Presents an overview of the South African insurance industry and examines the extent to which for-profit insurance providers serve the needs of low-income people and small and micro-enterprises (SMEs). Examines the provision of microinsurance by microfinance institutions and presents the results...

Presents findings of field work on life, health and cattle insurance.

Based mainly on a comparative study of informal finance in Uganda and India in 2001. Investigates sources of finance used by informal operators to start their enterprises and examines trends in the use of formal versus informal financial services. Explores potential links between formal and...

This paper is a synthesis of the July 2005 Development Report published by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Human Sciences Research Council and United Nations Development Programme (DBSA, HSRC and UNDP). The Report asks why, if the origins of economic dualism are rooted in the cheap,...

This paper proposes a methodology to investigate the process of technical change with a focus on the dynamic effects of R&D investments on productivity, and on the induced innovation hypothesis for both inputs and outputs. The approach builds on a nonparametric representation of the underlying...

A nonparametric analysis of technical, allocative, scale, and scope efficiency of agricultural production is presented based on a sample of Wisconsin farmers. The results indicate the existence of important economies of scale on very small farms, and of some diseconomies of scale for the larger...

At first glance South Africa’s black farming sector appears to contribute rather minimally to overall agricultural output in South Africa. However, despite the complexity involved in this sector and the often marginal conditions in which agriculture is practised it appears to be important...