This paper focuses on smallholder maize production in Malawi by investigating the linkbetween productivity and soil fertility management. Many studies conducted in Malawi indicate declining levels of maize productivity thereby posing food security concerns, since maize is the staple crop for...

We generalize endogenous growth models, which often assume a closed-economy, toallow for international borrowing and lending. We incorporate a prominent feature of globalfinancial markets, that the marginal cost of borrowing facing a small open economy is dependent on the "country risk" as...

Evidence is presented in support of the "brain gain" view that the likelihood of migrating to a destination wherein the returns to human capital (schooling) are high creates incentives to acquire human capital in migrant-sending areas. In Mexico, even though internal migrants are more educated...

This paper aims to deliver empirical evidence on the links between production efficiency, biodiversity, and resource management by analysing a case study on small-scale tobacco production in the Miombo woodlands in Tanzania. The subsistence nature of tobacco production in Tanzania suggests that...

Fragile states are characterised by a great potential for crisis that endangers human security and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is increasingly being recognized that external actors should stay involved, either directly or indirectly; at the same time, though,...

Drawing on the literature of occupational status and social distance, a theory is developed of labor migration that is prompted by a desire to avoid 'social humiliation.' A closed-economy general equilibrium model that incorporates occupational status and examines the interaction between the...

Using household survey data, this study investigates preferences for domestic water services in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa. Water is a relatively scarce resource in South Africa that is distributed unevenly both geographically and seasonally as well as socio-politically. For a...

This paper presents a set of reflections on what gives rise to remittances, which constitute a major part of the impact of migration on economic development in the migrants' own countries. The collage of reasons presented serves to illustrate that remittance behavior is the outcome of an...

It stands to reason that social unrest does not erupt out of the blue. Although there are a great many reasons why social dismay might descend into social disorder, only few yardsticks or indices can plausibly be used to gauge the potential for social unrest (PSU). If policy makers want to...

Consider a population of farmers who live around a lake. Each farmer engages in trade with his two adjacent neighbors. The trade is governed by a prisoner's dilemma 'rule of engagement'. A farmer's payoff is the sum of the payoffs from the two prisoner's dilemma games played with his two...