The agricultural sector is a central part of the Fiji Islands economy. Policies to alleviate poverty and stimulate economic growth need to be based on a sound understanding of the local agricultural systems involved. This understanding needs to extend to the responsiveness of production to price...

In a production process with a labor and a nonlabor input we show that the principals profits increase when she controls the nonlabor input. Furthermore output increases since the principal can allocate capital to help mitigate her information costs. However this mitigation of information costs...

In this paper we assess the effects of the dramatic rise in agricultural commodity prices during 2007-2008 on income dynamics and poverty among rural households in Bangladesh. We use data from a nationally representative longitudinal survey of rural households in Bangladesh collected in four...

The results of a nationwide New Zealand survey into willingness to pay (WTP) for six different genetically modified (GM) food products were used to estimate market-level demand curves for the products. The raw results clearly indicate that different New Zealanders have different WTP for GM food....

Until the world financial crisis struck, commodity and food prices seemed to be on an inexorable uptrend. The increases caused widespread concern about the effects of higher food prices on poverty. These concerns are relevant to the poor people everywhere but are especially relevant to poor...

Analysis of changes in the industrial composition of economic activity (structural change) is important for informed policy making. Such analysis can best be undertaken using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. CGE models recognize links among industries arising from their roles as...

We estimate the efficiency of groundwater use in cotton production in the Punjab province of Pakistan. We use a survey data of 189 cotton producers comprising 98 tube-well owners and 91 water buyers in order to get the differential impact of tube-well ownership on groundwater use efficiency. We...

Poverty alleviation remains a challenge for Thailand’s socio-economic development. A key strategy of the Thai government to help meet this challenge at the ‘grass roots’ level has been the promotion of Community-Based Enterprises (CBEs). And national statistics and descriptive studies have...

Effective socio-economic service delivery is vital for alleviating poverty in developing countries. Increased financial support without complementary investment in service delivery mechanisms often results in little or no impact. This paper contributes to the discussion on how to maximize the...