Development strategies designed to enhance food security in developing nations often emphasize increasing agricultural productivity through input subsidies for staple crops. However, this focus can inadvertently reduce crop diversity, concentrating resources on staples and neglecting nutrient-rich traditional varieties, potentially impacting nutrition. Households may compensate by purchasing diverse foods, but this depends on their purchasing power and market access. Additionally, labor market discrimination can lead to long-term socio-economic consequences, such as unemployment, poverty, reduced investment in education, and perpetuating intergenerational poverty.This dissertation delves into three interconnected essays focusing on crop diversity, food security, and labor market discrimination in developing countries, aiming to address critical challenges in these areas.The first essay presents experimental evidence of labor market discrimination among college graduates in Bangladesh, focusing on high school backgrounds (general vs religious), gender, and religious attire. Using data from two consecutive correspondence experiments involving 8,288 fictitious resumes submitted to 1,036 job postings, the study finds significant discrimination against graduates from religious high schools, particularly against males. A second experiment reveals that this discrimination persists even for high-quality resumes, suggesting it is rooted in taste-based bias rather than statistical discrimination. While no significant gender-based discrimination is found overall, females receive more callbacks for low-paying jobs and positions requiring high client interaction. The second essay explores the impact of input subsidies (specifically for fertilizer and seed) on crop diversity on family farms in Burkina Faso. While previous studies investigated either the impact of a fertilizer or a seed subsidy on targeted crops, few examined the effects of both subsidies combined. Using a correlated random-effects model with a control function approach on nationally representative panel data, the study finds that the fertilizer subsidy leads to increased land allocation to targeted crops (rice, maize, cotton) and reduces crop diversity. Focusing on a minor crop with key agronomic and nutritional attributes, we conclude that land allocation to cowpea as the primary crop and intercrop declined with the fertilizer subsidy. However, the cowpea seed subsidy offsets this bias, enhancing diversity by promoting the cultivation of traditional micronutrient-rich crops like cowpea. The third essay investigates the relative contributions of on-farm production diversity and commercialization of crops and livestock on food security among farm households in Mali. Employing a Conditional Mixed Process (CMP) with Instrumental Variables (IV) approach on the 2017 Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) General Household Survey data, the study finds that on-farm crops diversity has a statistically significant positive impact on food security. However, we do not observe a strong association between livestock diversity and crop or livestock commercialization with food security. Rather, livestock sales have a negative association with food security, suggesting that livestock sales may be driven by distress rather than strategic decision-making. Enhancing on-farm production diversity appears to be a more effective strategy for improving food security in farm households.These essays provide valuable insights into critical economic issues, offering guidance for policymaking and development strategies in developing economies.
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