This Discussion Paper documents a survey conducted in rural China in 2005. A multi-topic survey funded by the Sino-German international Training Program "Sustainable Resource Use in North China", the project covers farm management, land property rights and rural credit access on the North China...

This paper examines how certain new structural factors have contributed to the latest great financial crisis and world recession of 2008-09. We focus on three of these structural factors: (i) the incorporation of highly populated countries into the growth process; (ii) The increasing scarcity of...

Four broad types of studies on rural development and bioenergy technologies are identified. Within these four types, this discussion paper presents a number of existing studies which are most relevant in the context of developing a research focus on the role, feasibility and issues associated...

The objective of this paper is to identify factors which limit the ability of Zambian farmers to increase Maize productivity and/or diversify their crop mix. Both may enable wealth accumulation, investments, and further expansion. Specifically, we link variations in agricultural decisions,...

We investigate the dynamics of nonrenewable resource abundance on economic growth and welfare in a two-country world. One country is endowed with a nonrenewable-resource, otherwise, countries are identical, except possibly for their initial endowments of capital. Unlike previous studies...

The role that agriculture should play in economic development has been recognised for years. In recent years, concern has been expressed over rising agricultural and food prices. The world market prices for major food commodities have risen sharply to historic highs of more than 60 percent above...

Current projections indicate that by 2025, water scarcity will affect over one quarter of the world’s population. This suggests that the need to manage water more efficiently will become more pressing during the next few years as the demand for water increases along with the expansion of...

This study extends previous empirical research on land preservation by considering an actual land preservation scheme, the agricultural land reserve in British Columbia, Canada. The reserve was established in 1973 to ensure that development did not occur on the province’s most productive...

Data on energy and mineral reserves suggest that natural resource abundance has not been a significant structural determinant of economic growth between 1970 and 1989. The story behind the effect of natural resources on economic growth is a complex one that typical growth regressions do not...