The labour productivity differentials between manufacturing firms in Ghana and South Korea exceed those implied by macro analysis. Median value-added per employee is nearly 40 times higher in South Korea than Ghana. The most important single factor in explaining this difference is the Mincerian...

In this paper we ask how technological differences in manufacturing across countries can best be modeled when using a standard production function approach. We show that it is important to allow for differences in technology as measured by differences in parameters. Of similar importance are...

Currently, evidence on the ‘resource curse’ yields a conundrum. While there is much crosssection evidence to support the curse hypothesis, time series analyses using vector autoregressive (VAR) models have found that commodity booms raise the growth ofcommodity exporters. This paper adopts...

Much has been written on the determinants of input and technology adoption in agriculture, with issues such as input availability, knowledge and education, risk preferences, profitability, and credit constraints receiving much attention. This paper focuses on a factor that has been less well...

Surprisingly little is known about the impact of resource booms on income inequality in resource rich countries. This paper develops a simple theory, in the context of a two sector growth model in which learning-by-doing drives growth, to explain the time path of inequality following a resource...

Although some recent studies have analysed issues relating to credit in African manufacturing, they have not directly tested for the effect of credit on firm growth. The use of bank credit can affect firm growth in two opposite ways. The effect may be positive if credit allows a firm to address...

This paper reassesses the debate over the role of education in farm production in Bangladesh using a large dataset on rice producing households from 141 villages. Average and stochastic production frontier functions are estimated to ascertain the effect of education on productivity and...

Seminal papers of Solow (1957) and Swan (1956) stimulated debate among economists on the role of technical change in productivity improvements and for that matter economic growth. The consensus is that technological change accounts for a significant proportion of gross national product (GNP)...

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of senior women managers leaving corporate organisations to start their own companies. Women's advancement to senior management roles is facilitated by the acquisition of human capital and social capital. Female ex-corporate managers leverage...

This case examines technological entrepreneurship and human capital in a remote village in southeast India. Sethu Sethunarayanan, director of the nongovernment organization (NGO) Center for Development of Disadvantaged People (CDDP), uses technology to improve the lives of impoverished people,...