By Joseph Glauber, Manuel Hernández, David Laborde, Will Martin, Brendan Rice, and Rob Vos

Continuing fallout from the the Russia-Ukraine war.

COVID-19 and rising global food prices: What’s really happening?
IFPRI Blog
 | 
February 11, 2022

COVID-19 and rising global food prices: What’s really happening?

By Rob Vos, Joseph Glauber, Manuel Hernández, and David Laborde

Inflation poses particular risks for the poor and vulnerable.

Events

Improving Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition in Nigeria: Policies and Actions
Series/Special Event

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July 25, 2024, 10:00 – 1:30 pm

Improving Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition in Nigeria: Policies and Actions

Despite significant progress in addressing hunger and undernutrition in the early 2000s, malnutrition, in all its forms, remains a major challenge in all regions of the world.  Unhealthy diets remain the primary drivers of many forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, overweight and obesity, micronutrient deficiencies, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases.  Today, the number of people who […]

Informe de políticas alimentarias mundiales 2023: Repensar las respuestas a las crisis alimentarias
Series/Special Event

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June 21, 2023, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Informe de políticas alimentarias mundiales 2023: Repensar las respuestas a las crisis alimentarias

Virtual Event: June 21, 2023 – 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM EDT. We invite you to join us at the virtual launch event for LAC, where speakers will shed light on the significant findings of the 2023 report from a regional perspective.

2023 Global Food Policy Report: Rethinking Food Crisis Responses
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

April 13, 2023, 9:00 – 10:30 am

2023 Global Food Policy Report: Rethinking Food Crisis Responses

Hybrid Event: April 11, 2023 – 9:00 AM- 10:30 AM EDT. Join us for the launch of IFPRI’s 2023 Global Food Policy Report, which explores evidence-based policy and governance solutions that can provide better early warning and rapid response and increase resilience of food systems.

Research

Projects

Topics/Countries

Awards

  • 2014 Wageningen Social Sciences Publication Award for “Do energy prices stimulate food price volatility? Examining volatility transmission between US oil, ethanol and corn markets,” coauthored with Cornelis Gardebroek.
  • Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, Department of Economics, Texas A&M University, 2008.
  • Maurice Fellowship, Excellence in Graduate Studies, Texas A&M University, Summer 2008.
  • Fulbright Scholarship for graduate studies 2004 – 2006, Lima, Peru