China’s spectacular growth and poverty reduction has been accompanied by growing inequality which threatens the social compact and thus the political basis for economic growth and social development. The regional dimension of inequality— rural/urban, inland/coastal and provincial—dominates...

The standard theory of anti-poverty targeting assumes individual incomes cannot be observed, but statistical properties of income distribution in broadly defined groups are known. Targeting rules are then derived for the forms of transfers conditioned on group membership of individuals. In this...

A combination of higher oil production as well as higher oil prices is creating oil revenue windfalls for some Sub Saharan African countries. If well managed, these revenues have the potential to reduce poverty and bridge the development gap; if not they could lead to Dutch disease and an...

Agricultural market information such as commodity prices, trade volumes and weather conditions, plays an important facilitating role in improving the performance of markets. This research assesses the impact of the agricultural Market Information Service (MIS) on the performance of maize markets...

We investigate how vertical unity within a community interacts with horizontal class divisions of an unequal income distribution. Community is conceptualized in terms of a public good to which all those in the community have equal access, but from which outsiders are excluded. We formulate the...

We investigate how voluntary contributions to community-specific public goods affect (a) the relationship between inequality of incomes and inequality of welfare outcomes, and (b) individuals’ material incentives for supporting income redistribution. We show that the nominal distribution of...

Brands have largely been absent for fresh produce products; however, apples are one notable exception whereby varieties partially take the place of brands. Studying the role of brands in this market is particularly interesting given the introduction of several patented or socalled managed apple...