Why Don't Lenders Finance High-Return Technological Change in Developing-Country Agriculture?

Most of the literature attributes credit constraints in small-farm developing-country agriculture to the variability of returns to investment in this sector. But the literature does not fully explain lenders' reluctance to finance investments in technologies that provide both higher average and less variable returns. This article develops an information-theoretic credit market model with endogenous technology choice. The model demonstrates that lenders may refuse to finance any investment in a riskless high-return technology–regardless of the interest rate they are offered–when they are imperfectly informed about loan applicants' time preferences and, therefore, about their propensities to default intentionally in order to finance current consumption.     

Research Trends and Opportunities in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

The research questions and topics most likely to emerge in the near term future are assessed. A common theme is that policy issues will be an important driving force, as has generally been true in the past. More specifically, future theoretical advances are expected to occur in the treatment of uncertainty, the incorporation of stock service flows into natural resource analysis, and the incorporation of institutional considerations into models of resource exploitation. Research on valuation is expected to remain vigorous, primarily in the testing of basic assumptions and reconciliation of existing inconsistencies. Opportunities in renewable resource economics center on the incorporation of richer behavioral and technological detail in the general frameworks that already exist. A better understanding of what drives technology, and how environmental agreements can be negotiated and enforced among sovereign nations, are two topics likely to shape future research on global externalities. Finally, questions related to spatial aspects of natural resource use, and matters of land use more generally, seem likely to emerge as important topics on the profession's future research agenda.     

Institutional roles in technology transfer: a diagnosis of the situation in one small country

The findings of this survey indicate that in fostering international transfer of technology much can be done to influence the development of inter-personal and inter-organizational contacts. This is not in itself a complete answer to international technology transfer, but this study suggests that it is an important, though much neglected area, which should be a central concern in science policy. A survey was conducted in 1970 and 1971 of the communication patterns of more than 1,200 research and development scientists and engineers working in Ireland. Techniques previously used in studying individual firms were adapted to suit the conditions within the country.     

Incorporating biological regeneration into economic assessments of mining in forest regions

Assessments of the economic, environmental and social consequences of mining have usually produced an estimate of the commercial benefits that mining in the area would generate, with environmental costs being examined in physical terms only. A theoretical framework for calculating the threshold environmental value of an area (the minimum size of the environmental cost of mining required to make conservation the socially optimal choice) is developed, where both the potential mining benefits and the rate of biological regrowth following mine rehabilitation are known. Including the rate of biological regrowth allows for the calculation of a more meaningful figure, as the benefits generated by rehabilitation are explicitly considered.     

Integrity and Global Leadership

This paper addresses the role of integrity in global leadership. It reviews the philosophy of ethics and suggests that both contractarianism and pluralism are particularly helpful in understanding ethics from a global leadership perspective. It also reviews the challenges to integrity that come through interactions that are both external and internal to the company. Finally, the paper provides helpful suggestions on how global leaders can define appropriate ethical standards for themselves and their organizations.