This paper offers new insights on a central question in trade and development economics: does increased exposure to foreign competition generate gains in plant productivity? We find that it does. We examine Colombian trade policy from 1977 to 1991, a period during which trade liberalization...

This paper explores a period of substantial variation in trade policy across industries in Colombia (1977-1991) to examine whether increased exposure to foreign competition generates productivity gains for manufacturing plants. Using an estimation methodology that addresses the shortcomings of...

The concept of virtual water – the amount of water used during the entire production chain of goods – represents a new tool for policymakers in water-scarce countries to shape policies in ways that improve water use efficiency. The present study extends work on the virtual water concept by...

Rapid industrialization in East Asia, particularly China, is raising questions about who will feed the region in the next century and how Asia will pay for its food imports. The paper addresses this question by first reviewing existing food sector projections and then taking an economy-wide...

An agricultural growth model is proposed to verify the agricultural convergence hypothesis among some Asian countries following the method of Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1992) and Sala-i-Martin (1996). Conditional convergence of agriculture is facilitated by foreign aid intended for agriculture and...