one size fits all towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach innovation has moved to the foreground in regional policy in the last decade concrete policies were shaped by best practice models derived from high tech areas and well performing regions these are often applied in a similar way across many types of regions here an attempt is made to show that there is no ideal model for innovation policy as innovation activities differ strongly between central peripheral and old industrial areas in this paper we analyse different types of regions with respect to their preconditions for innovation networking and innovation barriers based on this classification different policy options and strategies are developed

food insecurity poverty and the malawian starter pack fresh start or false start abstract chronic food insecurity and chronic poverty are closely related in malawi since independence in 1964 national food security has been a key policy objective however until the 1990s less emphasis was placed on the household dimensions of food security and its links with chronic poverty in the last decade a number of initiatives have been used in malawi to tackle the issue of household food insecurity one of the most controversial has been the starter pack programme launched in 1998 initially consisting of a free handout of packs of improved maize seed legumes and fertiliser to every small holder farm household in malawi the scheme under donor pressure was subsequently scaled down to become a form of targeted social safety net programme this paper analyses the strengths and weakness of both the original programme and its scaled down version and assesses the reason for the considerable opposition to the programme from malawi s donor community although starter pack is no longer operative in malawi the malawian experience is used to derive lessons for other countries where household food insecurity is an important dimension of chronic poverty

universities as strategic actors in the knowledge economy the university plays a particular role in the global knowledge economy as provider of both public and private goods related to education research and societal impacts at the same time universities in the plural play many different roles and exhibit a rich experimentation in organizational forms and knowledge foci adapting to local and global conditions there is also an aspect of uneven regional development and agglomeration of competencies as the individuals and organizations must also balance local interests and stakeholders with global networks in science technology and innovation thus we can identify empirically that universities are changing their strategies organizational structures and competencies in order to respond to new external demands and internal management practices bonaccorsi and daraio 2007 the question is how to explain this theoretically and identify empirical trends and pathways little previous research has focused upon how universities are learning to compete and why they try to act strategically this article as well as the selected articles in the special issue focus upon how and why this transition is occurring as well as the impacts for understanding universities as strategic actors in the knowledge economy section 2 provides an overview it introduces the three themes and articles collected in this special issue providing a summary of the main contributions section 3 then provides our perspective on how to analyze and understand universities as strategic actors it discusses relevant literature as a way of beginning to provide our perspective of the necessity and elements involved in a more united theoretical and empirical understanding this includes statement of predictions as well as empirical evidence that these trends are occurring section 4 concludes with relevant research themes for the future

the nlrb s deferral to arbitration before and after olin an empirical analysis the nlrb s 1984 decision in olin corporation established new guidelines making it more likely that the board and its regional offices would defer in unfair labor practice cases to the prior decisions of arbitrators in those cases analyzing case file data in two nlrb regional offices for the january 1983 june 1985 period the author questions the validity of some assumptions underlying the olin decision and raises concerns about the consequences of the decision she finds that the two offices frequently deferred to and infrequently dissected arbitral opinions even before olin and that subsequently the percentage of cases deferred rose even higher furthermore following olin the board s division of advice promulgated and at least one of the two regional offices apparently adopted an inferential form of analysis that may compromise the statutory rights of charging parties particularly individual charging parties

the economic theory of agrarian institutions introduction alternative approaches to the theory of institutions in economic development pranab bardhan rational peasants efficient institutions and a theory of rural organization methodological remarks for development economics joseph e stiglitz part 1 land and labour theories of sharecropping nirvikar singh a comparison of principal agent and bargaining solutions the case of tenancy contracts clive bell contracts with eviction in infinitely repeated principal agent relationships bhaskar dutta et al production relations in semi arid african agriculture hans binswanger et al part 2 credit and interlinked transactions rural credit markets the structure of interest rates exploitation and efficiency kaushik basu credit and agrarian class structure mukesh eswaran and ashok kotwal credit rationing tenancy productivity and the dynamics of inequality avishay braverman and joseph e stiglitz on choice among creditors and bonded labour contracts t n srinivasan some aspects of linked product and credit market contracts among risk neutral agents clive bell and t n srinivasan a note on interlinked rural economic arrangements pranab bardhan interlinkages and the pattern of competition debraj ray and kunal sengupta part 3 marketing and insurance agricultural institutions for insurance and stabilization david m newbery peasants risk aversion and the choice of marketing intermediaries and contracts a bargaining theory of equilibrium marketing contracts pinhas zusman part 4 co operatives technology and the state agricultural producer co operatives louis putterman institutional analysis of credit co operatives avishay braverman and j luis guasch agrarian structure technological innovations and the state alain de janvry et al

