Showing papers by "World Bank published in 1988"
01 Mar 1988
TL;DR: In this paper, a large survey (1976-77) of Indian farm households is used to test the existence of the inverse relationship after accounting for farm-specific land quality factors.
Abstract: A stylized fact of development literature is that there is an inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity. This has been interpreted to indicate that labor dualism is a pervasive phenomenon in the rural areas of developing countries. A large survey (1976-77) of Indian farm households is used to test the existence of the inverse relationship after accounting for farm-specific land quality factors. Such factors weaken significantly, and in many areas eliminate, the "observed" inverse relationship. Copyright 1988 by Royal Economic Society.
266 citations
TL;DR: This article reviewed the principal analytical approaches of the past several decades to the study of the relationship between population growth and economic development, including demographic change in developing countries over the past three decades.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents a discussion on economic approaches to population growth. This chapter reviews the principal analytical approaches of the past several decades to the study of the relationship between population growth and economic development. Migration and urbanization are treated only insofar as necessary for a coherent treatment of population growth itself. The chapter describes demographic change in developing countries over the past three decades. It also reviews the macroeconomic literature on the consequences of high population growth rates in developing countries, covering both partial and general equilibrium approaches. Economists have proferred two rationales for a public policy to influence private fertility behavior .The first is externalities—that the social costs of children may exceed their private costs. The second rationale is the proposition that the market for contraceptive information, and possibly for certain contraceptive services, is poor, especially in developing countries. This second rationale is important in justifying family planning programs, irrespective of any consensus on the economic consequences of population growth.
192 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the contributions of computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulation models designed to quantify the implications of alternative trade policy scenarios in developing countries are surveyed, with a review of the basic structure of CGE models, using a one-sector model with product differentiation on the import and export side.
179 citations
TL;DR: The World Bank does not accept responsibility for the views expressed herein, which are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organisations.
Abstract: [1] The World Bank does not accept responsibility for the views expressed herein, which are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organisations. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are the results of research or analysis supported by the Bank; they do not necessarily represent official policy of the Bank.
136 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an explanation for variations in the choice of tenants and their welfare is provided for two observations concerning variations in tenants' wealth and the inability of landlords to specify their tenants' effort lead to effort choices that vary with the type of contract offered.
126 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the suitability of different agricultural research strategies in African countries with varying endowments of land, labor, and climate is examined, and the authors suggest appropriate technological strategies for each class of countries.
Abstract: The article examines the suitability of different agricultural research strategies in African countries with varying endowments of land, labor, and climate. Differences in such endowments lead to a wide spectrum of farming systems. Agricultural technologies that are cost effective in some farming systems are not in others. Many past failures are due to a mismatch between technological strategies and farming systems. The article classifies countries of sub-saharan Africa on the basis of agroclimatic density and suggests appropriate technological strategies for each class of countries.
120 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use survey data for Manila, the Philippines, to estimate hedonic functions for formal and squatter housing values, and conclude that assistance projects that provide secure tenure over a wide area will bestow comparatively greater benefits on lower income households, and to those in newer less established settlements, since the risks that they bear initially are greater.
116 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1988TL;DR: The authors showed that when multiple rates are a means of taxation, the widened deficit from unification increases inflation and used the experience of Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone to illustrate the tradeoff between the benefits of unification for resource allocation and its cost for inflation.
Abstract: World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs favor unification of official and black market exchange rates on the argument that multiple exchange rates misallocate resources. This article shows that such policy advice sometimes overlooks an important consideration : when multiple rates are a means of taxation, the widened deficit from unification increases inflation. This article uses the experience of Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone to illustrate the tradeoff between the benefits of unification for resource allocation and its cost for inflation.
106 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined Korea's recent experience with financial liberalization to find empirical evidence for the McKinnon-Shaw hypothesis regarding the effect of financial liberalisation on the allocative efficiency of credit.
101 citations
TL;DR: A Prisoners' Dilemma-type "syndrome of anarchy" as mentioned in this paper under the canals, in which farmers lack the confidence that if they refrain from taking water out of turn they will get water on time, and officials lack the faith in their ability to deliver the water conscientiously to deliver it on time.
97 citations
TL;DR: David Payne suggests that chloroquinized salt programmes may have been a major factor in promoting chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum.
TL;DR: The authors examines the patterns of defaults, renegotiations, and final settlements on foreign borrowing of several Latin American governments in the interwar period, and provides a detailed historical account of the borrowing and renegotiation experience of five Latin borrowers (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Peru).
Abstract: This paper examines the patterns of defaults, renegotiations, and final settlements on foreign borrowing of several Latin American governments in the interwar period. One goal of the paper is to provide a detailed historical account of the borrowing and renegotiation experience of five Latin borrowers (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Peru). Another goal is to provide a quantitative assessment of the amount of debt relief that was implicit in the negotiated settlements of the defaults that were reached in the 1930s and 1940s. In general, the pattern of default and renegotiation resulted in substantial, though not complete, debt relief, in the sense of reducing the present value of debt repayments from the sovereign borrower to the bondholders.
