Theory predicts that trade liberalization should raise average total factor productivity (TFP) among manufacturing firms. However, this is a generic prediction and depends on maintained assumptions about industries, factor markets, and trade patterns that may not fit well for developing...

Like many developing countries, the Philippines pursues a food security strategy in which self-sufficiency and price stabilization feature prominently. In addition to their widely debated welfare effects, food policies based on price and trade restrictions may also accelerate land degradation by...

"Environmental damage" is in reality many different types of phenomena, each with a unique set of causes and characteristics. We present an analytical model identifying intersectoral and interregional links of economy and environment, and explore consequences of trade policy and world price...

Economic growth and environmental damage are associated, but the relationship is neither linear nor even monotonic. This is clearly seen in the diverse experiences of tropical Asian economies over recent decades. The nature of the growth-environment link depends on the changing composition of...

Books reviewed: Michael Borowitz, Elizabeth Wiley, Fadia Saadah and Enis Baris, Addressing HIV/AIDS in East Asia and the Pacific Paul Glewwe, Nisha Agrawal and David Dollar (eds), Economic Growth, Poverty, and Household Welfare in Vietnam Will Martin and Mari Pangestu, Options for Global Trade...

Many developing countries possess comparative advantage both in natural resources and in labor-intensive industries, and experience both industrial pollution and natural resource degradation. We present a model that incorporates these stylized facts together with key spatial features and...

Pakistan has not had much success with labor-intensive export growth. It also has one of the world’s lowest rates of female labor force participation and low intersectoral mobility of female labor. This paper explores links between these two phenomena. From national household survey data we...

Does globalization increase inequality in developing countries, and if so, how? In a theoretical model of a regionally heterogeneous economy, we show how different regional rates of technical progress due to trade and FDI interact with constraints to unskilled labor mobility. As favored regions...

Many developing countries possess comparative advantage both in natural resources and in labor-intensive industries, and experience both industrial pollution and natural resource degradation. We present a model that incorporates these stylized facts together with key spatial features and...