coordination risk and cost impacts on economic development in poor rural areas this paper addresses issues relevant to a critical problem in economic development how to get rapid pro poor economic growth in poor rural areas in africa and south asia where most of the world s dollar a day poor live it examines constraints to the development of coordinated exchange systems in poor rural areas focusing on the core problem of thin markets and low density of economic activity in these areas transaction cost and risk analysis is integrated into a conventional neoclassical production economics framework to describe the existence of low level equilibrium traps in transactions and supply chains and to generate important insights for development policy

the stagnation of smallholder agriculture in malawi a decade of structural adjustment abstract malawi s efforts at structural adjustment have revolved around reforming the marketing and pricing of outputs and inputs in smallholder agriculture in practice the price oriented adjustment policies were not thorough enough and have led to disappointing results there is clearly a need to push for further reforms in pricing however structural adjustment in malawi will have to go beyond just getting prices right policies must also concentrate on structural and institutional weaknesses that constrain smallholder agriculture and contribute to widespread food insecurity and malnutrition

impact of improved maize adoption on welfare of farm households in malawi a panel data analysis summary this paper assesses rural households decision to use improved maize varieties in malawi and examines its impact on household welfare using a three year household panel data the distributional effect of maize technology adoption is investigated by looking at impacts across wealth and gender groups we applied control function approach and iv regression to control for possible endogeneity of input subsidy and area under improved maize we found that area under improved maize varieties is positively correlated with own maize consumption income and asset holdings we found evidence that improved maize adoption has a stronger impact on welfare of poorer households

approaches to uprooting poverty in africa abstract poverty in africa is primarily a rural phenomenon its growing incidence is partly due to slow growth in gdp induced by economic policies that discriminated against agriculture urban bias in social spending has left the rural poor with little or no access to basic needs technological change improved rural infrastructure and an efficient marketing environment are needed to enhance agricultural growth and maximize returns to the rural producer improving the human capital of the rural poor will expand their employment opportunities cost effective transfer programmes would provide a safety net for the vulnerable poor

from knowledge based economy to knowledge based economy reflections on changes in the economy and development policies in the north east of england hudson r from knowledge based economy to knowledge based economy reflections on changes in the economy and development policies in the north east of england regional studies against the background of claims made about the emergence of a new knowledge based economy the paper explores the role of knowledge learning and innovation in the economy and in relation to regional economic development and to successive conceptions of regional development policies through the lens of the successive transformations of a particular regional economy that of north east england rather than seeing knowledge as something that has only recently become relevant to economic performance and to understanding of the economy and economic development it is argued that knowledge is central to all economic activity and that different types of such activity draw upon and require different types of knowledge

does lack of access to formal credit constrain agricultural production evidence from the land tenancy market in rural india while it is commonly believed that lack of access to government subsidized formal credit underlies observed differences in farm productivity in rural india there is little empirical evidence on this issue in this paper i address this issue by examining whether households use the farm land rental market to equilibrate their access to formal credit as they are known to do in the case of other imperfectly marketable inputs this research reveals however that the advantage formal borrowers enjoy in the tenancy market does not reflect their access to formal credit per se but their greater ownership of inputs such as irrigated land

urban bias a fresh look focusing on non conforming cases the articles in this special issue abandon the method of stylised facts and highlight instead variation over space and time in so doing they detect errors of commission and omission in the earlier literature on urban bias they call for a focus on the economic role of political institutions the political role of markets for assets and the political significance of technical change

