Can structural adjustment work for women farmers

This article discusses the impact of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) on women farmers in developing countries. SAPs aim to improve economic efficiency and promote more rapid economic growth. SAPs are introduced in two phases. The first phase involves short-term loans with the condition that the country adopt monetary restraints and currency devaluation measures. In the second phase, long-term loans are given with the provision that the country deregulate their economy and open up markets. The agricultural sector is affected by SAPs because of their importance in employment, income generation, and export earnings. SAPs result in lower farm commodity prices due to currency devaluations and in removal of subsidies, which results in market-sensitive pricing or higher food prices. The impact of SAPs on agriculture vary between countries. In Morocco and Algeria, agriculture expanded under SAPs. In Indonesia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and Mexico, the agriculture stagnated or declined. Agricultural growth was slowest in Africa. SAPs were somewhat successful in increasing agricultural exports. Food production grew slowly in many adjusting countries. Blame for failures of SAPs has been placed on government failure to implement reforms properly and overly optimistic assumptions about the timing of productive gains. Little attention has focused on the constraints facing women farmers, who are a large proportion of farmers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This article focuses on the issues of limited access to resources, credit, agricultural extension and information, land ownership, education, and time as constraints to women farmers. Women also must ensure household food security. For SAPs to work effectively, complementary policies must be implemented that reallocate available productive resources and new technologies to women and that deal with women's constraints.     

Competition or Comparative Advantage: What Drives Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions?

The theory of comparative advantage explains the upsurge of cross border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) in the era of reform led trade liberalization. This paper tests the theory of comparative advantage for CBMAs by firms belonging to a developing country, viz. India. Using count data the paper also shows that CBMAs have occurred in country and sector specific waves. This implies in developing countries, it is competition rather than comparative advantage which drives CBMAs. However, the paper finds that occurrence of the country specific wave and sector specific wave are negatively affected by favourable outward FDI policy.

     

North–South Trade and Pollution Migration: The Debate Revisited

The paper examines the effect of freer North–South trade in goods on pollution, commodity terms-of-trade and national welfare, utilizing a factor endowment framework. North and South are distinguished in terms of the relative endowment of a pollution causing natural resource: South is relatively more resource abundant. Compared to the analysis of Copeland and Taylor (1994)—which is the central work so far on this subject—this paper internalizes the commodity terms-of-trade impact of individual environment policies. It is derived that if countries specialize completely in the free-trade equilibrium, both are induced to reduce their pollution as compared to autarky. It is interesting and paradoxical that the South also reduces its pollution, despite specializing in the pollution-intensive good. Again, contrary to common perception, free trade may entail an overall terms-of-trade loss for the North, while South will always have a positive change in the terms-of-trade. Finally, inspite of better environment, free trade may cause both the countries to gain or lose in terms of aggregate welfare. This research has benefitted from comments received at the conference on International Dimension of Environment Policy organized by the European Science Foundation and Tilburg University, October 7–12, 2000 Kerkrade, The Netherlands and the International Conference on Environment and Development organized by CITD, School of International Studies, JNU, April 7–8, 2005, New Delhi, India, as well as those received from two anonymous referees. A small section of this research was published in Mehra and Das (2002).     

Stochastic growth with correlated production shocks

This paper extends the stochastic growth model of Brock and Mirman [J. Econ. Theory4 (1972), 497–513] to allow the production shocks to be correlated over time. The resultant optimal savings and consumption policies depend not only upon the current level of output but also upon the most recent realization of the random shock. The properties of these policy functions are studied and it is shown that the Markov process on output, capital stock and consumption resulting from the application of these policies converges to a stationary distribution.     

On the impact of shock persistence on the dynamics of a recursive economy

The present note relies exclusively on numerical computation of a parametric version of a (stochastic) version of the one-sector neoclassical growth model to derive the qualitative properties of the optimal consumption/investment policy functions and of the resultant steady state, and to study the manner in which these properties are affected by an increase in the degree of shock persistence. In particular, we measure the effects of (differing degrees of) shock persistence on the means and variances of the resulting (stationary) distributions on output, consumption, and capital stock. Furthermore, we explore the effects of increasing degrees of shock persistence on the dynamic time path of the economy.     

Junior is rich: bequests as consumption

We explore the consequences for asset pricing of admitting a bequest motive into an otherwise standard overlapping generations economy where agents trade equity, a risk free asset and consol bonds. With low risk aversion, the calibrated model produces realistic values for the mean equity premium and the risk free rate, the variance of the equity premium, and the ratio of bequests to wealth. However, the variance of the risk free rate is unrealistically high. Security prices tend to be substantially higher in an economy with bequests as compared to an otherwise identical one where bequests are absent. We are able to keep the prices sufficiently low to generate reasonable returns and premia by stipulating that a portion of the bequests skips a generation and is received by the young.

“You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation.” Patek Philippe & Co.

We thank John Cox, Jean Pierre Danthine, Felix Kubler, Edward Prescott and seminar participants at The Bank of Italy, Columbia, Lausanne, Mannheim, MIT, Lugano, SIFR, the University of New South Wales, USC, Yale and the University of Zurich for insightful xcomments. The usual caveat applies.     

The Value of Work: Rethinking Labor Productivity in Times of COVID-19 and Automation

This article provides a new perspective on the value of work and recommends ways to respond to labor market failures exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and by increased automation. We consider the human right to work, the dangers of pursuing short-term efficiency, and the use of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for inclusive economic innovation. We conclude with recommended policies to build forward and achieve inclusive development.