Evaluating the impact on market performance of investments in agricultural market information systems (MIS) face several methodological challenges. These fall into two broad categories: (a) defining the dimensions of market performance to measure (which is a function of whom the MIS is designed...

Improving farmers’ access to markets is widely recognized as a major development challenge. A review of the literature suggests that indicators of market access may bear little relationship to the specific processes of interest and hence provide misguided evidence of the impacts of improved...

This paper is a 2014 agricultural outlook covering multiple agricultural commodities and issues.

This paper looks at performance at the individual restaurant level from the perspective of management, customers and employees. The results are based on surveys of each of these three groups conducted between June and September 2001 at a sit-down, casual restaurant chain. There are several key...

Higher union density (the percentage of employees in an area who belong to unions) is known to raise the wages of union members. We find that in the supermarket industry, higher density locally also leads to higher wages for non-union members. Despite this, workers who are not in unions lose...

The rise of super-centers and the entry of Wal-Mart into food retailing have dramatically altered the competitive environment in the industry. This paper explores the impact of such changes on the labor market practices of traditional food retailers. We use longitudinal data on workers and firms...

This document presents a research method to analyze the access of small and medium farmers to the supermarket market, and the effect of such access on the producers' decisions and net incomes. The method was developed for and used in a study carried out in 2004 in three Central American countries.

What role has the growing practice of eating out rather than at home played in the evolution of wages in retail food? Between 1983 and 1998, real wages fell for nearly all types of grocery store employees, whether they were relatively well paid, poorly paid, or somewhere in the middle. This...

Most retail food firms adhere to traditional human resources management practices, with employees enjoying little involvement in decision-making and little participation in company financial returns. More than one tenth of non-food firms have innovative human resources systems, with much...