This study examines the level of intensity, trend and the main drivers of agricultural land conversion (ALC) worldwide. Considering the World Bank classification and using a stratified random sampling, 94 countries were selected in three different groups: less developing, developing and...

Are natural resources a "curse" or a "blessing"? The empirical evidence suggests either outcome is possible. The paper surveys a variety of hypotheses and supporting evidence for why some countries benefit and others lose from the presence of natural resources. These include that a resource...

In this paper we document the stylized facts about the relationship between international oil price swings, sovereign risk and macroeconomic performance of oil-exporting economies. We show that even though being a bigger oil producer decreases sovereign risk–because it increases a...

I develop a factor content of trade prediction for the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek model (HOV) that relates bilateral differences in country endowments to bilateral differences in factor contents. The results are striking. In comparisons of North-South factor contents or factor contents of countries...