addressing food security in africa via multiple livelihood strategies of women farmers abstract because food insecurity is primarily a problem of low household incomes and poverty and not just inadequate food production projects and programs for food insecure african farmers which aim at increasing production of subsistence crops may be ineffective instead government should look for ways to improve returns to farmers resources in a broader context which may include expanded opportunities for non farm microenterprises and agricultural labor this has been the conventional wisdom since the writings of amartya sen still unclear however are the implications of his thinking for the roles of african women farmers who are traditionally the food crop producers in africa and are often food insecure immediate expansion of income earning activities such as cash cropping and non farm microenterprises may not be possible for women in male headed households in many african societies where cash income is seen as part of the male domain in addition women farmers may need a long adjustment period to diversify their income sources fully because most african countries are at the early stages of structural transformation different developmental interventions both in policy and in technology are therefore needed to address food security and economic transformations in africa in the short and long term

measuring the impacts of agricultural research on poverty reduction policymakers are increasingly calling upon agricultural research managers to consider poverty reduction objectives when making resource allocations the authors present a simple method to measure the impact of agricultural research on the poor this method has the advantage that it presents the results in a manner consistent with commonly used measures of poverty this consistency and focus should facilitate and enhance dialogue between policymakers and research managers when deciding on resource allocations and assessing impacts on poverty reduction an illustrative application is presented using data from malawi

modern varieties productivity and sustainability recent experience and emerging challenges abstract the contribution of modern varieties of cereal crops to increased productivity in the postgreen revolution period is reviewed and the future role of hybrids and biotechnology discussed particular emphasis is given to the ways in which modern varieties may contribute to input efficiency and sustainability finally economic and institutional issues in restructuring plant breeding programs for the most efficient use of resources in both the public and private sectors and at the national and international levels are analyzed

labor shortages on small landholdings in malawi implications for policy reforms abstract a simple linear programming model of representative smallholder households is used to investigate the sources of relative scarcity of labor and land in malawi the paradox of on farm labor shortages on small landholdings can be explained by the multiple constraints smallholders face these multiple constraints including lack of finance concerns for food security and others lead to suboptimal allocations of household resources in turn the low returns to labor and land contribute to household food insecurity and a vicious cycle of poverty the findings of the paper provide a clear signal to policymakers and research and extension institutions that these constraints are all linked and addressing one cannot be effective without addressing the others

estimating the benefits of plant breeding research methodological issues and practical challenges impact assessment studies consistently show that the benefits generated by plant breeding are large positive and widely distributed numerous case studies have concluded that investment in plant breeding research generates attractive rates of return compared to alternative investment opportunities that welfare gains resulting from the adoption of modern varieties mvs reach both favoured and marginal environments and that benefits are broadly shared by producers and consumers but just how reliable are the results of studies that estimate the benefits of plant breeding research this article reviews methods used to estimate the benefits of plant breeding research and discusses theoretical and empirical issues that often receive inadequate attention in applied impact assessment work our objective is not to question the validity of the theoretical frameworks commonly used to estimate the benefits of plant breeding research but rather to examine problems that can arise when the widely accepted theoretical frameworks are used for empirical analysis most of these problems can be grouped into three basic categories 1 problems associated with measuring adoption and diffusion of mvs 2 problems associated with estimating benefits attributable to adoption of mvs and 3 problems associated with assigning credit among the various plant breeding programmes that participated in developing the mvs

property rights and the political organization of agriculture we propose a general equilibrium model where the economic organization of agriculture and the political equilibrium determining the security of property rights are jointly determined in particular because the form of organization may affect the probability and distribution of benefits from future property challenges it may be shaped in anticipation of this impact property rights security may then be secured at the expense of economic efficiency the model provides a framework for understanding why in some contexts land is redistributed primarily via land sales and tenancy markets but via politics and conflict in others we test some implications of the theory using a five decade panel dataset that traces changes in the extent of tenancy and tenancy reform across 15 indian states

