The Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) entered its second phase of implementation in 2008. The creation of a free trade area is expected to affect its participants—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—very differently given their diversity in...

"Trade liberalization is expected to act positively on world economic development and poverty alleviation, both of which have become high priorities of the international community. This emphasis explains why numerous studies have focused on assessing the expected benefits of trade liberalization...

There is rising skepticism about the potential positive environmental impacts of first generation biofuels. Growing biofuel crops could induce diversion of other crops dedicated to food and feed needs. The relocation of production could increase deforestation and bring significant new volumes of...

South Africa's high involuntary unemployment and small informal sector are attributed to an underperforming formal sector and barriers to entry in the informal sector. This paper examines the economywide linkages between the formal and informal economies while accounting for different types of...

From chronic shortages of milk, India has emerged today as the largest producer of milk in the world crossing 80 million tonnes. This has been achieved largely through a smallholder economy in which "Operation Flood", one of the world's largest dairy development programmes, played an important...

"This paper is a description and an analysis of trade liberalization under CAFTA. It shows that in the short run the impact of the agreement is likely to be small... Since the U.S. already grants tariff-free access under the CBI, trade liberalization in the CAFTA treaty appears to be asymmetric,...

The paper describes the spectacular growth of rice exports from Viet Nam during the period 1989 to 1997. From a situation of food shortages, the country is now the second largest rice exporter after Thailand. Export projections indicate that there is potential for further export growth in all...

"This paper accomplishes two objectives. First, it provides simulation results from a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that have helped focus the debate about the potential effects of agricultural trade liberalization on developing countries. The aggregate numbers show modest net...

"La comunidad mundial y las instituciones internacionales han dado una alta prioridad al desarrollo y el alivio de la pobreza. Los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio, establecidos por Naciones Unidas para el 2015, hacen un llamado para reducir en un 50% el número de personas que viven con...