Based on original trader surveys, this paper examines how agricultural traders operate in Benin and Malawi. Results indicate that the largest transactions costs are search and transport. The use of modern technology is limited. Search methods rely principally on personal visits by the trader....

In this paper the links from measures of consumption to welfare and well-being are discussed drawing on a study of changes in consumption in Ghana in the 1990s. It is argued that household consumption can act as an opportunity measure of welfare. The widespread distrust of such a welfare measure...

This paper analyses the effects of risk on the holding of inventories and liquid assets by manufacturing firms. Using a panel data set for Zimbabwe which includes firm-specific measures of contractual risk, we show that contractual risk has a major effect on the holding of stocks of inputs and,...

Three issues are addressed in this paper. First, we use both household and macro data to establish how fast per capita consumption and incomes grew in Ghana in the 1990s. Second, we ask how much of the rise in incomes was due to rises in the level of human capital and how much reflected...

In order to assess the effect of jumps on realised variance calculations, we study some of the econometric properties of time-changed Levy processes. We show that in general we can derive the second order properties of realised variances and use these to estimate the parameters of such models....

Although some recent studies have analysed issues relating to credit in African manufacturing, they have not directly tested for the effect of credit on firm growth. The use of bank credit can affect firm growth in two opposite ways. The effect may be positive if credit allows a firm to address...

Using detailed data from three simultaneous surveys of producers, traders, and exporters, this paper examines the transmission of international coffee prices through the domestic value chain in Uganda. We find that producer prices fluctuations are inconsistent with constant transactions costs....

Disputes about econometric methodology partly reflect a lack of evidence on alternative approaches. We reconsider econometric model selection from a computer-automation perspective, focusing on general-to-specific reductions, embodied in PcGets. Starting from a general congruent model, standard...

This paper examines income dynamics for a panel of households resettled on former white-owned farms in the aftermath of Zimbabwe`s independence. There are four core findings: (i) there has been an impressive accumulation of assets by these households; (ii) while this accumulation has played a...