SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Vu Le, Quan; Rishi, Meenakshi.

Which types of governance indicators matter the most for private investment? This short paper answers the question by examining the impact of specific governance indicators on private investment in a cross-section of developing economies. Results indicate that an effective government that includes competent and independent civil service and credible governmental policies are positively associated with private investment. Fair and predictable rules of the game that determine the extent to which property rights are protected also facilitate greater private investment. Based on this the paper concludes that since some indicators of governance matter more than others, targeted institutional reform that focuses first on the significant dimensions may be key to...

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Private investment; Governance; Developing economies.; International Development; Public Economics; E02; E22; O16.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/95914

Global Food Price Volatility and Spikes: An Overview of Costs, Causes, and Solutions

von Braun, Joachim; Tadesse, Getaw.

Since the 2007–08 food crisis, many thoughtful analyses have addressed the causes and impacts of high and volatile international food prices and proposed solutions to the crisis. These studies have covered global as well as local food price dynamics and policy reactions. The food price problem is, however, far-reaching, and its impacts are wide and interrelated. The price formation mechanism has become highly complex and dynamic. Policy actions are politically and economically sensitive. This situation calls for continuous and comprehensive assessments of the problem to provide timely and evidence-based knowledge for policy makers. This paper reviews existing evidence and theories and presents new thoughts and insights from analyses to enlighten the course...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Food security; Prices; Volatility; Poverty; Food policy; Speculation; Economic crises; Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Food Security and Poverty; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics; I38; O13; O16; Q11; Q18.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/120021

Trade and Geography in the Economic Origins of Islam: Theory and Evidence

Michalopoulos, Stelios; Naghavi, Alireza; Prarolo, Giovanni.

This research examines the economic origins of Islam and uncovers two empirical regularities. First, Muslim countries, virtual countries and ethnic groups, exhibit highly unequal regional agricultural endowments. Second, Muslim adherence is systematically larger along the pre-Islamic trade routes in the Old World. The theory argues that this particular type of geography (i) determined the economic aspects of the religious doctrine upon which Islam was formed, and (ii) shaped its subsequent economic performance. It suggests that the unequal distribution of land endowments conferred differential gains from trade across regions, fostering predatory behavior from the poorly endowed ones. In such an environment it was mutually beneficial to institute a system...

Is There Surplus Labor in Rural India?

Palavras-chave: Religion; Islam; Geography; Physical Capital; Human Capital; Land Inequality; Wealth Inequality; Trade; Labor and Human Capital; O10; O13; O16; O17; O18; F10; Z12.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91008

Foster, Andrew D.; Rosenzweig, Mark R..

We show empirically using panel data at the plot and farm level and based on a model incorporating supervision costs, risk, credit-market imperfections and scale-economies associated with mechanization that small-scale farming is inefficient in India. Larger farms are more profitable per acre, more mechanized, less constrained in input use after bad shocks, and employ less per-acre labor than small farms. Based on our structural estimates of the effects of farm size on labor use and the distribution of Indian landholdings, we estimate that over 20% of the Indian agricultural labor force is surplus if minimum farm scale is 20 acres.

Consumption Growth in a Booming Economy: Taiwan 1976-96

Palavras-chave: Agriculture; India; Scale; Profits; Labor; Tractors; Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Crop Production/Industries; International Development; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics; Productivity Analysis; Risk and Uncertainty; O13; O16; O53.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/95273

McKenzie, David.

Consumption and income have both grown rapidly in Taiwan over the past forty years, with younger birth cohorts experiencing faster growth. The long upward trend in consumption presents a strong challenge to the consumption smoothing predictions of the Permanent Income Hypothesis. We investigate the extent to which consumption theory can account for this trend in an environment where a large majority of households have high savings rates. Household survey data from 1976-96 are used to estimate dynamic pseudo-panel models with inter-cohort heterogeneity. We evaluate the impacts on consumption of migration, mortality, household composition, liquidity constraints, unanticipated aggregate shocks, hyperbolic discounting, habit formation and precautionary saving....

