While economies of scope of lending and mobilizing deposits in banking are justified theoretically (Diamond, 1984) and found empirically (see Saunders, 1999), in microfinance, the existence and the magnitudes of scope economies has not been investigated. We use a semi parametric smooth...

This paper evaluates the long-term impact of microfinance credit from the intensity of participation in borrowing. We use a four-round panel data set on 351 farm households that had access to microfinance in northern Ethiopia. Over the years 1997-2006, with three-year intervals, households are...

Contributed Paper prepared for presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists’ 2009 Conference, Beijing, China, August 16-22, 2009.

Using a survey data of 700 traders, this study scrutinizes contract choices and enforcement for agricultural traders in China. This study finds that market service and environment are very important for both contract choices and enforcement. Better market service and environment can increase the...

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/24/09.

The liberalization and restructuring of the seed sector in eastern and southern Africa (ESA) during the past two decades have witnessed a proliferation of private seed companies in the maize seed industry (Hassan et al., 2001; Lemonius, 2005). Although the total number of registered maize seed...

This paper uses a uniquely rich project-level dataset to analyze determinants and trends of FDI flows to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. We control for the source of the investment, the sector in which the investment is undertaken, and the investment type in addition to...

We assess long-run patterns of global agricultural productivity growth in developing countries between 1970 and 2005 and examine the relationship between investments in technology capital and productivity. To measure agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) we employ a Solow-type growth...