u turns and full circles two decades of agricultural reform in malawi 1981 2000 abstract this paper traces the evolution of malawi s agricultural policy over the past two decades during this period the world bank has played a key role in shaping policy reform through its adjustment loans three distinct reform phases can be identified 1981 87 when policy was dominated by the dogmatism of the world bank s pricist and state minimalist policies 1988 94 when a more flexible position was taken by both the bank and the malawi government both of whom acknowledged the structuralist critique of earlier policies and 1994 to the present when the reform process in agriculture became more politicized and a schism developed between the bank and the government this latter period is used to illustrate some of the unresolved policy issues pertaining to similar low income agrarian economies

human capital graduate migration and innovation in british regions with the aid of a geographical information system our paper constructs a three stage least squares simultaneous equation model to investigate the interrelationships between the interregional flows of human capital and the innovation dynamism of a region in order to do this we model the interregional migration behaviour of high quality british university graduates from university into first employment and we relate these human capital flows to both the labour market characteristics and the knowledge characteristics of the employment regions this is done for all industries and separately for just high technology industries our results indicate that for england and wales there is a two way causality between the interregional human capital employment migration flows of recent university graduates and the innovation performance of regions however the results for great britain as a whole depend on whether london is included and scotland is excluded we find little or no support for the argument that the presence of local universities or small firms promotes regional innovation

agrobiodiversity conservation under an imperfect seed system the role of community seed banking schemes the study is an empirical investigation of agrobiodiversity conservation decisions of small farmers in the central highlands of ethiopia the primary objective is to measure the effectiveness of community seed banking csb in enhancing diversity while providing productivity incentives our results indicate a significant impact of participation in csb on farm level agrobiodiversity however the level of biodiversity conservation was not found to have the expected reinforcing impact on participation indicating no support for simultaneity csb participation also led to an increase in productivity consistent with a need for such incentives in order to enhance diversity at a farm level our assessment of the performance of the gls estimator yielded a significant discrepancy between the gls and bootstrap estimates this led to the conclusion that bootstrapping asymptotic estimations might be required for appropriate inference

structural change in malawi since independence consequences of a development strategy based on large scale agriculture abstract this paper investigates the nature of the structural change which has occured in the malawian economy since independence and identifies key policies pursued by the government which it is argued have been decisive in shaping this development the salient feature of structural change is shown to be the rapid growth of large scale agriculture associated with an equally rapid transfer of labour into wage employment and a decline in the importance of peasant production the implications of these changes for living standards and future development and policy are considered

a comparative political economic analysis of maize sector policies in eastern and southern africa abstract maize sector policies in eastern and southern africa are characterized by a large and often growing presence of the state yet the scope scale and modalities of state activities vary substantially across countries drawing on data from malawi zambia kenya and mozambique this article compares the relative degree of state intervention in the maize sector we show that relative preferences for output market subsidies input market subsidies trade restrictions or non interventionist approaches reflect the interplay of interest group lobbying patronage networks and ethnic and regional political affiliations these relationships have deep historical roots and have often been intensified in the context of the emergence of multiparty politics we show that interventionist orientations in output markets and trade do not translate into better performance or welfare outcomes input subsidy preferences produce more ambiguous welfare results when the opportunity costs are not fully accounted for

union competition and strikes the need for analysis at the sector level international comparative research has found that strike incidence is higher where two or more unions bargain with an employer multi unionism as is common in most european countries than where only one union does all else equal two proposed explanations for this relationship both invoking inter union rivalry as the main dynamic are that under multi unionism unions a make propagandistic use of strikes to attract members or b compete with each other by bidding up bargaining demands to date the evidence bearing on these hypotheses has been equivocal because the author argues researchers have focused on activity at the national level rather than at the lower levels that are more commonly the nexus for strike formation the author performs empirical tests using industry sector level data for seven european countries for the years 1990 2006 and finds evidence clearly favoring the competitive bargaining hypothesis over the propaganda hypothesis

