Presents an overview of the South African insurance industry and examines the extent to which for-profit insurance providers serve the needs of low-income people and small and micro-enterprises (SMEs). Examines the provision of microinsurance by microfinance institutions and presents the results...

Presents findings of field work on life, health and cattle insurance.

Based mainly on a comparative study of informal finance in Uganda and India in 2001. Investigates sources of finance used by informal operators to start their enterprises and examines trends in the use of formal versus informal financial services. Explores potential links between formal and...

A nonparametric analysis of technical, allocative, scale, and scope efficiency of agricultural production is presented based on a sample of Wisconsin farmers. The results indicate the existence of important economies of scale on very small farms, and of some diseconomies of scale for the larger...

At first glance South Africa’s black farming sector appears to contribute rather minimally to overall agricultural output in South Africa. However, despite the complexity involved in this sector and the often marginal conditions in which agriculture is practised it appears to be important...

This article seeks to contribute to an understanding of household-level food security in South Africa using publicly available household survey data from Statistics South Africa. The two datasets that are used in particular are the General Household Survey, an annual household survey that began...

One of the most important policy measures used by government to influence agricultural production and trade patterns are tariffs. A substantial depreciation in the exchange rate will not be enough to compensate for the negative effects of removing tariffs if the playing field is not level for...