behavioural development economics lessons from field labs in the developing world abstract explanations of poverty growth and development depend on the assumptions made about individual preferences and the willingness to engage in strategic behaviour economic experiments especially those conducted in the field have begun to paint a picture of economic agents in developing communities that is at variance with the traditional portrait we review this growing literature with an eye towards preference related experiments conducted in the field we also offer lessons on what development economists might learn from experiments we conclude by sharing our thoughts on how to conduct experiments in the field and then offer a few ideas for future research

regional innovation systems theory empirics and policy asheim b t lawton smith h and oughton c regional innovation systems theory empirics and policy regional studies interest in regional innovation systems has grown significantly over the past three decades driven partly by advances in theoretical analysis partly by the growing interest in innovation as a source of competitive advantage and partly by the need for new policies to address regional inequalities and divergence this article explores the elements and characteristics that exemplify the regional innovation systems approach it provides an appraisal and synthesis of the regional innovation systems paradigm and aims to shed light on a number of areas where theoretical empirical and policy based questions remain unanswered it outlines and assesses the major strands in recent theoretical and empirical debates and discusses how they might be developed to contribute to the further advancement of the regional innovation systems literature three interrelated questions form the key themes arou

on the measurement of risk aversion from experimental data attitudes towards risk are measured for households in northern zambia using an experimental gambling approach with real payoffs that at maximum were equal to 30 of average total annual income per capita the results of the experiment show decreasing absolute risk aversion and increasing partial risk aversion determinants of risk aversion are investigated using random effects interval regression model exploiting the panel data structure of the repeated experiments wealth indicator variables are found to be significant and partial relative risk aversion decreases as wealth increases females are found to be more risk averse than males

territorial innovation models a critical survey moulaert f and sekia f 2003 territorial innovation models a critical survey reg studies 37 289 302 this paper provides a critical review of the literature on territorial innovation models industrial districts milieux innovateurs new industrial spaces local production systems etc the review is organized in two stages first the main features of each of these models and their view of innovation are compared second their theoretical building blocks are reconstructed and evaluated from the point of view of conceptual clarity and analytical coherence it is found that despite some semantic unity among the concepts used economies of agglomeration endogenous development systems of innovation evolution and learning network organization and governance territorial innovation models tims suffer from conceptual ambiguity the latter is mainly a consequence of the way territorial innovation is theorized i e in terms of technologically driven innovation and a business culture that is ma

effects of household shocks on risk preferences and loss aversion evidence from upland smallholders of south east asia avoiding risk in financial decisions is credited to be a key contributor to persistent poverty and poverty traps in spite of this the methods used to measure behaviour under risk rarely reflect a

the evolution of comparative or competitive advantage a preliminary report on a study this paper is a preliminary report on a study of the comparative evolution of several major high tech industries in the us japan and western europe in general the paper examines similarities and differences in the ways these industries developed in different countries and the factors explaining those differences the project especially focused on understanding the instances when firms in a particular country gained a strong competitive advantage over firms based in other countries the industries studied are organic chemical products computers semiconductors software numerical controlled machine tools pharmaceuticals in the age of biotechnology and medical devices copyright 1996 by oxford university press

on passive money there are two ways in which the quantity of money may be included in a general equilibrium system as a datum whose value is fixed exogenously or as an unknown whose value is determined by the equilibrium system itself let them be called active money and passive money respectively current monetary theory uses the first approach the ricardo walraskeynes tradition in general equilibrium models is clearly of the activemoney variety this is also true of the more contemporary versions such as patinkin s well known system 1965 apart from the main stream of thought however a number of analyses exist which imply passive money the gold standard model as it is usually expounded belongs to this class the price of gold in terms of money is given while the stock of money is endogenously determined by the set of equilibrium conditions the form in which the quantity of money adapts to its equilibrium level differs according to the institutional mechanism convergence is assured through monetization and demonetization of gold in the pure goldcurrency system and through convertibility of notes into gold and vice versa in the gold standard system with paper money in either case the money supply is allowed to conform to its equilibrium volume this kind of monetary system in which the money price of a certain product or commodity is a datum and the quantity of money a dependent magnitude may be denoted in general as a commodity standard

