The debate over the impact of regional trade agreements (RTAs) on world welfare hinges upon (1) whether they are net trade creating or trade diverting and (2) whether they impede multilateral trade liberalization. Theoretical models are ambiguous on these issues. We summarize the insights from...

The government of almost every country has intervened in the market pricing of foodgrains to promote price stability. But the rules of the game are changing as countries abandon trade restrictions and protectionist policies in the wake of the Uruguay Round agreement of the General Agreement on...

Secondary crops are of increasing interest to policymakers and planners in developing countries because of a desire to diversify economic activities and because of their proven potential to raise farm incomes and rural employment. To assess this potential, basic information on the demand...

Much of the debate over whether or not developing countries gain from regional trade agreements (RTA's) has focused on two characteristics that are common to developing countries: their relatively high tariffs and their high trade dependencies on one or a few developed trade partners. In this...

This paper deepens the study of non-performing loans (NPLs), conceived by the author as an expression of non-quality of part of bank lending / loans, which is considered in turn, as being reflected directly by the proportions held by these loans in the total volume of loans (granted by banks)....

Income mobility can be viewed as a first-order Markov process, with a matrix of transition probabilities which measure how individuals move from an income status in time t to a new status in time t+1. Direct estimation of transition matrices is difficult, since time series panel data are...

This paper uses cross section-time series data on 57 communities in Malawi to determine statistically the factors determining changes in land use, tree cover, and crop yield. The econometric model is developed from a theoretical model which also endogenizes population growth and prevailing land...

Econometric studies of the effects of research on productivity have typically imposed arbitrary restrictions on the length and shape of the R&D lag profile. These restrictions are likely to have biased up both the measured effects of R&D on productivity and the estimated rates of return to...

This paper is based on community-level data from 188 villages in rural Madagascar. The survey that was conducted in 1997 made extensive use of long-term recall questions ascertaining changes during the past 10 years in rice yields, wages, population, soil fertility, and other pertinent variables...

This paper is based on community-level data from 188 villages in rural Madagascar. The survey that was conducted in 1997 made extensive use of long-term recall questions ascertaining changes during the past 10 years in rice yields, wages, population, soil fertility, and other pertinent variables...