We develop a two-sector model with specific factors, in which agriculture is subject to diminishing returns and market-clearing wages, while increasing returns and efficiency wages prevail in industry. The asymmetric interaction of the two sectors, jointly with the dualistic structure of the...

This paper examines the relationship between household structures, the institutions that shape them and physical and human capital accumulation using household and individual data from China, Indonesia, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Household structures differ greatly across countries and are very...

Bt cotton has been cultivated in China for the past 10 years. Limitations of previous studies analyzing the impact of this technology are the short time period considered and lack of panel data. In this paper, we present findings from monitoring 150 Bt cotton farmers in 2002 and 2005....

Earlier literature on economic growth models identified Africa specific determinates of economic growth. In standard models of economic growth Africa dummies were significant. A more resent strand of literature attributes the significance of Africa dummies to inappropriate estimation techniques....

This paper assesses the relationship between institutions, output, and productivity, when official output is corrected for the size of the shadow economy. Our results confirm the usual positive impact of institutional quality on official output and total factor productivity, and its negative...

Aid is given for various purposes. Its impact on donors' exports usually depends on whether it is given for altruistic reasons (to overcome human tragedies and disasters) or in an understanding to promote development (to finance infrastructure or social projects). As to humanitarian aid the...

Given the secrecy that wraps the flows of the GCC countries' petrodollar surpluses to the United States and the pressures on these countries to spend and recycle more, this study attempts to uncover the direct and reverse causal relationships between the GCC financial accounts and the US current...

In this paper we are interested in the relationship between globalization, political institutions (notably, democracy) and international environmental commitments. This relationship has been the subject of a particularly intensive debate and the existing literature offers a wide range of partly...

In Namibia, as in many parts of Africa, households are highly dependent on fastdegrading forest resources for their livelihoods, including energy needs. Using data originally collected for Namibia's forest resource accounts and insights from a nonseparable household model, this paper empirically...

Central bank governor changes in emerging markets may convey important signals about future monetary policy. Based on a new daily data set, this paper examines the reactions of foreign exchange markets, domestic stock market indices and sovereign bond spreads to central bank governor changes....