Generating economic growth for the millions who live in poverty in developing countries is one of the key world problems of our time. In many cases, economic growth is driven by technological improvements. One of the technologies which could generate economic growth in Africa is biotechnology....

Household characteristics are commonly used to explain variation in smallholderefficiency levels. The underlying assumption is that differences in intended behaviorare well described by such variables, while there is no a priori reason that this is thecase. Moreover, heterogeneity in farmer...

Vegetable plays important roles in the socio-economic development in West Africa. It contributes to insuring food security, provides raw materials for local industries, generates foreign exchange and provides employment and incomes for most of the population. However some health hazards are...

The goal of this research was to develop spatial regression methods to economically evaluate on-farm site-specific management (SSM) trials. Whether yields are collected with a combine yield monitor, a weigh wagon, or other technology, they usually have a spatial structure. Covariates including...

Due to a rapid yield decline, plantain fields in Southeastern Nigeria are reverted to fallow after two years. However, population pressure leads to shorter fallow periods and high rates of deforestation. This study investigates the potential of mulch-based systems for perennial plantain...

Member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are expected to form a West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) by 2004 whereby member countries would use a common currency in an attempt to promote regional integration. Evidence suggests that reduction in transaction cost as...

This paper compares two estimation methods of a three-stage least squares (3SLS) system of equations, corrected for spatial autocorrelation. The modeling approach is novel in that it is an extension of Anselin's (1988) seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) space-time spatial error model for panel...

Economists are challenged to account for the influence of cultural norms and expectations on economic behavior. Recent experimental economic evidence suggests culture significantly affects certain economic behavior. It is not clear, however, how pervasive culture's influence is on multiple...

During recent decades the number of obese adult Americans increased from 15% to 31%. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of food price and income changes on body weight in an effort to determine how a high-calorie food tax, a low-calorie food subsidy, and/or income...

In this paper, we review the recent advances in the literature of experimental auctions and provide practical advice and guidelines for researchers. We focus on issues related to randomization to treatment and causal identification of treatment effects, on design issues such as selection between...