measuring subjective expectations in developing countries a critical review and new evidence the majority of economic decisions taken by individuals are forward looking and thus involve their expectations of future outcomes understanding the expectations that individuals have is thus of crucial importance to designing and evaluating policies in health education finance migration social protection and many other areas however the majority of developing country surveys are static in nature and do not contain information on the subjective expectations of individuals possible reasons given for not collecting this information include fears that poor illiterate individuals do not understand probability concepts that it takes far too much time to ask such questions or that the answers add little value this paper provides a critical review and new analysis of subjective expectations data from developing countries and refutes each of these concerns the authors find that people in developing countries can generally understand and answer probabilistic questions such questions are not prohibitive in time to ask and the expectations are useful predictors of future behavior and economic decisions the paper discusses the different methods being tried for eliciting such information the key methodological issues involved and the open research questions the available evidence suggests that collecting expectations data is both feasible and valuable suggesting that it should be incorporated into more developing country surveys

a comparison of the dynamics of industrial clustering in computing and biotechnology abstract this paper compares the dynamics of the process by which industrial clusters emerged in the us computing and biotechnology industries it examines whether new companies are attracted by industry strength in particular sectors or by the strength of the science base at particular locations in biotechnology it also compares the growth of incumbent firms in the two industries and asks whether growth is boosted by being within a cluster the paper finds that within computing there are some important cross sectoral effects on entry while in biotechnology these cross sectoral effects are more limited in biotechnology the science base plays an important role in promoting entry the growth of incumbent firms in both industries is promoted by strength in the company s own sector and cross sectoral effects and the role of the science base are negligible

local demand pull policy and energy innovation evidence from the solar photovoltaic market in china abstract market demand is an important driver for inducing innovation with many empirical studies supporting the demand induced innovation hypothesis critiques of such studies however emphasize that new empirical evidence that can address existing empirical challenges is needed furthermore existing literature disagrees about whether the locus of demand pull policy matters in this paper we use empirical evidence from the distributed solar photovoltaic pv market in china to address the following questions 1 is there evidence of demand induced innovation 2 does the effect of local demand pull policy differ from the effect of non local demand pull policy on demand induced innovation to address these questions we develop and analyze an original database of pv balance of system bos patents in the distributed pv market filed between 2005 and 2014 in china our results support the demand induced innovation hypothesis and suggest that only local demand significantly induces pv bos innovations in the distributed pv market in china the different effects of local demand and non local demand emphasize the importance of local markets and local policies lending some support to bottom up approaches to clean energy governance

the triple helix an evolutionary model of innovations abstract the lock in model by arthur arthur w b 1988 competing technologies in dosi g freeman c nelson r silverberg g soete l eds technical change and economic theory pinter london pp 590 607 can be extended to the case of two and even three sources of random variation thus one can model a triple helix of university industry government relations in the case of two sources the stabilization of a technological trajectory is enhanced while in the case of three a complex regime can be generated conditions for lock in lock out return to equilibrium substitution etc are specified in relation to the assumed complexity of the dynamics under study and with reference to the stage of development that is before or after lock in some normative implications of the triple helix model of innovations can be specified

the rise and persistence of rigidities in this paper we argue that employment protection legislation is more likely to arise when the rents earned by the employed over their alternative wage is greater the model explains why economies with greater real wage rigidity also have greater employment protection the model also predicts that lower turnover increases the political support for employment protection and that this political support is greater when employment protection is more harmful for employment also rigidities are persistent as they create a constituency of low productivity sectors whose workers would oppose the removal of firing costs even though existing rents would not generate support for introducing them we argue that tight labour markets due to post war reconstruction needs in europe made it easier for insiders to create such rents which in turn led them to support employment protection legislation in the late 1970s rents started to fall but reforms proved difficult because of ratchet effects this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

eu regions and multinational corporations change stability and strengthening of technological comparative advantages in a rapidly globalizing economy and particularly in the face of a process of economic integration such as that occurring in the eu regions forge an increasing number of linkages with other locations within and across national boundaries through the local technological development efforts of multinational corporations mncs by using a database of patents granted to the largest firms by the us patent and trademark office uspto we have shown in previous research that the pattern of mnc networks for innovation conforms to an internal within national boundaries hierarchy of regional centres in this paper the hypothesis of the combined significance of cumulativeness and incremental change in innovation is examined by testing the extent of continuity in the sectoral composition of technological profiles of different eu regional centres between the 1970s and the 1990s the results provide support for our hypothesis that a geographical hierarchy of regional locations can be established also across national boundaries within the eu it is shown that the core european regions can be divided into two kinds those in which mncs have consolidated areas of traditional specialisation for the regions in question and those in which there has been a shift towards and a relative growth of the development of fields of high technological opportunities

