Recent theoretical literature in development economics has shown that nonconvex production technologies can result in low-growth poverty traps. This article uses detailed microenterprise surveys in Mexico to examine the empirical evidence for these nonconvexities at low levels of capital stock....

Numerous empirical studies from developing countries have noted that parental education has a robust and positive effect on child learning, a result that is often attributed to more educated parents making greater investments in their children's human capital. However, the nature of any such...

This article has two related objectives. First, it offers a critique of the way poverty and inequality have become central in the development discourse of donors and international agencies. Second, it offers a review of the World Development Report 2006 on Equity and Development and its emphasis...

This article investigates whether a market for unsafe sexual activity exists among nonmarital, noncommercial sexual relationships in a high HIV/AIDS environment. The exchange of money for sex without a condom is well known within commercial sexual partnerships, but it is unclear from the...

This article provides evidence on how executive compensation relates to firm performance in firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges in China. Using comprehensive financial and accounting data on China's listed firms from 1998 to 2002, augmented by unique data on executive...

World Development Report 2006 overextends the role of inequality and redistribution in development processes by overemphasizing relevant but particular efficiency-equity complementarities, by conflating domestic and international equality issues, and by naively integrating economic and political...

In this essay we argue that the key barriers to interdisciplinary work between economists and anthropologists are differences of methodology and epistemology--in what the two disciplines consider important to explain and how they evaluate the criteria for a good explanation. The essay is an...

It has been established in the literature on intrahousehold inequality in low-income economies that the family allocates more resources to male members, who have higher market values than women do. Using recent data collected on about 8,400 people in eight Chinese provinces, this article finds...

Using panel data on micro enterprises from Peru we find evidence suggesting that firm dynamics explain "formality," where formality is recast as the firm's decision to participate in societal institutions. The results suggest that differences in unobservable factors, such as entrepreneurial...

This article focuses on the economic impact of AIDS-related news on exchange rates in South Africa. South Africa's HIV/AIDS infection rates are so high that AIDS is now a macroeconomic problem, not just a public health problem. News about the spread of the disease can therefore have significant...