TL;DR: The authors showed that fertility can fall rapidly in low-income groups and countries when health care, education, and family planning services are made wisely available, and that adequate delivery and targeting of these services are the key to breaking the nexus between poverty and high fertility, and reducing the negative effects of both on the lives and prospects of children.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the role of financial innovations in the economic development process and discuss the place of policy intervention in the financial development of developing countries and, through a case study of an innovative bank, illustrates the nature and characteristics of the financial innovations necessary for financing small enterprises and mobilizing resources from low-and middle-income groups.
Book•
21 Jul 1988TL;DR: Profit and Loss Sharing as discussed by the authors examines the origin of, and the institutional and ethical issues underlying, the Islamic banking movement and its adoption of financial instruments including PLS, and its economic viability of financial reform is analysed and possible extension of PLS as an alternative and just tenure system is demonstrated.
Abstract: Islamic banking assumed significance when several Muslim countries including Iran, Sudan, and Pakistan put their financial systems on an Islamic footing. "Profit and Loss Sharing" examines the origin of, and the institutional and ethical issues underlying, the Islamic banking movement and its adoption of financial instruments including PLS. The economic viability of financial reform is analysed and possible extension of PLS as an alternative and just tenure system is demonstrated. The book is intended for professional economists, bankers, and other social scientists.
TL;DR: In this paper, the determinants of moneylender interest rates in rural India in the context of two major developments of the 1960s: (a) the incidence of agricultural technical change in the process popularly denoted by the term "Green Revolution", and (b) the spread of government-sponsored subsidised credit through rural banks and co-operative credit agencies.
Abstract: This study examines the determinants of moneylender interest rates in rural India in the context of two major developments of the 1960s: (a) the incidence of agricultural technical change in the process popularly denoted by the term ‘Green Revolution’ and (b) the spread of government‐sponsored subsidised credit through rural banks and co‐operative credit agencies. It finds that farmers residing in areas characterised by the use of Green Revolution technology face lower moneylender interest rates. It also finds evidence of the reduction of moneylender monopoly power as a result of increased competition from formal lending agencies. It concludes that informal rural credit markets are sensitive mechanisms which respond to environmental as well as borrower characteristics.
TL;DR: In this article, the inter-country allocation of foreign aid by selected donors to 18 recipients in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) was assessed, showing that the aid environment has not been supportive of recipients' reform efforts during the 1980s.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the impact of macroeconomic and sector policies on agricultural incentives in Sub-Saharan Africa, using data from the World Bank's report on SubSaharan Africa.
Abstract: In 1981 the World Bank's report on SubSaharan Africa cited trade and exchange-rate biases against exports, poor macroeconomic and public sector management, and a price bias against agriculture as contributing to the region's poor performance and slow growth (World Bank 1981, 1986b). Since then, average per capita income in the region has continued to fall; overall agricultural production has grown more slowly than population; declining food production per capita has led to rising food imports; and, for many of the primary agricultural exports, Africa's share of world trade has fallen steadily from 1970 to 1983. Many African governments now agree on the central role of agriculture and the need to strengthen incentives in the sector (United Nations). This paper assesses how reforms in macroeconomic and sector policies have affected agricultural incentives. Government policies can be broadly classified into three groups: macroeconomic policies that affect incentives in all sectors generally, agricultural sector policies that affect farm profitability directly by changing commodity and input prices, and general and sector-specific policies that may affect farm profitability indirectly by changing factor prices and influencing productivity (e.g., public expenditures on research, extension, and infrastructure). This paper analyzes the impact on agricultural incentives of the first two groups of policies. The analysis of producer prices presented below is based on data for about twothirds of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, which account for more than three-fourths of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). (Country coverage varies by indicator depending in part on whether comprehensive data are available.)' Simple averages are used to summarize policy performance across countries (in contrast to weighted averages commonly used to assess aggregate economic effects). The analysis of producer prices covers one to four principal export crops per country.2
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore some of the industrial restructuring concerns facing the Korean economy at a time when direct government intervention is rapidly being replaced by functional incentives, and identify key problem areas affecting industrial policy decisions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the impact of the VER negotiated by the U.K., France and Germany with Japanese car makers and found that the VER did not arrest the declines in apparent consumption by local producers.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the economics of rural electrification and project selection, and present broad criteria for preliminary screening of RE projects are described in relation to national policy objectives.
TL;DR: Sri Lanka provides an interesting story of an individual country's experience relating choice of a trade regime to resource allocation and growth as mentioned in this paper, and a number of important lessons can be drawn from this experience.