is western europe losing the technological race abstract using a variety of indicators this paper compares technological levels in japan the usa and w europe there is no justification for assuming general european technological backwardness whilst it lags in electronics and since 1975 has had a relatively slow rate of growth of innovative activities it also has sectors of strength chemicals machinery production engineering and countries whose relative commitments of resources to innovative activities are at least equal and sometimes superior to those of japan and the usa frg sweden switzerland its main policy challenges are to increase the rate of growth of innovative activities in lagging countries and to ensure pervasive applications of information technology similarly there is no convincing evidence that w europe is relatively backward in converting technology into economically efficient innovations some policy problems are significant in all three regions skill shortages whilst others are in the usa and w europe short term planning horizons of top management particular european problems are the effects of social legislation on worker flexibility and mobility of national regulations on intra european competition and of slow rates of growth of output on the growth of innovative activities japan and the usa have their problems with the latter continuously under challenge from the former and increasingly specialised in defence and raw materials related technologies

demand for international reserves corrections for serial correlation and heteroscedasticity 1987 demand for international reserves corrections for serial correlation and heteroscedasticity applied economics vol 19 no 5 pp 609 618

localised production of technology for global markets given the trends towards increasing globalization of markets and of production the globalization of technology remains a subject of considerable interest to analysts and policymakers in the 1990s the main conclusion of this paper is that there is no systematic evidence to suggest that widespread globalization of technological activities occurred in the 1980s the evidence based on the u s patenting activities of 569 of the world s largest firms based in 13 countries and covering 17 product groups shows that for an overwhelming majority of them technology production remains close to the home base the analysis also shows the dangers of generalizing on the basis of anecdotal evidence from a small sample of firms from a particular country or sector c 1995 academic press inc copyright 1995 by oxford university press

the demand for international reserves and exchange rate adjustments thecase of ldcs 1964 1972 in this paper the relationship between the demand for international reserves and exchange rate adjustments is empirically investigated for agroup of ldc s it is shown that countries that have maintained a fixed exchange rate for a long period of time have a different demand function than countries that have occasionally used exchange rate adjustments for correcting payments imbalances the dynamics of the adjustment for both groupsof countries are also analyzed the results show that while both groups tend to eliminate reserve disequilibria fast those countries that have maintained a fixed rate tend to do it more slowly than countries that have occasionally devalued their currency it is also shown that the year prior to a devaluation international reserves have been on average 30 below their short run desired level these results are important since they indicate that not all ldc s should be aggregated for prediction purposes the results also have implications for the analysis of the adequacy of international reserves in less developed countries this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract wa this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

a note on the optimal rate of growth of international reserves the current reform of the international monetary system rests on the conception that the nominal quantity of external reserves taken in the aggregate must provide the flexible element in the adjustment between the supply of and the demand for real international liquidity carried to its logical conclusion this principle implies the adoption of a passive money system in the international sphere the nominal quantity of money ceases to be an exogenous datum to which prices and wages must conform and becomes a dependent variable having an equilibrium level 1 the new reserve assets are destined to satisfy the long run needs for reserve growth 2 yet as is well known the evaluation of such needs presents appreciable difficulties in itself this estimation problem is not new it was explicitly discussed in the report of the gold delegation appointed in 1929 to examine the trends in the gold demand and supply the method used by the delegation is worth recalling it is based upon the double assumption that 1 the monetary demand for gold is proportional to the quantity of money and 2 the demand for money is proportional to the aggregate value of transactions the second part of this hypothesis reflects obviously the quantity theory in its classical form the first part expresses instead an institutional situation in those years the countries under the gold standard used to maintain by virtue of law or of convention a margin of gold cover against the total amount of notes and of central bank sight liabilities the combination of the two ratios led the delegation to estimate the need for gold reserves as a fixed proportion of the total value of transactions

the globalisation of technology what remains of the product cycle model this paper reexamines two hypotheses associated with earlier versions of the product cycle model the first hypothesis that innovations are almost always located in the home country of the parent company is rejected on the basis of evidence drawn from one hundred years of u s patent office data the second hypothesis that the international dispersion of activity is led by technology leaders is historically valid however over the last twenty years technology leaders have been ahead instead in the globalization of technology that is in developing internal international networks to exploit the locationally differentiated potential of foreign centers of excellence c 1995 academic press inc copyright 1995 by oxford university press