Micro-Savings & Informal Insurance in Villages: A Field Experiment on Indirect Effects of Financial Deepening on Safety Nets of the Poor

Palavras-chave: Consumption growth; Pseudo-panel; Prudence; Taiwan; International Development; O12; O16; E21; C23.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28398

Flory, Jeffrey A..

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/28/11. Former title: Indirect Effects of Microfinance: A Field Experiment on Formal Savings Expansion and Informal Safety Nets of the Ultra-Poor

How Costly are (Agricultural) Investments during Economic Transition? A Critical Literature Appraisal

Palavras-chave: Microfinance; Formal savings; Indirect effects; Safety nets; Poverty; Food security; Agricultural Finance; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Financial Economics; Food Security and Poverty; Health Economics and Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; International Development; O17; O16; O12; I30; I38; I10.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103905

Zinych, Nataliya; Odening, Martin.

Investment theory

The role of structural changes in increasing competitiveness of Baltic dairy farms

Palavras-chave: Investment; Transition; Credit constraints; Soft budget constraints; Agricultural Finance; Financial Economics; O16; Q14; P23.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50319

Veveris, Armands.

The paper provides analysis of dairy farms in the Baltic States, their development since accessing EU. During this period the specialisation level has increased but the total number of farms has fast reduced. The total economic indicators increased until 2007, but they still significantly lag behind Western Europe. Big investment has been made, but in the result, the cost level has not reduced but even increased, which has several reasons. Thus many farms were not ready to survive the economic downturn. The results of the research allow concluding that when planning future support for dairy industry the main attention should be paid to introducing cost competitive technologies, supporting cooperation in the purchase and use of fixed assets; it is necessary...

Short and Long Run Determinants of Private Investment in Argentina

Palavras-chave: Dairy sector (O13); Income (Q14); Investment (O16); Support (Q18).; Community/Rural/Urban Development; O13; Q14; O16; Q18.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/95309

Acosta, Pablo; Loza, Andres.

This study provides an empirical analysis of the macroeconomic factors that can potentially affect investment decisions in Argentina in a short, medium and long run perspective. Both the theory and the empirical literature are reviewed in order to identify a private investment function for the last three decades (1970-2000). The results suggest that investment decisions seem to be determined, in the short run, by shocks in returns (exchange rate, trade liberalization) and in aggregate demand. Besides, there is evidence of a “crowding-out” effect of public investment. In the long run, the capital accumulation path seems to be closely dependent on both well-developed financial and credit markets and on perspectives of fiscal sustainability.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Investment; Macroeconomic instability; Crowding-out; Argentina; E22; H54; O16; O23.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37161

Informal Finance: A Theory of Moneylenders

Madestam, Andreas.

I study the coexistence of formal and informal finance in underdeveloped credit markets. While weak institutions constrain formal banks, shallow pockets hamper informal lenders. In such economies, informal finance has two effects. By increasing the investment return it decreases borrowers’ relative payoff following default, inducing banks to lend more liberally (disciplinary effect). By channeling bank capital it reduces banks’ agency costs from lending directly to borrowers, limiting banks’ extension of borrower credit (rent-extraction effect). Among other things, the model shows that informal interest rates are higher, borrower welfare lower, and informal finance more prevalent when the rent-extraction effect prevails, consistent with stylized facts in...

Selling formal Insurance to the Informally Insured

Palavras-chave: Credit Markets; Financial Development; Institutions; Market Structure; Financial Economics; O12; O16; O17; D40.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54288

Mobarak, A. Mushfiq; Rosenzweig, Mark R..