zimbabwe s maize based green revolution preconditions for replication abstract the green revolution was launched in 1960 in zimbabwe five years before it got underway in india since zimbabwe s green revolution was spearheaded by white commercial farmers however it was ignored by africa s new leaders in the 1960s as they experimented with state farms from moscow communal farms from china and land settlement schemes from israel at zimbabwe s independence in 1980 the new majority ruled government introduced a number of programs to help smallholders increase food and cash crop production drawing on a backlog of hybrid maize varieties expanded access to credit higher guaranteed government maize prices and marketing subsidies smallholders doubled maize production during 1980 1986 zimbabwe s maize based green revolution challenges those who allege that hybrid maize cannot compete with sorghum in low rainfall areas and that it is unsuitable for resource poor farmers because of the need to purchase new seed each year today virtually 100 of zimbabwe s maize area is under hybrids and short season hybrids are outcompeting other foodgrains in many low rainfall areas zimbabwe s biggest challenge is to develop cost effective marketing policies and institutions to sustain its maize based green revolution countries trying to replicate zimbabwe s success story should focus on fulfilling four interrelated preconditions political technological economic and institutional

technology systems and technology policy in an evolutionary framework the central purpose of this paper is to outline an evolutionary theory of technology policy and to connect it with the emerging literature on national systems of innovation any understanding of technology policy must be based on a clear understanding of the nature of technology and the important differences between science and technology technology can be treated in terms of knowledge skills and artifacts and in each case there are different variety generating mechanisms different selection processes and different institutional structures for policy purposes the degree of connection between these different dimensions of technology is at the core of technology policy c 1995 academic press inc copyright 1995 by oxford university press

mid range universities linkages with industry knowledge types and the role of intermediaries we analyze how mid range universities can contribute to industrial change through the transfer of tacit and codified knowledge in the areas of spin offs licensing and patents contract research consultancy and reach out and graduate and researcher mobility we use archival survey and interview data relating to mid range universities in mid range environments in the uk belgium germany and sweden our findings suggest that mid range universities primarily need to focus on generating world class research and critical mass in areas of expertise as well as developing different types of intermediaries mid range universities may need to develop a portfolio of university industry linkages in terms of the scope of activities and the types of firms with which they interact we also show that different intermediaries have important roles to play in developing university industry linkages for mid range universities

credit layering in informal financial markets abstract informal lenders with access to markets or capital often find it attractive to delegate loan provision to downstream lenders who have an information or enforcement advantage in dealing with particular borrowers in this paper we examine the conditions under which such an arrangement is preferred by two informal lenders a landlord and a merchant who compete in loan provision to tenant farmers differentiated by wealth we show that credit layering is preferred only when tenants are sufficiently poor in this case the trader lends to tenant farmers via a contract with their landlord otherwise only the trader lends as a consequence a pattern of borrowing emerges in which relatively wealthy tenants borrow from merchants while poor tenants borrow mainly from their landlords interlinkage between land and credit thus arises only for a subset of tenants and purely as a consequence of credit layering this pattern is shown to be supported empirically

disrupting demand for commercial seed input subsidies in malawi and zambia summary this study uses nationally representative household level panel data from malawi and zambia to identify the determinants of subsidized maize seed and fertilizer receipt and to estimate how input subsidies affect households commercial purchases of improved maize seed varieties in both countries we find that households in areas where the ruling party won the last presidential election acquire significantly more subsidized inputs than other households results also indicate that each additional kilogram of subsidized maize seed acquired by a household reduces its commercial improved maize seed purchases by 0 58 kg in malawi and by 0 49 kg in zambia on average

contract choice in agriculture with joint moral hazard in effort and risk we analyze optimal contract choice in agriculture when there is joint moral hazard on the part of the farmer in the supply of effort and the riskiness of the technique of cultivation in the presence of limited liability high powered incentive contracts such as fixed rental contracts will induce the farmer to adopt techniques of cultivation that are too risky from the point of view of the landlord on the other hand low powered incentive contracts such as fixed wage contracts will induce the farmer to supply too little effort we show that sharecropping contracts emerge as a natural solution to balance these two conflicting considerations

two tier land tenure system and sustained economic growth in post 1978 rural china abstract the two tier land tenure system has been widely blamed for the problems in land allocation and in land specific investment observed in the postreform rural china greater privatization of property rights in land has been proposed to enable productive farmers to acquire more land to promote land circulation to improve farmers access to credit and to encourage farm investment it is argued here that in the presence of multiple market distortions land privatization is unlikely to provide a solution to the agricultural problems rather an approach which refines the existing framework of the two tier ownership system offers more promise

