Due to both deepening economic crises and pressure from external lenders, Costa Rica and El Salvador implemented trade and market liberalization reforms in the 1980s. This study explores whether these policy changes shifted production toward each country’s presumed comparative advantage in...

This paper applies the sequential Malmquist index to calculate multi-lateral, multi-factor productivity (MFP) indices for agriculture in 16 regions of Bangladesh from 1964 to 1992 and examines convergence amongst regions. Productivity grew at an average rate of 0.9% per annum, led by regions...

This paper takes a holistic look at the media sector and establishes that press freedom along with reach reduces political instability. Greater reach of media furthers the cause of a free press. It generates an informed populace and increases government responsiveness. The hypothesis is...

Following Solow's (2001) recent advice, this paper takes productivity as the left-hand-side variable and offers a cross-country analysis of its determinants. The analysis follows the two-stage methodology, the first of which is devoted to obtaining productivity estimates, and the second stage is...

The widespread acknowledgement of the centrality of micro and small businesses in the development process has led to a proliferation of projects and programs designed to assist and promote these businesses. This research examines the common assumption that access to credit from formal financial...

Recent literature has debated possible adverse impacts of aid volatility on a country's economic performance. Our paper adds to this literature in three ways: First it tests the validity of the aid volatility and growth relationship from various aspects: across time horizons, by sources of aid,...

This paper reviews new growth theories (NGT) from the perspective of developing countries. It shows that despite some views to the contrary, NGT and the growth debate that it spawned have some useful lessons for developing countries. Some of these lessons and ideas were indeed available from...

This paper presents the economic development of Guyana, from several novel analytic technical perspectives. The development spans three dominant regimes in Guyana, starting just before its independence from Great Britain in 1966. The country has moved from a colonial type of development strategy...

In this paper we attempt to analyze the impact of an integrated microcredit program on the empowerment of women in rural Vietnam. We conduct a longitudinal study in 2008 and 2012 on a sample of 50 microcredit recipients. The finding indicates the importance of the empowerment components in the...

In this paper, two approaches (labor efficiency and separate factors approach) and two production functions ( a ray-homothetic function and the Cobb-Douglas function), are used to estimate the productivity of female versus male farm laborers in the traditional agricultural economy of Nepal. The...