using stated preferences and beliefs to identify the impact of risk on poor households abstract whilst the importance of uncertainty in shaping economic behaviour of poor households is widely acknowledged empirically identifying the impact of risk is difficult by using data on risk preferences and perceptions of risk collected through hypothetical questions in combination with more traditional measures of a household s ability to deal with risk this article identifies the impact of risk on production decisions it shows both that data on stated preferences and beliefs can be usefully utilised to explain household behaviour and that risk has a significant impact on the production decisions of poor households

economic integration and political disintegration in a world of trade restrictions large countries enjoy economic benefits because political boundaries determine the size of the market under free trade and global markets even relatively small cultural linguistic or ethnic groups can benefit from forming small homogeneous political jurisdictions this paper provides a formal model of the relationship between openness and the equilibrium number and size of countries and successfully tests two implications of the model firstly the economic benefits of country size are mediated by the degree of openness to trade secondly the history of nation state creations and secessions is influenced by the trade regime

expo power utility a flexible form for absolute and relative risk aversion a new utility function which i call expo power is proposed that exhibits decreasing constant or increasing absolute risk aversion and decreasing or increasing relative risk aversion depending on parameter values numerical analysis suggests that the expo power function performs well in incorporating these risk preference structures and that arbitrary risk preference specifications may lead to biased risk response estimates

demand for international reserves survey of recent empirical studies in the last decade many countries have preferred to move to a system of managed floating that is intermediate between the extremes of fixed rates and a clean float since managing the float requires international reserves it is clear that the study of these reserves is as relevant today as it has been in the past there are at least six reviews of the literature relevant to this study clower and lipsey 1968 niehans 1970 salant 1970 grubel 1971 williamson 1973 and cohen 1975 the justification for writing this review is that since completion of the last survey many papers have appeared which contribute to the stock of knowledge in this field however unlike the previous reviews which have concentrated on the broader issues pertaining to international liquidity such as the demand for reserves the supply of reserves the composition and distribution of reserves etc this study focuses solely on surveying empirical studies bearing on the demand for international reserves this review wi

insurance credit and technology adoption field experimental evidence from malawi this brief summarizes the insurance credit and technology adoption field experimental evidence from malawi the farmers were offered loans for the november 2006 planting season does production risk suppress the demand for credit the author implemented a randomized field experiment to ask whether provision of insurance against a major source of production risk induces farmers to take out loans to adopt a new crop technology the study sample was composed of roughly 800 maize and groundnut farmers in malawi where by far the dominant source of production risk is the level of rainfall the author randomly selected half of the farmers to be offered credit to purchase high yielding hybrid maize and groundnut seeds for planting in the november 2006 crop season the other half of farmers were offered a similar credit package but were also required to purchase at actuarially fair rates a weather insurance policy that partially or fully forgave the loan in the event of poor rainfall surprisingly take up was lower by 13 percentage points among farmers offered insurance with the loan take up was 33 0 percent for farmers who were offered the uninsured loan there is suggestive evidence that reduced take up of the insured loan was due to farmers already having implicit insurance from the limited liability clause in the loan contract insured loan take up was positively correlated with farmer education income and wealth which may proxy for the individual s default costs by contrast take up of the uninsured loan was uncorrelated with these farmer characteristics

the square root law uncertainty and international reserves under alternative regimes canadian experience 1950 1976 abstract a transactions precautionary model of demand for international reserves is developed and tested against canadian data the results indicate that i the demand for reserves is characterized by economies of scale with respect to the volume of transactions that are invariant to the exchange rate regime but ii structural change took the form of a relatively larger responsiveness of reserves holdings under fixed rates to a measure of permanent variability in transactions

export specialisation and local economic growth this paper aims to provide empirical evidence on whether export specialization or diversification is better for local economic growth using export data from 354 magisterial districts of south africa for 1996 and 2001 we estimate spatial growth regressions that include measures of the degree of export specialization and diversification overall exporting regions outperform other less or non exporting regions also we find that export specialisation rather than export diversification has been associated with local economic growth with specialization in mining and agriculture being especially beneficial our results support the view that specialization in a locality s area of comparative advantage is good for local economic development we also find that localities with higher initial levels of human capital and higher subsequent population growth performed better this is consistent with the belief that policies aimed at strengthening human capital and improving agglomeration economies will enhance local economic development

