Working Paper
Innovation activity in South Africa
Improvements in productivity are necessary to effectively increase economic growth in the long term. The literature emphasizes a positive correlation between firm-level innovation and productivity gains. It is unsurprising, then, that policy makers...
Working Paper
The Road to the Market in North Korea
North Korea's economic reform began in the mid-1980s. It was motivated by the increasing seriousness of the problems typical of centrally planned socialist economies.In general, the country's reforms have so far been limited both in scope and depth...
Journal Article
Financial Liberalization and Banking Sector Efficiency in India
The Indian financial sector has undergone a significant structural transformation since the initiation of financial liberalization during 1990’s. It brought significant changes in the financial sector in general and banking in particular. While there...
Working Paper
Income Distribution during the Transition in China
This paper's goal is to increase the understanding of the inequality trends during the transitional period in China. From 1978 to 1995, China has been undergoing 18 years far-reaching economic system reform and opening to the outside world nationwide...
Journal Article
Consumption risk, technology adoption and poverty traps
Much has been written on the determinants of technology adoption in agriculture, with issues such as input availability, knowledge and education, risk preferences, profitability, and credit constraints receiving much attention. This paper focuses on...
Journal Article
Gender Bias and the Intrahousehold Distribution of Resources: Evidence from African Nuclear Households in South Africa
This paper applies recent developments in collective model estimation to elicit the allocation of resources in African families in South Africa. We use the 2010/11 South African Income and Expenditure Survey as it contains exclusive goods, i.e...
Journal Article
Backseat Drivers
A book review Book review on 'Protection for exporters: power and discrimination in transatlantic trade relations, 1930-2010' by Andreas Duer Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.
Journal Article
Agglomeration, Growth and Regional Equity
Traditional development models focus on the sector rather than location of growth. Advocates of agriculture-led strategies emphasise agriculture's strong growth linkages and potential to raise rural incomes. The new economic geography literature...
Journal Article
Entrepreneurship and human development
We provide a formal model of entrepreneurship in human development. The framework is provided by the capabilities approach (CA). Hence we extend not only the conceptualisation of entrepreneurship in development, but the reach of the CA into...
Journal Article
Macro–micro feedback links of water management in South Africa
The pressure on an already stressed water situation in South Africa is predicted to increase significantly under climate change, plans for large industrial expansion, ongoing rapid urbanization, and government programs to provide access to water to...
Journal Article
The Forgotten Property Rights
Studies of land property rights usually focus on tenure security and transfer rights. Rights to determine how to use the land are regularly ignored. However, user rights are often limited. Relying on a unique Vietnamese panel data set at both...
Working Paper
Gender Aspects of Urban Economic Growth and Development
The urbanization process is frequently shaped by prevailing constructions of gender. The recognition of this phenomenon is vital both in diagnosis and policy terms. This paper aims at illustrating the importance of gender in three major related...
Journal Article
Entrepreneurship is Not a Binding Constraint on Growth and Development in the Poorest Countries
Many economists claim that entrepreneurship is an important determinant of economic growth and development. In the sub-discipline of development economics however, entrepreneurship is largely absent from explanations of growth and development. This...
Journal Article
The economic costs of extreme weather events
Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have potentially damaging implications for developing countries. Previous studies have estimated economic losses during hypothetical or single historical events, and have relied on historical...
Working Paper
Viet Nam
In analyzing Viet Nam's recent economic adjustments, this paper attempts to distinguish events and policies that are properly assigned to the transition effort (defined as the process of increasing the market determination of economic outcomes) and...