The paper develops a composite index of GMO standards restrictiveness for 60 countries, assigning objective scores to six different regulatory dimensions. Using this index and its components, we empirically investigate the political and economic detfirminants of GMO regulations. Results show...

This paper provides evidence on private standards on genetically modified (GM) organisms for 44 retailers operating in 54 countries, distinguishing between retailers not using GM ingredients, and retailers using ingredients which are potentially GM in private label products. Using this...

The paper develops a composite index of GMO standards restrictiveness for 60 countries, assigning objective scores to six different regulatory dimensions. Using this index and its components, we empirically investigate the political and economic determinants of GMO regulations. Results show that...

The paper analyses the impact of agricultural technologies on the four pillars of food security for maize farmers in Tanzania. Relying on matching techniques, we use a nationally representative dataset collected over the period 2010/2011 to estimate the causal effects of using improved seeds and...

This paper provides microeconomic evidence on food security impacts of privately organized biofuel outgrower schemes in Ethiopia. We conducted a household and community level survey and evaluated the impact of castor bean firming. We use endogenous switching regressions to analyze the impact on...

Thirty years ago, a vast share of the poor and middle income countries were heavily state-controlled. The effects of the liberalizations in the 1980s and 1990s differed strongly between regions in Africa, Asia and Europe. This paper first documents these differences in refirm effects in a...

There is a vigorous debate on the liberalization of heavily regulated agricultural markets in India. A crucial institutional characteristic is the role of state regulated brokers in wholesale markets. Relying on data from a unique survey in Uttarakhand, a state in North-India, we find that...

Food quality has become an important detfirminant of success in global food trade and growers for international markets have to continuously adjust to buyers' requirements. It is however not clear to what extent there is a demand for food quality - and how much buyers are willing to pay for it -...

Value chain development (VCD) has become a popular policy instrument to help farmers in developing countries access markets. While VCD initiated by the private sector has received much attention in the literature, there is yet little research on public-led VCD. This paper pro-vides a...

This paper reviews the situation in the agricultural sector and food security in Cuba and in particular the transformations that have (not) taken place since 1990. We compare the Cuban transition with transitions in other "transition countries" and show that Cuba does not fit easily in one of...