Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are often seen by aid practitioners as a manifestly effective means of improving the position of the poor. Despite this widely held view, detailed research studies have been much more guarded about the impact of MFIs. In particular, several studies have raised...

Substantial improvements have taken place in the employment and schooling of children in Turkey. Decomposition analysis based on data from two time periods shows that a substantial part of the drop in child labour and over half of the increase in school enrolment can be attributed to the...

In order to explain the emergence of ethnic violence, scholars from different disciplines have focused on different factors, such as the role of ethnicity, the individual gain from civil war, the relative deprivation explanations and the role of ethnic elites, and proposed different conflict...

This paper uses the technological capabilities framework for examining differences in technological intensities and economic performance between foreign and local food and beverage, and textile and garment firms and metal engineering firms in Kenya. Foreign firms had statistically significant...

Recent studies of state food aid to poor households in Mexico by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Food First point to a rare case of successful second-generation reform in the social sector. This article analyses a critical juncture at the start of the 1990 s in...

Time series analysis of annual data for a sample of developing countries shows the allocation of government spending shocks, both positive and negative, between price inflation and output growth. Cross-country regressions evaluate determinants of the difference in the real effects of government...

Using time series data over the past four decades, the 1960s to 1990s, this paper examines rice pricing policies in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. It analyses the determinants of the paths along which these policies have moved. While it confirms the findings of previous analyses, that...

In this paper it is argued that economic interests by multinational corporations, local businessmen and faction leaders are significant elements in the perpetuation of civil violence in Somalia. This study examines the banana trade regime in southern Somalia in relation to conflict over export...