The institutional economics if John Commons (1934) contained two related objectives. The first was to explain the evolution of economics. The second was to analyze the effects of institutions on resource allocation and the distribution of income. The method of explaining the evolution of...

In poorly developed market economies, high transactions and related costs, produce a pattern of market organizations with heavy relianceon traditional institutions for handling transactions.The family is one such institution because family ties or bonds allow more efficien, tcontractual...

Most works on food security have a macroeconomic orientation, whereas most discussions of famine are rather microeconomic. The intention here is to seek a more unified approach to the economic issues in food insecurity among low-income rural households.

Much of the debate on the role of agriculture in economic development centers on whether agriculture should be taxed or subsidized. The classical prescription for economic development is investment in industrial modernization financed by an agricultural surplus. Proponents of agricultural...