This paper reexamines foreign currency markets for evidence of fractional integration, and extends the extant literature in several important dimensions. First, we utilize a new semiparametric wavelet-based estimator, which is far superior to the more prevalent GPH estimator on the basis of mean...

This study analyzes how rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) in Senegal were able to overcome the collective action dilemma, maintain institutional performance, and remain sustainable over time. This study models cooperation among members as well as the performance and...

Relatively few farmers regularly use tax-favored retirement accounts to diversify long-term farm assets with nonfarm savings. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 creates new investment opportunities for both IRAs and regular capital assets. Complex tradeoffs exist among new tax incentives, possible...

We investigate the objectives of agricultural bank managers and their impacts on bank efficiency. If managers are non-neutral toward risk, then banks may appear inefficient when they are not. We find non-neutrality toward risk and efficiency gains due to firm size, loan shares, asset shares, and...

Repeat borrowing is critical for the long-term financial viability of microfinance institutions (MFIs), which provide financial services to low-income households in developing countries. Repeat borrowers reduce MFI administrative costs, lower risks, and increase institutional productivity. In...

A competing risks model is implemented to establish the influence of cash flow-based counseling on mortgage loan repayment by rural and urban low-income households. Data from 405 counseled and non-counseled clients are used to test hypotheses about the effectiveness of counseling, duration of...

This paper applies growth optimization with downside protection as a portfolio selection technique. The model is based on power-log utility functions that combine portfolio growth maximization with the behavioural tenets of prospect theory. We use three assets (a farm return index, a stock...

The economic literature has highlighted how in the absence of income insurance risk averse households may voluntarily withdraw from credit markets, since contract terms may transfer too much risk to the household (Boucher, Carter, and Guirkinger, 2007). Therefore, households may forgo activities...

The paper proposes a new disequilibrium approach to modeling international capital mobility. Key to this approach are errors in investors' assessments of potential returns to capital -- such as those recently observed in Asia. We use the model to study dynamic adjustment of North American farm...

The purpose of this paper is to develop a general approach to valuing commodity-linked bonds (CLBs) based on the Heath-Jarrow-Morton (HJM) framework. The model deals with four dimensions of uncertainty: prices of the underlying commodity, the value of firm that issues bonds, interest rates, and...