An analysis of the underlying causes of environment destruction debunks the idea that the poor are the principal cause of environmental degradation in present-day societies. The paper also identifies some of the major areas of economic theory and institutional biases in market economies that...

This paper presents a model of an economy in which traders use social capital to reduce transaction costs. A key assumption is that there are two types of social capital: “village” capital relies on personal networks and repeat play to guarantee contracts; “market” capital relies on...

This paper presents rigorous and direct tests of two assumptions relating to limited commitment and asymmetric information that current underpin current models of risk pooling. A specially designed economic experiment involving 678 subjects across 23 Zimbabwean villages is used to solve the...

A theoretical model of the inflationary process in Nigeria is developed using monetary aggregates, the exchange rate, and the implicit cost of holding idle cash balances. Parameter estimation is accomplished using quarterly data for 1970:1 through 1993:4 and a nonlinear ARMAX procedure....

In the next ten years, advocates of microfinance organizations (MFOs) will seek more than $20 billion to provide small loans to 100 million of the poorest families worldwide. In the United States, the newest federal budget proposes a 159-percent increase in the about $200 million spent per year...

A growth model with endogenous innovation and accumulation of high-tech and low- tech human capital is developed. The model accounts for a recently established fact about human capital composition, which stated that \the richest countries are investing proportionally less than middle income...

Jamaica in order to effectively interface with the global village has been forced to change its ethical mindset, which has deterred the practice of good corporate governance and its worldview of how to aggressively achieve business success in an era, which does business via the Internet and...

We are increasingly cognizant of the limits to large cross-country empirical studies in trying to understand in-depth a particular country reality, in ways useful for advice. At the same time, merely relying on a single country account at a particular point in time ignores the historical and...

It has been argued that the use of personal networks in the hiring process has a positive influence on the wages of referred individuals. However, the value of recommendations to the employer varies according to the type of vacancy to be filled and the provider of information on job applicants....

This paper investigates the hypothesis that economic growth is critical in inducing well-being during economic reforms. The regional (16 Indian states and 28 Chinese provinces) level study of India and China show that the quality of growth has been essential for well-being. We estimate level of...