Popular DMSP night lights data are flawed by blurring, top-coding, and lack of calibration. Yet newer and better VIIRS data are rarely used in economics. We compare these two data sources for predicting Indonesian GDP at the second sub-national level. DMSP data are a bad proxy for GDP outside of...

The grain crops have been the main staple food crops in Rwanda, by complementing or substituting root-tubers and plantains in everyday diet. As agriculture is considered as the backbone of country's economy, its transformation was thought to be the engine of economic development. Using the time...

Abstract: Despite the rise in grade retention in China recently, little work has been done to understand the impact of grade retention on the educational performance of students in China. This paper seeks to redress this shortcoming and examines this impact on 1649 students in 36 elementary...

Studies of total factor productivity in livestock production are rare, but when available provide useful information especially in the context of developing countries such as China where livestock is becoming more important in the domestic agricultural economy. We estimate total factor...

Inefficient performance of irrigation systems not only leads to a waste of water resources, but may also affect agriculture production, especially in regions facing a water stress problem. In rural China, only 40% of the water allocated to irrigation is effectively used, a figure much lower than...

Paper replaced with revised version 06/03/08

The overall goal of our paper is to understand how WTO will affect the agriculture sector in China. To accomplish this goal we have two specific objectives. First, we seek to provide measures of the distortions in China’'s agricultural sector at a time immediately prior to the nation’s...