The paper proposes a technique to jointly tests for groupings of unknown size in the cross sectional dimension of a panel and estimates the parameters of each group, and applies it to identifying convergence clubs in income per-capita. The approach uses the predictive density of the data,...

Since the highest income groups have tremendous influence over economic policy by virtue of money, position, and connection, it is important to identify the interest of these groups with regard to economic conditions. Recently, annual time series data on the shares of the very highest income...

Trade policy reforms in recent decades have sharply reduced the distortions that wereharming agriculture in developing countries, yet global trade in farm products continues to befar more distorted than trade in nonfarm goods. Those distortions reduce some forms ofpoverty and inequality but...

Risk analysis as an effective tool for planning and controlling cost and schedule has not been fully utilized in the construction industry, especially in projects implemented in the developing world. Planning techniques used in developing countries tend to be less sophisticated in prediction of...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the international development of the low cost airline model. The paper examines and seeksto characterize the factors which have encouraged and inhibited the spatial and temporal spread of low cost carriers. A typology oflow cost carriers is developed to...

Master of Arts

When Kodak and other Fortune 500 companies closed their plants in Chamblee,Georgia, it devastated the small city's economy. Chamblee began a process of"asset-based community development," but fell short of identifying itscompetitive advantage. The 1990 Census, however, revealed a unique asset -...

Using an extensive household-level data set collected in Tanzania, this paper investigates the determinants of the technological adoption of rice cultivation and of paddy yield. We especially focus on the impact of credit and training on the adoption of modern technologies. Based on empirical...

Three trade policy changes underway and on the horizon have the prospect to alter global markets for japonica rice. This paper considers likely global market effects of expansion of access into the market in Japan and Korea, and reduced subsidy for japonica rice (among other crops) in the United...

The aim of this study is to contribute to the explanation of consumer behaviour.To do so, it is not sufficient to identify the product characteristics most relevant tothe consumer. Moreover, the reasons why consumers attach meaning to the productattributes have to be found out, whereas the...