The relationship between poverty and natural resources is complex and the empirical evidence to date, mostly from studies of forest activities and poverty, is inconclusive. The main purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the effects of household characteristics and of inequality at the...

The purpose of the Development Policy Evaluation Model (DEVPEM) is to provide an appropriate modelling structure for analysing the welfare and distributional implications of alternative agricultural policies in developing countries. The aim of the model is to provide illustrative results that...

This paper raises questions about the compatibility of "ecotourism” and conservation in the unique environment of the Galapagos Islands. It updates a 1999 economy-wide analysis that predicted that increases in tourism would result in rapid economic as well as demographic growth on the islands....

In this paper we define the relative deprivation of a person with income y as an increasing function of the percentage of individuals in the person's reference group whose income is larger than y. We obtain his satisfaction by adding up the marginal utilities of income over the range of income a...

Marriage, migration and related phenomena such as marital stability, fertility and investment in human capital may be better explained by studying marriage and migration jointly. We thus proceed in this paper to explore the role of migration in obtaining joint labour-market and marriage-market...

Although the economic performance of migrants in the receiving country undoubtedly depends on qualifications, it is also affected by inclinations. Given the probability of return migration, a behavioural link is established between the incentive of migrants to save in their country of...

A theory is developed of labor migration that is prompted by a desire to avoid "social humiliation." In a general equilibrium framework it is shown that as long as migration can reduce humiliation sufficiently, migration will occur even between two identical economies. Migration increases the...

It stands to reason that social unrest does not erupt out of the blue. Although there are a great many reasons why social dismay might descend into social disorder, only few yardsticks or indices can plausibly be used to gauge the potential for social unrest (PSU). If policy makers want to...

A theory is developed of labor migration that is prompted by a desire to avoid "social humiliation." In a general equilibrium framework it is shown that as long as migration can reduce humiliation sufficiently, migration will occur even between two identical economies. Migration increases the...

This paper looks at the integration of regions and nations through the prism of the merger of populations. The paper employs a particular index of social dismay. It presents examples of two of the main results arising from the study of the merger of two populations: that the social dismay of an...