The effects of rainfall forecasts and realized rainfall on equilibrium agricultural wages are analysed over the course of the agricultural production cycle. It is shown theoretically that a forecast of good weather can lower wages in the planting stage, by lowering ex ante out-migration, and can...

Newly-available Indian panel data is used to estimate how the returns to planting-stage investments vary by rainfall realizations. [BREAD Working Paper No. 392]. URL:[http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/392.pdf].

Data from two surveys of twins in China are used to contribute to an improved understanding of the role of economic development in affecting gender differences in the trends in, levels of, and returns to schooling observed in China and in many developing countries in recent decades. [BREAD...

Unpredictable rainfall is an important risk for agricultural activity, and farmers in developing countries often receive incomplete insurance from informal risk-sharing networks. The demand for, and effects of, offering formal index-based rainfall insurance is studied through a randomized...

The contemporary approach to political economy is built around vested interests -- elites,  lobbies, and rent-seeking groups which get their way at the expense of the general public. The ...

South Africa has undergone a remarkable transformation since its democratic transition in 1994, but economic growth and employment generation have been disappointing. Most worryingly, unemployment is currently among the highest in the world. While the proximate cause of high unemployment is that...

There has been a very rapid rise since the early 1990s in foreign reserves held by developing countries. These reserves have climbed to almost 30 percent of developing countries' GDP and 8 months of imports. Assuming reasonable spreads between the yield on reserve assets and the cost of foreign...

Much more than comparative advantage and free markets have been at play in shaping China's export success. Government policies have helped nurture domestic capabilities in consumer electronics and other advanced areas that would most likely not have developed in their absence. As a result, China...

Using product-level data on exports from different cities within China, this paper investigates the contributing factors to the rising export sophistication. [WP no. 226].

They are providing systematic evidence that intermediaries play an important role in facilitating trade using a firm-level the census of China's exports. Intermediaries account for around 20% of China's exports in 2005. This implies that many firms engage in trade without directly exporting...