While economies of scope of lending and mobilizing deposits in banking are justifiedtheoretically (Diamond, 1984) and found empirically (see Saunders, 1999), in microfinance, theexistence and the magnitudes of scope economies has not been investigated. We use a semiparametric smooth coefficient...

This paper explores the impact of the recent soar in world commodity prices on economic activity and household welfare in Tanzania, and the possible policy responses to that shock. The analysis is based on a single country computable general equilibrium model that includes considerable factor...

We used unit root and cointegration techniques to determine the long run relationship between GDP and investment for 90 countries using data from World Bank for the period 1960-1992. In the first step of our analysis we found GDP and investment integrated of different orders for 33 countries....

Over the past century, all OECD countries have been characterized by a dramatic increase in economic conditions, life expectancy and educational attainment. This paper provides a positive theory that explains how an economy might evolve when the longevity of its citizens both influences and is...

For the past two decades, Tunisia has been undertaken important structural reforms,which call in most cases for market and trade liberalization (agricultural structural adjustmentprogram, GATT reforms, free trade area with the European Union). The private-led type ofgrowth strategy with less...

The Italian Industrial Districts (IDs) are now considered in the national and international literatureas one of the main factors of the successful and rapid industrial development of Italy after theSecond World War. In this paper we outline the general characteristics of the IDs approach andthen...

Economic and agricultural convergence across the EU regions has for a long time attractedthe attention of economists and more so in the recent decade following the EU enlargement.Empirical contributions have referred explicitly or implicitly to the Solow’s model ofeconomic growth testing...

Empirical evidence on three assertions commonly-made by populationpolicy advocates about the relationships among population growth, humancapital formation and economic development is discussed and evaluated inthe light of economic-biological models of household behavior and of itsrelevance to...

This paper attempts to assess the feasibility of the current strategy of manufactured export-led growth for Turkey over the Fifth and Sixth Five-Year Plan periods (1985-1994). The explicit hypothesis of the paper is that a domestic market,wage-goods oriented development strategy with agriculture...

We analyze the evolution of Sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) over the past 45 years, looking for evidence of recent changes in growth patterns using an improved nonparametric Malmquist index. Our TFP estimates show a remarkable recovery in the performance of...