a theory of anticipated utility abstract a new theory of cardinal utility with an associated set of axioms is presented it is a generalization of the von neumann morgenstern expected utility theory which permits the analysis of phenomena associated with the distortion of subjective probability

specialization and size of technological activities in industrial countries the analysis of patent data abstract the determinants and direction of the technological specialization of advanced countries are investigated in this paper using patent counts and citations as technology indicators during the 1980s international patenting increased more rapidly than the resources devoted to r d indicating a globalization of technology markets paralleled by a growing degree of sectoral specialization of countries innovative activities a clear cut inverse relationship between countries technological size measured by cumulative r d expenditure and degree of specialization has been found only large countries can afford to spread their activities across most technological fields while small and medium sized countries are to some extent forced to specialize in more narrow niches some methodological aspects in the use of patenting as an internationally comparable indicator are also discussed considerable differences emerged between patent specialization profiles in the internal and in external markets firms tend to protect their internal market through patenting also in fields where they do not excel at the international level leading to a smoother specialization profile

poverty risk aversion and path dependence in low income countries experimental evidence from ethiopia in most low income countries rural households depend on mixed rain fed agriculture livestock production which is very risky due to numerous market failures there are few ways to shift risks to third parties the literature has focused on what determines the responses of households in such environments of special concern are path dependencies in which households experiencing failure are prone to further failure and potential poverty traps this paper estimates levels and determinants of risk aversion in the highlands of ethiopia we find high risk aversion and evidence that constraints have important impacts on risk averting behavior with perhaps significant implications for long term poverty the results also suggest the possibility of path dependence and offer insights into links between risk aversion and poverty traps copyright 2009 oxford university press

the narrow moving band the dutch disease and the competitive consequences of mrs thatcher notes on trade in the presence of dynamic scale economies abstract this paper presents a model of trade in which comparative advantage instead of being determined by underlying attributes of countries evolves over time through learning by doing in this model arbitrary patterns of specialization once established tend to become entrenched over time the model sheds light on three widely held views that do not make sense in more conventional models first is the view that temporary protection of selected sectors can permanently alter the pattern of comparative advantage in the protecting country s favor second is the view that seemingly favorable developments such as the discovery of exportable natural resources may lead to a permanent loss of other sectors and reduce welfare in the long run third is the possibility that a temporary overvaluation of a currency due to tight money can lead to a permanent loss of competitiveness in some sectors

dynamics of export specialization in the regions of the italian mezzogiorno persistence and change guerrieri p and iammarino s 2007 dynamics of export specialization in the regions of the italian mezzogiorno persistence and change regional studies 41 933 947 during the 1980s and 1990s the italian southern economy displayed signs of transformation in production and export structures accompanied by sharp geographical differentiation debate on these changes mainly spurred by growing international pressure has given rise to different views and expectations on the opportunities for endogenous growth on the italian periphery the aim of this paper is to contribute to this ongoing debate by looking at the evolution of sectoral export specialization patterns i e relative comparative advantage structures in the mezzogiorno regions in the period 1985 2000 focusing on inter provincial comparisons the analysis concentrates on the extent of persistence versus change in the evolution of provincial specialization patterns shedding light on the relationship between export structure and performance