conflicting statutory purposes another look at fifty years of nlrb law making the author describes how in 1947 congress incorporated two conflicting statements of purpose in taft hartley a restatement of the wagner act s policy of encouraging collective bargaining and a new statement stressing the rights of individual employees and making no mention of collective bargaining as a result the author argues both liberal and conservative boards can justify their policies by choosing between the taft hartley act s inconsistent statements of intent the author s analysis draws on the language and histories of the wagner and taft hartley acts the comments of seven former chairmen of the nlrb who attended a conference at cornell commemorating the 50th anniversary of the board and the wagner act interviews with several of those chairmen and writings by former chairmen

meso economic filters along the policy chain understanding the links between policy reforms and rural poverty in latin america abstract the paper clarifies the meso economy concept by defining it as comprising both the market mechanisms and administrative procedures through which policy decisions and market signals trickle down to the household level three main bodies of literature are reviewed the policy oriented literature in which the meso economy was initially considered the transaction cost approach analyzing market and policy failures and the micro economy level of agricultural household models the paper develops a synthesis of macro meso and micro economic perspectives which focuses on the roles played by three levels of filters intervening along the policy chain implications for policy and research are drawn

bringing water markets down to earth the political economy of water rights in chile 1976 1995 abstract for 15 years chile has been the leading international example of pro market policies for water resources and its 1981 water code has recently been touted as a model for other countries to follow water markets are controversial in both theory and practice their potential benefits include greater efficiency and flexibility of water use and less state intervention and expenditure while their drawbacks include social and environmental externalities vulnerability to high transactions costs and other common examples of market failure no country has taken the experiment as far as chile since its water code privatized water rights reduced state administration and attempted to stimulate a free market in water rights the results have been mixed and uneven the lesson of the chilean case is that setting up water markets is harder and more complicated than it may seem even in the fairly simple arena of irrigation transfers

the national system of innovation in historical perspective contrary to some recent work on so called globalisation this paper argues that national and regional systems of innovation remain an essential domain of economic analysis their importance derives from the networks of relationships which are necessary for any firm to innovate whilst external international connections are certainly of growing importance the influence of the national education system industrial relations technical and scientific institutions government policies cul tural traditions and many other national institutions is fundamental the historical examples of germany japan and the former ussr illustrate this point as well as the more recent contrast between east asian and latin american countries introduction the national system of friedrich list according to this author s recollections the first person to use the expression national system of innovation was bengt ake lundvall and he is also the editor of a highly original and thought provoking book 1992 on this subject however as he and his colleagues would be the first to agree and as lundvall himself points out the idea actually goes back at least to friedrich list s conception of the national system of political economy 1841 which might just as well have been called the national system of innovation the main concern of list was with the problem of germany overtaking england and for underdeveloped countries as germany then was in relation to england he advocated not only protection of infant industries but a broad range of policies designed to accelerate or to make possible industrialisation and economic growth most of these policies were concerned with learning about new technology and applying it the racialist and colonialist overtones of the book were in strong contrast to the inter nationalist cosmopolitan approach of the classical free trade economists and list s belief that holland and denmark should join the german bund and acquire german nationality because of their descent and whole character reads somewhat strangely in the european community of today nevertheless despite these unattractive features of his outlook he clearly anticipated many contemporary theories after reviewing the changing ideas of economists about development in the years since the second world war the world bank 1991 concludes that it is intangible investment in knowledge accumulation which is decisive rather than physical capital investment as was at one time believed pages 33 35 the report cites the new growth theory

maize is life malawi s delayed green revolution abstract the pattern of maize seed development in malawi demonstrates the importance of farmers capacity to articulate their interests through collective action and institutions despite the vital significance of maize as a wage good in malawi limited effective demand for maize seed research prolonged the period of technical stagnation analysis of the institutional factors shaping the demand for maize seed research complements previous work on malawi s political economy the supply of seed technology and adoption with implications for current political changes in that nation the importance of farmers organizations and state commitment to agricultural research in sub saharan africa

