Developing accurate, yet operational poverty assessment tools to target the poorest households remains a challenge for applied policy research. This paper aims to develop poverty assessment tools for four countries: Bangladesh, Peru, Uganda, and Kazakhstan. The research applies the Principal...

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/04/06.

Often analysts must conduct risk analysis based on a small number of observations. This paper describes and illustrates the use of a kernel density estimation procedure to smooth out irregularities in such a sparse data set for simulating univariate and multivariate probability distributions.

In this paper we argue that the loss of bio-diversity hould be of concern for farmers, though it seems to be of little or no concern to them at the moment. As diversity is a component of nature that controls the growth of pests, a loss of bio-diversity means increased exposure to pests, danger...

This paper reports on complex adaptive system (CAS) simulation of the River Murray Basin in Australia to compare capacity of institutional options to maintain functioning of key river system within a "bandwidth" that limits irreversible system state changes and highly adverse consequences. The...

The agricultural sector is an important sector that most people in East Asia rely on and growth in this sector may help to lift their standard of living. This study assessed what factors contributed to agricultural growth by applying the panel econometric approach. First, the long-run...

We examine the potential effects of water trading on aggregate welfare and income distribution across the agricultural and service sector of a small rural economy. We show that per capita welfare (real income) of agents in the region increase with increased water trading. Not surprisingly, if...

Value-enhanced crops (VEC's) have been the focus of "second-generation" genetically modified (GM) crops. The market power granted by intellectual property rights (IPR) and the use of contractual arrangements in VEC gene and seed production have fostered a move toward tightly-aligned supply chain...

Reliable marketing opportunities in both interregional and international trade are an important precondition for further development of the agricultural sector. In this study we assess interregional integration of Kazakh wheat markets. We apply asymmetric threshold error correction models to...

This paper analyses the determinants of income generating activities of rural households in the vicinity of the Lore-Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The focus is on activities which threaten the integrity of the national park (perennial crop production and sale of forest...