When farmers consume much of their grain output, end-use quality, in addition to standard production characteristics, affects farmers' seed choice and the economic returns to investment in crop breeding. Evidence from Malawi suggests that despite a lengthy research lag, emphasizing grain quality...

The paper explains the market segmentation that occurs in the Philippine informal credit markets through the matching of borrows and lenders by their occupational specialization which internalizes transaction costs and facilitates economic activity. The regression results support a predictable...

The effects of successive currency devaluations, since the 1980s, on Malawi's trade balance are analysed. The major hypothesis tested is that currency devaluation leads to an improvement in trade balance through changes in the real exchange rate. This hypothesis is not supported by the data for...

The paper presents an empirical investigation of the supply of maize and tobacco for commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe. The error correction model, which employs the concept of cointegration to avoid spurious regressions, is used in the analysis. The factors affecting percentage area planted to...

This paper examines the effects of government interventions during 1965-91 on short-run price stability and long-run price incentives, as well as the further repercussions on producer income and welfare, for the main agricultural export crop (cotton) in Egypt. In contrast to most existing...

The objective in this paper is to suggest an alternative method of estimating farmer-specific and input-specific allocative efficiency, taking into account the influence of the methods of application of inputs on output. Further, we compare the proposed measures with those calculated based on...

The policy preference function (PPF) approach continues to be the subject of considerable interest in agricultural economics. Recent work has added sophistication and strengthened the approach's theoretical underpinnings. In this paper, several implications of this recent work are considered....

International strategic agricultural trade policy interdependence is modelled using a game theoretical framework. The model distinguishes between the European Community, the United States and a politically passive rest-of-the-world. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect of the exchange...

The measurement of agricultural productivity is important in understanding growth in agriculture and in assessing competitiveness. In this paper, some difficulties related to the empirical measurement of productivity are analyzed using a Canadian case study. The paper focuses in particular on...

This paper analyzes the determinants of conservation investments at the farm level in Rwanda. The following tend to be important promoters of investment: (a) own-sources of liquidity, especially from off-farm employment; (b) smaller landholdings; (c) household labour; and, under certain...