Unpredictable rainfall is an important risk for agricultural activity, and farmers in developing countries often receive incomplete insurance from informal risk-sharing networks. We study the demand for, and effects of, offering formal index-based rainfall insurance through a randomized experiment in an environment where the informal risk sharing network can be readily identified and richly characterized: sub-castes in rural India. A model allowing for both idiosyncratic and aggregate risk shows that informal networks lower the demand for formal insurance only if the network indemnifies against aggregate risk, but not if its primary role is to insure against farmer-specific losses. When formal insurance carries basis risk (mismatches between payouts and...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Index insurance; Risk sharing; Basis risk; Agricultural Finance; Financial Economics; International Development; Productivity Analysis; Risk and Uncertainty; O17; O13; O16.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121671

Aid, Governance, and Private Foreign Investment: Some Puzzling Findings and a Possible Explanation

Harms, Philipp; Lutz, Matthias.

Does official aid pave the road for private foreign investment or does it suffocate private initiative by diverting resources towards unproductive activities? In this paper we explore this question using data for a large number of developing and emerging economies. Controlling for countries' institutional environment, we find that, evaluated at the mean, the marginal effect of aid on private foreign investment is close to zero. Surprisingly, however, the effect is strictly positive for countries in which private agents face a substantial regulatory burden. After testing the robustness of this result, we offer a theoretical model that is able to rationalize our puzzling observation.

Formal credit institutions in agriculture of Kazakhstan (micro-econometric analysis)

Palavras-chave: Aid; Foreign Direct Investment; Institutions; International Relations/Trade; F35; F21; O16; O19.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/26128

Gaisina, Sholpan.

The financing of agricultural producers is one of the most acute problems along the entire scope of economic reforms in Kazakhstan. The issue is: What kind of financial sources could maintain the development of agricultural production? Internal sources such as profit, depreciation capital, and various reserve and insurance funds can not be considered as a key financial base. State financial support of agriculture in Kazakhstan (which plays a significant role in the most developed countries), is episodic in nature, small in size and typically does not reach the recipients. In these circumstances, a potential supplier of financial and investment resources could be a banking system and such non-banking credit institutions as credit cooperatives....

Ownership and Control in the Entrepreneurial Firm: An International History of Private Limited Companies

Palavras-chave: Agricultural finance; Credit rationing; Micro-econometrics analysis; Agricultural and Food Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Political Economy; G21; O16; Q 14.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/90801

Guinnane, Timothy W.; Harris, Ron; Lamoreaux, Naomi R.; Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent.

We use the history of private limited liability companies (PLLCs) to challenge two pervasive assumptions in the literature: (1) Anglo-American legal institutions were better for economic development than continental Europe’s civil-law institutions; and (2) the corporation was the superior form of business organization. Data on the number and types of firms organized in France, Germany, the UK, and the US show that that the PLLC became the form of choice for small- and medium-size enterprises wherever and whenever it was introduced. The PLLC’s key advantage was its flexible internal governance rules that allowed its users to limit the threat of untimely dissolution inherent in partnerships without taking on the full danger of minority oppression that the...

Infrastructure in developing countries: An overview of some economic issues

Palavras-chave: Limited company; Partnership; Corporation; Legal regime; Common law; Civil law; Financial Economics; N8; G3; O16; K22.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6879

Dethier, Jean-Jacques; Moore, Alexander.

This paper surveys the main issues and controversies in the economic literature on infrastructure in developing countries. Section I reviews the evidence on the role of infrastructure in promoting economic growth. It is argued that, although infrastructure may be more important for growth than other types of capital, the exact size and form of its effect is less clear than is often assumed. Section II looks at the issue of infrastructure “needs”, estimates of which are pervasive in both the academic and policy literature. It is argued that the preoccupation with such estimates is largely misplaced. More crucial is to develop systems of infrastructure enabling competition through an appropriate market structure. Therefore, section III reviews the economic...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Infrastructure; Developing Countries; Economic Growth; Regulation; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; L9; L16; O16; O2.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/123305

That's Where the Money Was: Foreign Bias and English Investment Abroad, 1866-1907

Chabot, Benjamin; Kurz, Christopher.

