International Food Policy Research Institute

About: International Food Policy Research Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Agriculture & Food security. The organization has 1217 authors who have published 4952 publications receiving 218436 citations.

Estimates and Determinants of Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract: Objectives. We sought to provide data-based estimates of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and describe risk factors for such violence.Methods. We used nationally representative household survey data from 3436 women selected to answer the domestic violence module who took part in the 2007 DRC Demographic and Health Survey along with population estimates to estimate levels of sexual violence. We used multivariate logistic regression to analyze correlates of sexual violence.Results. Approximately 1.69 to 1.80 million women reported having been raped in their lifetime (with 407 397–433 785 women reporting having been raped in the preceding 12 months), and approximately 3.07 to 3.37 million women reported experiencing intimate partner sexual violence. Reports of sexual violence were largely independent of individual-level background factors. However, compared with women in Kinshasa, women in Nord-Kivu were significantly more likely to report all types of sexual violence.Conclusions. No...

Does Direct Foreign Investment Affect Domestic FirmsA Credit Constraints

Abstract: Firms in developing countries cite credit constraints as one of their primary obstacles to investment. Direct foreign investment, by bringing in scarce capital, may ease domestic firms' credit constraints. Alternatively, if foreign firms borrow heavily from domestic banks, they may exacerbate domestic firms' credit constraints by crowding them out of domestic capital markets. One plausible mechanism by which this may happen is indirect. Foreign firms may be more experienced and have better financial ratios and thus, be a safer bet for lending institutions. Using firm-level data from the Ivory Coast for the period 1974-1987 we test the following hypotheses: (1) domestic firms are more credit constrained than foreign firms and (2) borrowing by foreign firms exacerbates the credit constraints of domestic firms. Results suggest that domestic firms are significantly more credit constrained that foreign firms and that borrowing by foreign firms aggravates domestic firms' credit constraints. By splitting the sample into state-owned (SOE) and privately owned domestic enterprises we are able to show that SOEs are less financially constrained than other domestic enterprises, consistent with the notion of a 'soft budget constraint'. Borrowing by foreign firms affects only privately owned enterprises. Finally, we explore possible explanations for the crowding out effect.

The new institutional economics: applications for agricultural policy research in developing countries

Abstract: This paper summarizes the potential contributions of the new institutional economics to agricultural policy research, with particular emphasis to developing countries. The paper starts by providing an overview of the new institutional economics and its several branches of thought. It then describes the future challenges facing world agriculture and shows the potential applications of new institutional and transaction costs economics to agricultural policy analysis in this new world environment. The paper concludes by providing specific agricultural market research issues that can be analysed using the new institutional economics. As a dynamic school of thought, the new institutional economics offers exciting opportunities to answer some of the economic problems that neo-classical economics has found difficult to address.