The small-scale pepper producers in the El Roble settlement Costa Rica face a monopsonistic market. Only one processing firm is buying the fresh pepper bunches. The processor has all bargaining power to decide on the price paid to the farmers and the quality selection criteria. The rejection...

Costa Rica has been successful in attracting high-tech foreign direct investment (FDI). An aggressive FDI-assisted development strategy was pursued by the country in the 1980s as a response to the economic crisis; yet there are serious concerns about the effectiveness of such strategy from a...

This paper presents an analysis of the contribution of some institutional innovations to a more inclusive growth in the coffee and the palm oil sectors. The paper presents an historical approach, considering the concepts of growth and sustainable development, but specially the notion of...

The classic dual economy models of developing countries hold minimum wages (among other institutions) accountable for persistent dualism. They note that applying or enforcing minimum wage laws in only one sector of the economy will create wage differentials which will not be eroded with labor...

This paper investigates the effects of legal minimum wages on wages, employment, hours worked and monthly earnings among workers covered by minimum wage legislation as well as those for whom it does not apply (the uncovered sector) in Costa Rica. This country’s large uncovered sector and...

This paper assesses International Joint Venture (IJV) marketing performance in the Republic of Thailand, as opposed to general business performance. Furthermore, the paper develops an objective measure to assess IJV marketing performance and compares two different types of measures for measuring...

The continuing incidence of gender inequality in education is a significant obstacle to social and human development. One of the collective commitments of the world conference on education for all was aimed at universalizing access and promoting equity. Since then quite a good progress has been...

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has recently published annual estimates of Indigenous labour force status for the period 1994-2000 based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Considerable interest surrounds these for two reasons: · as annual estimates, they offer the possibility of...

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of therequirements of the University of Wolverhamptonfor the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Rationale Population ageing is one of the greatest structural challenges facing the Spanish economy. Foremost among its multiple effects is its contractionary impact on labour supply, which will foreseeably have major implications on both the functioning of the labour market and the potential...