development planning in the gambia the gap between planners and farmers perceptions expectations and objectives abstract this paper challenges the prevalent view that irrigation development largely depends on engineering agricultural and managerial inputs and argues with reference to gambian irrigation projects that new technologies may be adapted by farmers in ways that are incompatible with planners objectives the conclusion is that planners need to give greater attention to the organization and control of production and consumption within the household this would require a change in attitudes among many planners the recruitment of more social scientists into planning teams and greater co operation between planners farmers of all socio economic categories and extension agents

agricultural incentives in developing countries measuring the effect of sectoral and economywide policies the impact of sector specific direct and economywide indirect policies on agricultural incentives for 18 developing countries for the period 1975 84 are estimated the direct effect is measured by the proportional difference between the producer price and the border price adjusting for distribution storage transport and other marketing costs the indirect effect has two components 1 the impact of the unsustainable portion of the current account deficit and of industrial protection policies on the real exchange rate and thus on the price of agricultural commodities relative to nonagricultural nontradables and 2 the impact of industrial protection policies on the relative price of agricultural commodities to that of nonagricultural tradable goods the authors found that a in almost all cases the direct effect is equivalent to a tax on exportable goods and to a subsidy for importables b the indirect effect also taxes agriculture and dominates the direct effect and c the direct policies for both importables and exportables stabilize domestic producer prices

agricultural workers credit rationing and family networks in rural mexico abstractwe use mixed methods and first hand household data in mexico to investigate credit practices by households engaged in agricultural wage employment quantitative analysis shows evidence of rationing in the formal sector but also suggests the existence of mitigating mechanisms qualitative analysis provides additional insights first income patterns associated with agricultural wage generate income smoothing needs that are sometimes better met by the informal sector second family networks can perform key functions as gateways to the formal sector through specific informal arrangements that inject flexibility into formal rules and procedures

structural adjustment and the welfare of rural smallholders a comparative analysis from sub saharan africa the direction and level of changes in real incomes brought about by structural adjustment are determined by a variety of factors including sources of income patterns of expenditures and movements in relative prices in the wake of adjustment an econometric model is used to derive an index of real income which is employed for data from cote d ivoire ghana malawi madagascar and tanzania no systematic changes in relative prices and especially in the ratio of tradable to nontradable prices were noted after the beginning of adjustment although the diversity of income sources implies that the implications of movements in relative prices on smallholder welfare are indeed complex the results indicate that there is no unequivocal pattern of increase or decline in the real welfare of the rural poor but that there are marked differences among countries and regions

does storage technology affect adoption of improved maize varieties in africa insights from malawi s input subsidy program abstract to date there is limited knowledge of how having access to post harvest storage technology affects a smallholder african farmer s decision to adopt higher yielding improved maize varieties this is a key issue because higher yielding varieties are known to be more susceptible to storage pests than lower yielding traditional varieties we address this question using panel data from malawi and incorporating panel estimation techniques to deal with unobserved heterogeneity our results indicate that acquiring chemical storage protectants after the previous harvest is associated with a statistically significant and modest positive impact on the probability of adopting improved maize total area planted to improved maize varieties and share of area planted to improved maize varieties in the next planting season we also find that the storage chemical subsidy is associated with significant crowding out of commercial storage chemical purchases as farmers who acquire subsidized chemicals are more than 50 percentage points less likely to purchase commercial chemicals on average these findings have implications for maize adoption and input subsidy policies and they indicate that researchers extension staff and policy makers should consider post harvest issue when promoting adoption of improved varieties

public expenditures in sub saharan africa during a period of economic reforms abstract public expenditure restraint is the most direct means of reducing balance of payments and budget deficits and is consequently a key aspect of macroeconomic adjustment programs the results of this study indicate a steady increase in total central government and social services spending during 1977 1989 in sub saharan africa the growth in population however contributed to an overall erosion in per capita expenditures while total government expenditures as a share of gdp have been stable during the past decade they have declined net of interest repayments which represent an increasingly large share of total spending an analysis of spending in the three years before and after donor financed adjustment programs began reveals no pattern of increase or decrease in real levels of total and social sector expenditures or in social sector spending as a share of the total expenditures elasticities of health and education spending with respect to gdp were found to be greater than unity in recent years indicating that as countries develop social spending will constitute a larger share of gdp