Why did Victorian Britain invest so much capital abroad? We collect over 500,000 monthly returns of British and foreign securities trading in London and the United States between 1866 and 1907. These heretofore-unknown data allow us to better quantify the historical benefits of international diversification and revisit the question of whether British Victorian investor bias starved new domestic industries of capital. We find no evidence of bias. A British investor who increased his investment in new British industry at the expense of foreign diversification would have been worse off. The addition of foreign assets significantly expanded the mean-variance frontier and resulted in utility gains equivalent to a meaningful increase in lifetime consumption.

The Neoliberal Myth in Latin America: The Cases of Mexico and Argentina in the 90s

Palavras-chave: Capital markets; Home bias; History; Victorian overseas investment; Financial Economics; Risk and Uncertainty; E44; F22; G11; G15; N21; N23; O16.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50950

Ronchi, Veronica.

During the '90s most Latin American countries were submitted to neoliberal structural reform policies. Neoliberal policies imposed market supremacy, reduced the State's role in the economy and deregulated the markets. This paper aims at describing how these policies affected the most important macroeconomic indexes, with special emphasis on Argentina and Mexico, the two countries that suffered most from the economic crises of the '80s and '90s, and where the neoliberal policies were applied with greater orthodoxy. In spite of a slight improvement in some macroeconomic indexes, in Latin America neoliberalism failed to reduce poverty and unemployment, and was unable to guarantee a fair distribution of the wealth and improve welfare.

How Rising Competition Among Microfinance Lenders Affects Incumbent Village Banks

Palavras-chave: Latin America; Mexico; Argentina; '90s; Neoliberalism; Political Economy; E21; E22; E24; E26; N16; N26; N36; O16.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9335

McIntosh, Craig; de Janvry, Alain; Sadoulet, Elisabeth.

This paper uses data from Uganda's largest incumbent microfinance institution to analyze the impact of entry by competing lenders on client behavior. We first examine the geographic placement decisions of competitors, and find that placement decisions are strongly affected by district-level characteristics. We observe that increased competition induces a decline in repayment performance and in savings deposited with the incumbent Village Bank, suggesting multiple loan-taking by clients. Urban clients take multiple loans primarily from lenders with more individual methodologies, while rural clients borrow from several group lenders. Individuals who operate larger businesses are the ones most likely to leave the incumbent Village Bank when a Solidarity Group...

You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Need to Watch Them: Loan Screening and Enforcement in a Referrals Field Experiment

Palavras-chave: Microfinance; Competition; Credit markets; Financial Economics; O16; D14; L1.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25073

Bryan, Gharad; Karlan, Dean S.; Zinman, Jonathan.

We examine a randomized trial that allows separate identification of peer screening and enforcement of credit contracts. A South African microlender offered half its clients a bonus for referring a friend who repaid a loan. For the remaining clients, the bonus was conditional on loan approval. After approval, the repayment incentive was removed from half the referrers in the first group and added for half those in the second. We find large enforcement effects, a $12 (100 Rand) incentive reduced default by 10 percentage points from a base of 20%. In contrast, we find no evidence of screening.

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Information asymmetries; Credit market failures; Peer networks; Social capital; Social networks; Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; International Development; C93; D12; D14; D82; O12; O16.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121674

Monitoring Managers: Does it Matter?

Cornelli, Francesca; Kominek, Zbigniew; Ljungqvist, Alexander.

We test under what circumstances boards discipline managers and whether such interventions improve performance. We exploit exogenous variation due to the staggered adoption of corporate governance laws in formerly Communist countries coupled with detailed ‘hard’ information about the board’s performance expectations and ‘soft’ information about board and CEO actions and the board’s beliefs about CEO competence in 473 mostly private-sector companies backed by private equity funds between 1993 and 2008. We find that CEOs are fired when the company underperforms relative to the board’s expectations, suggesting that boards use performance to update their beliefs. CEOs are especially likely to be fired when evidence has mounted that they are incompetent and...