The paper investigates the impact of country size on aggregate national efficiency, using a nonparametric programming methodology to measure output distance functions and relative national efficiency for a group of 85 developing countries over the period 1980-89. Tobit regression models are...

An econometric model is used to assess the short-term (impact), interim, and cumulative effects of food aid on the economy of Tunisia for the period 1960-92. Food aid displaced neither domestic production nor commercial imports of food grains. Rather, food aid provided incentives to promote...

Using a nationally representative dataset, and information on why farmers did not purchase fertilizer, the authors estimate a double-hurdle fertilizer adoption model for Ethiopia. Access is an overriding constraint in four zones. Credit is shown to be a major supply-side constraint, suggesting...

The human development index indicates achievement in the living standard of a population in terms of attainment levels of different quality-of-life attributes, such as educational attainment and life expectancy at birth. This paper axiomatically characterizes a general measure of achievement....

The agreement to abolish the quotas on textiles and clothing introduced under the Multi-fiber Arrangement (MFA) will create a new and much more competitive world market for India's exports of textiles and clothing. India's inefficient and costly policies, such as cotton export quotas, the hank...

If the gains from investment depend on knowledge, but households cannot hire skills, then poorly educated households will achieve lower returns than educated ones. If the income-poor are less well educated, then they will also have lower returns to investment. The paper tests this argument for...

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa discriminated against agriculture to promote industry after independence. The domestic terms of trade were turned against agriculture by the price fixing of monopoly marketing boards. This policy was assumed to reduce labor costs of industry and was combined...

High unemployment in Sri Lanka has been attributed to unrealistic expectations, to queuing for public sector jobs, and to stringent job security regulations. However, the empirical evidence supporting these explanations is weak. This paper analyzes individual records from the 1995 Labor Force...