Introduction The purposes of this paper are: (1) to introduce the social capital paradigm; (2) to present evidence that social capital has an important role in poverty reduction; and (3) to suggest several policy prescriptions for building and using social capital to reduce poverty. The social...

The collection, primary processing, and subsequent sale of shea-based products make an important contribution to rural women’s cash income in many of Mali’s shea producing areas. Internationally, shea has recently become popular in high-valued cosmetics thanks to its therapeutic...

This paper briefly examines how social capital affects overall economic growth processes and individual firm development, both positively and negatively, in low- and middle-income countries. The paper discusses how the concept of social capital is related to simple economic growth models and to...

Individuals and groups have different preferences for the types of planning and development efforts that are undertaken by governmental agencies. Some people prefer programs aimed at alleviating unemployment situations. Others prefer programs designed to improve the natural environment, or to...

The ability of a firm to differentiate their product hinges critically on an accurate understanding of the perceptions consumers hold regarding the implications of a credence labeling claim. Building upon existing work evaluating other food attribute labels (e.g., genetically-modified products,...

Broad institutional changes, which occurred after Kazakhstan separated from the Soviet Union in 1991, direct performance in the agricultural sector by either creating costs for farmers or shifting costs away. First, the new government called for mass decollectivization that resulted in the...