This report analyzes the effects of grain market reform in Ethiopia on grain prices and price spreads between major wholesale markets. The experience of Ethiopia during the 1990s represents a case in which a relatively consistent and internally-driven program of grain market liberalization has...

This report summarizes an appraisal of input utilization and marketing in Mozambique, focusing on the following research questions: (1) What are current smallholder yields for major commodities, and what is the potential for increasing yields through the use of improved technologies? (2) To what...

This paper asks whether political representation for historically disadvantaged groups can serve as an effective means to redress historical inequities. The Indian Constitution mandates reservations for two such groups, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), in federal and state...

In most modern democracies elected officials can work in the private sector while appointed in parliament. We show that when the political and market sectors are not mutually exclusive, a trade-off arises between the quality of elected officials and the effort they exert in political life. If...

We revisit the classical question of productivity implications of sharecropping tenancy, in the context of tenancy reforms (Operation Barga) in West Bengal, India studied previously by Banerjee, Gertler and Ghatak (JPE 2002). We utilize a disaggregated farm panel, controlling for other land...

England financed its war of the Austrian succession (1743-48) mainly by issuing 3% bonds and 4% callable bonds which were indeed redeemed by Pelham in 1749 through an interest reduction. Implicit policy rules and constraints made the 4% bond a derivative asset of a 3% perpetual. The price data...