population tenure and natural resource management the case of customary land area in malawi abstract this paper analyzes the factors determining conversion of woodlands to agricultural land changes in tree cover and maize yield for the last two and a half decades by using aerial photos and field survey data in 57 communities in malawi the econometric analysis revealed that population pressure led to greater land conversion but had no effect on yield or tree cover changes areas where greater changes in traditional tenure systems have occurred are associated with reduction in tree cover and expansion of agricultural land these results suggest the importance of strengthening institutions to manage natural resources

integrated pest management for resource poor african farmers is the emperor naked abstract the success of integrated pest management ipm with rice in asia has not been replicated with staple smallholder food crops in sub saharan africa this is variously blamed on inadequate extension underinvestment in agricultural research and unfavorable government policies this article argues that it reflects the slow progress of africa s green revolution which has reduced economic incentives for chemical forms of crop protection and thus the potential cost savings from the adoption of ipm strategies in this context ipm must re think its approach ipm is more likely to be adopted by resource poor african farmers if it focuses on host plant resistance and biological control high value commodities and helps meet farmers wider objectives of increasing household food security and earning cash income the argument is illustrated from secondary literature and recent project experience in southern malawi

subdividing the commons distributional conflict in the transition from collective to individual property rights in kenya s maasailand summary this paper suggests that explanations of property rights transformation need to move beyond models of relative price change and state enforcement to include accounts that accommodate conflict and competition among actors and the possibility that state actors may not provide the enforcement that is often taken for granted the transition from collective to individualized holdings in kenya s maasailand is burdened with politics and procedural problems that can undermine the gains anticipated in that move moreover in semi arid ecological settings individualization results in unstable land holdings necessitating re contracting and reaggregation by individual parcel owners

green gold burley tobacco smallholder agriculture and poverty alleviation in malawi abstract the abolition in 1990 of the estate monopoly on cultivation of burley tobacco is expected to play an important role in reducing poverty among smallholders in malawi a nationwide survey in 1993 shows that smallholder households cultivating burley also grow more hybrid maize use more fertilizer and are more food secure but resource poor households particularly those headed by women face land and labor constraints on burley adoption burley and hybrid maize increase the demand for hired labor but not enough to absorb the growth in the rural labor force broad based poverty alleviation requires technology and programs targeted at the majority of smallholders with holdings of 0 5 hectares or less

collective agricultural production a solution for transition economies abstract the paper examines theoretical reasons and provides examples for productivity differences between agricultural service cooperatives and collectives service cooperatives can utilize economies of scale enhance competitiveness and provide technical information advantages that often outweighed problems of free riding low investment and excessive political intervention agricultural collectives while not adding substantial advantages are in addition associated with problems of supervision and effort supply tendencies to substitute casual workers or mechanization for regular members and low investment incentives while collective forms of organization in transition economies respond to high risk and market imperfections they do so inefficiently policies that create conditions for service cooperatives to compete may lead to large productivity gains

universities technology and innovation centres and regional development the case of the north east of england the paper examines the role of technology and innovation centres tics in bridging the gap between the university research base and industry in order to foster economic development in a lagging industrial region the context is provided by an academic literature on the role of universities in regional innovation systems some of which casts doubt on the capacity of universities to operate in this domain particularly within a lagging region the empirical case reports on a bold experiment initiated by the regional development agency in the older industrial region of the north east of england to create and support new tics in the fields of process innovation in high value manufacturing and new and renewable energy and on the engagement of a regionally committed university with these centres the evidence presented suggests that while there are links between the university and the centres both are principally operating in a national science and technology system in which contributing to addressing uneven regional economic development is a secondary concern copyright the author 2012 published by oxford university press on behalf of the cambridge political economy society all rights reserved oxford university press