The paper analyzes the impact on economic growth of public investment spending and other relevant variables (such as human capital) for nine major Latin American nations over the 1983-93 period. The results suggest that both public and private investment spending contribute to economic growth....

In contrast with previous modeling by Akerlof, the author develops a model of a caste system which utilizes the stylized facts that caste occupations are hereditary, compulsory, and endogamous. Some implications of the model are tested with data from the Census of India. Copyright Blackwell...

The paper shows that if an individual's cost of human capital accumulation depends on his parents' human capital and there exists a "raw labor" sector of production, individuals with low parental human capital may devote little effort in study and become unskilled workers. Further, if an...

The paper studies the way in which labor supply responses enable households to smooth consumption in the face of crop loss. The 1993 Indonesian Family Life Survey is unusual because it contains self-reported information on crop loss and on household responses to crop loss. Of those households...

Developing-country attempts to regain macroeconomic stability through fiscal adjustment are often unsuccessful in reducing inflation and balance-of-payments (BoP) disequilibrium. This paper examines why this may be so in the light of India's experience with stabilization in response to the BoP...

The paper investigates future exchange rate policy of the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries vis-ý-vis the euro aimed at fostering their manufactured exports towards Euroland. The exchange rate policy is captured through three different indicators: the real effective exchange rate...

The paper presents a model of optimal government policy when policy choices may exacerbate sociopolitical instability (SPI). The authors show that optimal policy that takes into account SPI transforms a standard concave growth model into a model with both a poverty trap and endogenous growth....

The paper attempts to show causal relationships between economic growth and FDI and GDI in 80 countries over the period 1971-95, by using a panel VAR model. The results show that FDI Granger-causes economic growth, and vice versa; however, the effects are rather more apparent from growth to FDI...

What will be the domestic growth and distributional effects of agricultural trade liberalization in India? How fast should Indian agriculture be liberalized and what policies should characterize the transition? This paper uses Indian agriculture to analyze medium-term transition problems that...

The paper documents the extent of similarities and differences of business cycle characteristics of the Asian countries and compares the cyclical regularities in this region with those of the G-7 countries. The Asian economies are generally more volatile than the G-7 countries, but the amplitude...