uneven growth between interdependent economies an evolutionary view on technology gaps trade and growth preface part one theory and empirics of international growth rate differentials and technology gaps chapter 1 technology growth and welfare a historical perspective 1 1 the search for welfare and the role of technology 1 2 aim of the book 1 3 organisation of the rest of the book notes chapter 2 the literature on economic growth and technological change 2 1 a brief overview 2 2 the traditional literature on economic growth 2 3 new neoclassical growth models endogenous innovation 2 4 the role of technological change 2 5 explaining growth rate differentials notes chapter 3 an evolutionary theory of economic growth and technological change the basics 3 1 economic growth as an evolutionary process a macroeconomic interpretation 3 2 economic growth as an evolutionary process a microeconomic interpretation 3 3 towards an evolutionary theory notes chapter 4 technology and growth in an international perspective 1960 1990 an impressionistic approach 4 1 economic growth and structural change 4 2 technology 4 3 technology and growth catching up or falling behind a global issue 4 4 summary and conclusions appendix iv 1 postwar economic welfare and the selection of country samples appendix iv 2 the 3 digit isic sector classification revision 2 appendix iv 3 on measuring and graphing structural differences between countries appendix iv 4 some tests for the influence of multicollinearity on the regressions in section 4 2 notes part two technology spillovers between interdependent economies catching up or falling behind chapter 5 a model of catching up or falling behind 5 1 description of the model 5 2 solving the model 5 3 the outcomes of the model under varying parameter restrictions 5 4 conclusions of the model notes chapter 6 an empirical test of the model 6 1 testing procedure and data sources 6 2 result 6 3 interpreting the results 6 4 summary and some policy conclusions appendix vi l a description of the data appendix vi 2 the calculation of the n statistic notes part three technological change international trade and economic growth chapter 7 an evolutionary model of technological change specialisation and economic growth 7 1 a descriptive interpretation 7 2 the model 7 3 simulation results 7 4 summary and conclusions appendix vii 1 initial values of the simulation runs for the 3 country 2 sector case appendix vii 2 some mathematical details of the selection equation in discrete time notes chapter 8 an empirical view on the evolution of trade and technology 8 1 patents as indicators of innovation 8 2 summarising some known correlations 8 3 trade and technology a dynamic evolutionary framework 8 4 estimation of the replicator equation 8 5 some further tests on the robustness of the replicator estimates 8 6 explaining the results for the patent variables 8 7 summary and conclusions

historical evolution of technological diversification a positive relationship exists between national technological size and technological diversification across fields of innovative activity this paper shows how the nature of this relationship has changed historically there has been a downward structural shift in the cross country size diversification frontier since 1965 for any given size countries have become less diversified or more narrowly concentrated in their technological specialisation one explanation is that international technology sourcing by mnes has led locations to focus on what they do best a supporting factor may be a rise in technological interrelatedness which encourages focus upon a specific selection of complementary combinations

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

creating a lab in the field economics experiments for policymaking in this paper i focus on the role that artefactual and certain framed field experiments what i term lab like field experiments or lfes play in informing policymaking using examples primarily from rural contexts in developing countries i identify four main purposes of lfes 1 to test theories or heuristic principles 2 to identify and estimate parameters associated with characteristics 3 to explore the structural nature of parameters derived from empirical methods including other types of experiments and 4 to assess methodological difficulties associated with lfes and how these can impact parameter estimates i address the importance of generalizability for lfes that are intended to inform policymaking and in the process emphasize the complementary role between lfes and other empirical methods in particular other experiments finally i discuss nine basic principles for conducting lfes and suggest four directions for future research

choice under uncertainty evidence from ethiopia india and uganda we review experimental evidence collected from risky choice experiments using poor subjects in ethiopia india and uganda using these data we estimate that just over 50 of our sample behaves in accordance with expected utility theory and that the rest subjectively weight probability according to prospect theory our results show that inferences about risk aversion are robust to whichever model we adopt when we estimate each model separately however when we allow both models to explain portions of the data simultaneously we infer risk aversion for subjects behaving according to expected utility theory and risk seeking behaviour for subjects behaving according to prospect theory

time to change what to sow risk preferences and technology adoption decisions of cotton farmers in china this paper examines the role of individual risk attitudes in the decision to adopt a new form of agricultural biotechnology in china i conducted a survey and a field experiment to elicit the risk preferences of chinese farmers who faced the decision of whether to adopt genetically modified bt cotton a decade ago in my analysis i expand the measurement of risk preferences beyond expected utility theory to incorporate prospect theory i find that farmers who are more risk averse or more loss averse adopt bt cotton later farmers who overweight small probabilities adopt bt cotton earlier

sectoral systems of innovation and production the concept sectoral system of innovation and production provides a multidimensional integrated and dynamic view of sectors it is proposed that a sectoral system is a set of products and the set of agents carrying out market and non market interactions for the creation production and sale of those products a sectoral systems has a specific knowledge base technologies inputs and demand agents are individuals and organizations at various levels of aggregation they interact through processes of communication exchange co operation competition and command and these interactions are shaped by institutions a sectoral system undergoes change and transformation through the co evolution of its various elements 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