TL;DR: In the Ivory Coast, more than 42$ of the country's population currently lives in cities, up from 19% in 1960 as mentioned in this paper, and the urban population in the country increased at an 8.5% annual rate between 1973 and 1983.
TL;DR: This article examined a number of education-related aspects of Venezuela's labor market in the 1975-84 period using a sample of 40,000 workers from the National Household Survey and found that the returns to schooling have declined by only 2 percentage points in a decade of rapid educational expansion.
TL;DR: In this article, a dynamic structural econometric model is developed to analyze movements in manufactured exports and to capture lags in the adjustment to equilibrium, and the model is estimated with pooled cross-section time-series data for a representative sample of fifteen developing countries grouped according to their export market power.
Abstract: A dynamic structural econometric model is developed to analyze movements in manufactured exports and to capture lags in the adjustment to equilibrium. The model is estimated with pooled cross-section time-series data for a representative sample of fifteen developing countries grouped according to their export market power. The results suggest that prices, domestic productive capacity, and external economic activity are critical determinants of manufactured exports from developing countries. The structural parameter estimates are used to infer the effects of changes in destination country income, distinguishing between the short-run and long-run export volume and export revenue effects. The results indicate that domestic economic policies that promote investment and capacity in export-oriented activities are likely to play a key role in increasing foreign exchange earnings in developing countries, even if growth in external demand is slow.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed and applied a simple methodology to compare marginal official tax rates across a sample of fifty developing countries and found that the poorest and the lower-middle-income countries impose relatively low marginal rates, and the rates for the upper-middle and developed countries are higher.
Abstract: Comparative work on income taxes in developing countries has commonly looked at average tax rates. These rates are often constructed by dividing revenue collections by some measure of private or personal income. Recent controversies have, however, focused on the incentive effects of marginal tax rates. This article develops and applies a simple methodology to compare marginal official tax rates across a sample of fifty developing countries. As would be expected given differences in fiscal capacity, the poorest and the lower-middle-income countries impose relatively low marginal rates, and the rates for the upper-middle-income and developed countries are higher. Conversely, several low and lower-middle income countries' tax thresholds start at income levels which are low relative to their mean income when compared with those of developed countries. The results warn against trying to derive information on the disincentive effect of a country's tax schedule from the highest marginal rate; the authors' data show that this is not an accurate indicator of overall disincentive effects.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a model of farmers' land acquisition and investment decisions to clarify the relation between land values, landownership security, and credit markets. But they did not consider the risk of eviction of untitled lands and the advantages in access to credit associated with titled land.
Abstract: This article develops a model of farmers' land acquisition and investment decisions. The model clarifies the relation between land values, landownership security, and credit markets. The risk of eviction of untitled lands and the advantages in access to credit associated with titled land are shown to account for the higher price of titled land. Furthermore, observed land prices are distorted when credit is priced below the opportunity cost of capital and the risk of eviction is positive. Therefore social benefit analysis of land titling cannot utilize land prices without correcting for these distortions. The article offers formulas for performing such corrections. Econometric estimates of the value of legal ownership in three provinces of Thailand using cross-section land price data show a statistically significant effect of ownership security on land price. The econometric estimates of ownership security are combined with the formulas generated by the model to yield estimates of the social benefit of land titling in the three provinces. The analysis implies that granting full legal ownership to squatters can be a socially beneficial policy in many provinces.
TL;DR: An attempt is made in this paper to present an empirical analysis of costs of education in India, where the author draws on the studies conducted and estimates made earlier by the author himself and by others on costs and related aspects of education.
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: The effect of various types of social programs on fertility is of interest to help in understanding the demographic transition and also to enable social engineering to accelerate fertility decline as discussed by the authors, but the nature of the evidence needed to test various hypotheses differs.
Abstract: The effects of various types of social programs on fertility is of interest to help in understanding the demographic transition and also to enable social engineering to accelerate fertility decline. The nature of the evidence needed to test various hypotheses differs. The effect of educationis the easiest to study for two reasons: (1) it is primarily the effect of an individual’s education on his or her own fertility that is most important and not the effect of the community’s education, and (2) the individual’s education is established prior to the fertility decision. This is not to say that the community’s level of education has no effect nor that the decision on one’s own fertility is not made to some degree simultaneously with the decision on how much schooling to get, but these effects are of a secondary order of magnitude compared to the direct effect and recursive decision-making. The effect of infant and child mortality on fertility is harder to study because, fertility effects mortality as well as the converse and apart of the effect of mortality on fertility operates at the community level. The effect of social security on fertility is the most complex factor to study, because: (1) it is difficult to assess the motivations of individuals, (2) the time lags between fertility decisions and old-age are very long, (3) it is the community’s social security system that is believed to affect individual fertility, and (4) aggregate fertility can affect the institution of social security programs as well as the converse.