Channeling human resources into the right occupations has historically been a key to economic prosperity. Occupational choices are not only driven by the material rewards associated with the various occupations, but also by the esteem that they confer. We propose a model of endogenous growth in...

This paper reassesses national income inequalities in this era of globalization. The main conclusion is that two opposite forces are at work: one ‘centrifugal’ at the two extremes of the distribution—increasing the disparity of income shares appropriated by the top and by the bottom four...

The concern of this paper is to highlight time use as a valuable resource and important factor in the development process of Less Developed Countries. It propounds time use,that is neglected in Development studies, as an important factor in human development index. The role of time management as...

Abstract This article is a part of a twin study. Drawing on the available evidence, in this paper the author examines the cost of compliance with Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures for poor countries with reference to Africa. He shows that the burden of cost of compliance is entirely on...

The benefits of an international division of labour is never illustrated more clearly than in small developed nations like Denmark. Without many natural resources such countries can never be self sufficient and they need access to foreign markets in order for their firms to specialise and...

This paper investigates the causal consequences of Tropical Storm Agatha (2010) – the strongest tropical storm ever to strike Guatemala since rainfall records have been kept – on household welfare. The analysis reveals substantial negative effects, particularly among urban households. Per...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a member of World Bank Group is the largest multilateral source of loan and equity financing for private sector projects in developing countries. Particular focus of International Finance Corporation is to promote economic development by encouraging...

The characterization of firm-specific return volatility as the intensity with which firm-specific events occur reconciles many seemingly discordant results. A functionally efficient stock market allocates capital to its highest value uses, which often amounts to financing Schumpeterian creative...

Economic development implies that the efficiency of firms in developing countries starts approaching that of firms from advanced economies. Various development policies have been pursued to achieve this convergence. We test for this convergence in two economies that represent alternative models...

The great debates of most fields associated with economic development rest on emergence versus intention and the interplay between the two. The “residual” of unexplained divergence between goal and outcome, in this sense, can be ascribed in part to the interplay, or co-evolution, between...