http://hdl.handle.net/10453/35355 2026-05-17T15:29:13Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/194891 Title: Impact of unconditional cash transfers on household livelihood outcomes in Nigeria Authors: Eluwa, TF; Eluwa, GIE; Iorwa, A; Daini, BO; Abdullahi, K; Balogun, M; Yaya, S; Ahinkorah, BO; Lawal, A Abstract: In 2018, Nigeria began the implementation of a cash transfer programme (CCT) for poor and vulnerable people. We evaluated the impact of cash transfer on household livelihood outcomes in Nigeria. Using multistage cluster sampling methodology, beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries within the same locality were randomly selected to participate in a survey to assess the impact of cash transfer on food security and food diversity. When gender, marital status, educational status, and age were controlled, beneficiaries were about three times more likely than non-beneficiaries to report experiencing little or no hunger. Children 0-59 months of beneficiaries were twice likely to have at least three meals a day compared to children of non-beneficiaries. Difference in differences regression analysis showed that on the average, beneficiaries of the cash transfer significantly consumed more diverse food than non-beneficiaries. Beneficiaries of the CCT experienced fewer episodes of severe hunger, have more meal frequency, and higher household dietary diversity than non-beneficiaries. This shows that the CCT programme is effective and can directly mitigate adverse effects of malnutrition with its long-term negative impact on children and thus must be expanded to more vulnerable people across all states in Nigeria. 2025-04-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/193850 Title: The creation of academic spin-offs: University-Business Collaboration matters Authors: Davey, T; Martínez-Martínez, SL; Ventura, R; Galán-Muros, V Abstract: In discussions about Entrepreneurial Universities, it is essential to recognize that academics are at its heart and almost certainly the most important protagonists, particularly those who engage in academic spin-off creation (ASOs). However, understanding their entrepreneurial behavior is still limited, as is the connection to other important activities, such as University-Business Collaboration (UBC). Literature suggests that ASOs creation is conditioned by a great number of factors, but prior studies are limited in their approach and do not include the effect of the participation in other collaborative activities with the industry. This gap is addressed by unlocking spin-off creation from a multidisciplinary approach, integrating both psychological and sociological antecedents, as well as considering the influence of UBC in a much-needed international context. With data from a sample of 2,188 academics from 33 European countries, eleven hypotheses are tested using a structural equation model – The UBC-ASOs Model. Results show the relevance of the three UBC dimensions considered (attitude towards UBC, cultural support for UBC and UBC self-efficacy) for ASOS creation, as well as the effect of the cultural aspect in the psychological domain. Motivations are defined as drivers of UBC, while academics’ social capital enhances their cultural support for UBC but does not influence their attitude towards UBC or their UBC self-efficacy. The central role of UBC reveals the importance of re-thinking academic entrepreneurship research from the broader perspective of collaboration, while having valuable policy and managerial implications and providing key insights on how to develop Entrepreneurial Universities. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/193730 Title: Does place and connection shape attitudes on policy favouring rural areas? Unpacking the rural-urban divide in Australia Authors: Ashton, L; Gauja, A; Halpin, D; Ratcliff, S Abstract: Recent North American and Western European research reports a distinctive rural vs urban dynamic in political behaviour. In this paper, we test the role of geography in the policy attitudes of Australians to items favouring rural areas. Exploiting data from the Australian Cooperative Election Survey, we examine whether populations differ in their policy preferences. We innovate conceptually by deploying an additional measure–rural connection–to tap the relationship that people have with geographical spaces that extend beyond place of residence. While place taps direct relations with geographical location (by living there), connection taps an indirect relationship, arrived at by having once lived or having friends or relatives who live in a rural place. Our analysis shows that existing findings of the role of place broadly hold in the Australian case, as do our new measure of connection. This adds weight to the development of place- and connection-based arguments for policy attitudes. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/193618 Title: The impact of declining rainfall and ocean forcing on morphology and dynamics of an island fresh groundwater lens, South-West Western Australia Authors: Sharifazari, S; McCallum, J; Meredith, K; Johnson, F; Palmer, JG; Turney, CSM; Andersen, MS Abstract: Fresh groundwater lenses are an important natural source of potable water for communities on small oceanic islands but are highly vulnerable to climate variability and long-term trends such as prolonged decadal rainfall decline. This is particularly true of the islands along the coast of Southwest-Western Australia located in the Indian Ocean where substantial rainfall declines are the primary driver of a reduction in the volume of groundwater recharge. On these islands, the impact of these changes is further complicated by seawater mixing associated with sea level fluctuations operating on time scales ranging from hourly to seasonal, interannual, and decadal. The complex interaction between climatic and sea level variability highlights the need for well-constrained density-dependent groundwater models to understand changes to recharge on various timescales to manage groundwater resources. This study focused on Rottnest Island where groundwater age data was combined with water level and salinity measurements to develop a 3D density-dependent groundwater model. The steady state modelling of the fresh groundwater lens suggests a recharge rate of −41 % of the long-term historic annual rainfall, with the winter rainfall important for lens recharge, suppressing the upward movement of the saline transition zone groundwater associated with seasonal sea level fluctuations. A transient simulation reveals a substantial reduction of up to 50 % in the volume of potable groundwater (i.e. in the freshwater lens) in response to the prolonged rainfall decline that started in the late 1960s combined with groundwater abstraction. The sustained regional winter rainfall decline experienced in the Southwest Australia region accounts for most of this reduction when considering transient sea level boundary conditions. The modelling approach used in this study for Rottnest Island offers insights that can be applied to other oceanic islands experiencing changing climatic forcings, particularly in regions where sea level variability plays a significant role. 2025-12-01T00:00:00Z