This paper examines investment and livelihood decisions among forest peasant households in the Amazonian floodplain. A dynamic household model of multiple asset accumulation and activity choice under risk and credit constraints is developed by incorporating natural resource use and human capital...

This article examines the role of ex post labor supply in smoothing income in response to crop losses caused by large floods among riverine households in the Peruvian Amazon, where rich environmental endowments permit a variety of resource extractive activities and coping responses. The paper...

This article examines the role of ex post labor supply in smoothing income in response to crop losses caused by large floods among riverine households in the Peruvian Amazon, where rich environmental endowments permit a variety of resource extractive activities and coping responses. The paper...

This article examines the substitutability, efficiency, and evolution of an important nonmarket institution in agrarian societies ? labor sharing. From analyses of field-level data on forest clearing through time among shifting cultivators in the Peruvian Amazon, we find: (1) no productivity...

Sunk costs play a significant role in shaping industry conduct and development outcomes associated "with the resource extraction sector. Their role is explored here by: (1) developing analytical models that show specifically how sunk costs influence investment behavior and outcomes; and (2)...

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, key court decisions, and several breakthrough process technologies, paved the way for a period of remarkable growth in the patenting of life science research by U.S. universities in the 1980s and 1990s. Using a multiple-output cost framework and panel data on 96...

Genetically modified corn seed companies have innovated continuously with the introduction of new traits and, more recently, with the creation of stacked varieties. This work develops a Bayesian model of adoption that demonstrates how uncertainty with a package technology can lead to a...