A sample of smallholding farmers in the Pabna region of Bangladesh provides data to test predictions of a safety-first model and of a profit maximisation model of farmer behaviour. Of two sets of predictions, the data tend to support those of the safety-first model more frequently than they...

Arguments for food-self-sufficiency at the level of small-scale farms invariably refer to the need for national self-sufficiency. This article shows that state-inspired attempts to impose self-sufficiency upon specialised middle peasant producers in Kenya have had the effect of reducing the...

The article utilises recent farm survey data to assess the performance of the Training and Visit Extension system in one district in Haryana compared to a neighbouring district covered by an older extension system. The data show a significantly higher level of village-level extension activity in...

A two-sector numerical general equilibrium model calibrated on Kenyan data is used to consider second-best tariff policy in an economy with a distorted market for urban-industrial labour and urban unemployment. The results illustrate the sensitivity of second-best policy to the way the...

Some of the implications of Japan's post-war development for contemporary developing countries are explored. Whilst acknowledging the qualitative differences in economic structure between Japan in 1945 and today's developing countries, the author argues that many of Japan's decisions on economic...

The authors construct a model for Mexico in which class conflict over the distribution of the surplus is the principal determinant of the terms of trade. The model consists of seven social classes and eight productive sectors. The paper investigates various policy scenarios under the theories of...

The cumulative effect of natural resource degradation has served to raise the issue of "sustainable development" in many LDCs. The author explores this issue in respect of Santa Cruz in the Amazon region of Bolivia.There is evidence that technical solutions exist for many of the small farmers...

The author derives a Social Interest Rate (SIR) for Trinidad and Tobago on the basis of an individualistic, independent and multiperiod consumption utility function. The component parameters of this rate are: a mortality-based pure time discount rate, the growth rate of per capita real...

The authors explain the emergence of a substantial-sized small-scale sector in an industry in which a number of large enterprises were already well established. The barrier normally set up by the requirements associated with large-scale production was overcome by small enterprises practising...