measuring risk attitudes among mozambican farmers abstract although farmers in developing countries are generally thought to be risk averse little is known about the actual form of their risk preferences in this paper we use a relatively large lab in the field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of farmers in northern mozambique a unique feature of this experiment is that it includes a large subsample of husband and wife pairs after exploring correlations between husband and wife preferences we explicitly test whether preferences follow the constant relative risk aversion crra utility function and whether farmers follow expected utility theory or rank dependent utility theory in generating their preferences we reject the null hypothesis that farmers preferences follow the crra utility function in favor of the more flexible power risk aversion preferences if we make the common crra assumption in our sample we poorly predict risk preferences among those who are less risk averse

endogenous emergence of credit markets contracting in response to a new technology in ghana abstract access to credit is important for the productivity and overall welfare of farmers in developing countries we present a theoretical framework which shows that a change in the mode of shipping from air to sea in the ghanaian pineapple industry made it profitable for pineapple exporters to provide myopic farmers with both in kind loans to improve productivity and cash loans for consumption smoothing despite being unable to monitor farmers or enforce repayment the innovative theoretical result is that providing farmers with additional cash loans can enforce greater input use without compromising repayment we provide evidence in the form of a case study documenting the dramatic rise of informal credit through contract farming after the switch to sea freight between 1996 and 2001 using this anecdote we argue that credit arrangements can arise spontaneously absent non market interventions to meet market needs even in the absence of proper legal protections for creditors

household s risk attitudes in indonesian villages this paper estimates attitudes towards risk using data obtained through interviews of 400 households in villages in indonesia participants were invited to play investment games in order to identify household risk attitudes the game result supports the hypothesis of non decreasing partial relative risk aversion using an ordered probit model the determinants of risk attitude were investigated the results show that the variable of co residence is important an individual living with his or her parents is less risk averse than an individual in a nuclear household co residence can be viewed as a type of security blanket partial relative risk aversion decreases with the level of education and wealth

determinants of the internationalization of regions the role and effectiveness of public policy measures banno m piscitello l and varum c determinants of the internationalization of regions the role and effectiveness of public policy measures regional studies this paper assesses the role of public policy measures on outward internationalization of regions by including financial and non financial incentives among the determinants of the international competitiveness of regions it is found that the former are important to enhance their active internationalization but that variables related to the knowledge and competence base of regions are even more so financial incentives related to equity participation as well as non financial incentives related to the provision of information come out highly significant in stimulating outward internationalization the empirical analysis is conducted for the twenty italian nuts 2 regions over the period 2003 2008

the economics of technical change this paper reviews the recent rapidly growing literature on technical change in the economy it concentrates on innovations and their diffusion at firm and industry level since this was the area designated as relatively weak in earlier literature surveys the review argues that the extensive empirical evidence and theoretical analysis now available presents a basic challenge to neoclassical theory after indicating some weaknesses in the neo schumpeterian literature the paper concludes by advocating an experiment with a new form of assessment by neighboring disciplines to economics itself which would take full account of the fundamental issues at stake in this modern methodenstreit c 1994 academic press inc copyright 1994 by oxford university press

risk rationing and wealth effects in credit markets theory and implications for agricultural development we develop a model that shows that asymmetric information can result in two types of credit rationing conventional quantity rationing and risk rationing whereby farmers are able to borrow but only under high collateral contracts that offer them lower expected well being than a safe subsistence activity after exploring its incidence with respect to wealth we show that risk rationing has important policy implications specifically land titling will be only partially effective because it does not enhance producers willingness to offer up the collateral needed to secure loans under moral hazard constraints efforts to enhance agricultural investment and the working of agricultural credit markets must step beyond land titling and also deal with risk copyright 2008 oxford university press

consumption risk technology adoption and poverty traps evidence from ethiopia much has been written on the determinants of input and technology adoption in agriculture with issues such as input availability knowledge and education risk preferences profitability and credit constraints receiving much attention this paper focuses on a factor that has been less well documented the differential ability of households to take on risky production technologies for fear of the welfare consequences if shocks result in poor harvests building on an explicit model this is explored in panel data for ethiopia historical rainfall distributions are used to identify the counterfactual consumption risk controlling for unobserved household and time varying village characteristics it emerges that not just ex ante credit constraints but also the possibly low consumption outcomes when harvests fail discourage the application of fertilizer the lack of insurance causes inefficiency in production choices