Impact of Agricultural Credit in the.Agricultural Development of Kuttanad

Introduction of agrarian reforms and introduction of new technology increased dependence on casual labourers. High labour absorption in the subsistence agriculture and increased price of input resulted in high cost of cultivation. Price of paddy did not rise correspondingly. As a result subsistence economy's future is bleak. The purpose of the _study is to examine these arguments and related issues with the help of empirical evidence from Kuttanad. The credit schemes are designed to help farmers to earn higher incomes by larger output brought either by an increase in area or by an improvement in yield rates or both. It is difficult to isolate the impact of agricultural credit on agricultural development. Because agricultural development is the combined effect of all inputs. The specific .criteria selected for analysing the impact of agricultural icredit are how increased supply of credit would bring changes ‘in capital formation, agrarian relations, informal lending and its cost and the changes in area, output, introduction of new technology, income, savings and employment of farm households.

El programa Proniño en Colombia: su efecto en la reducción del trabajo infantil

El objetivo de este documento es evaluar empíricamente el efecto que tiene una mayor o menor exposición del programa Proniño de la Fundación Telefónica en la cantidad de horas trabajadas de los niños, niñas y adolescentes. Tomando información desde el 2010 y hasta el 2012 se evalúa empíricamente el impacto en la duración a la exposición del tratamiento, eliminando el sesgo de selección por duración a través de la metodología de Propensity Score Matching. Los resultados muestran que la exposición al tratamiento sí logra reducir el número de horas trabajadas de los niños, niñas y adolescentes, alcanzando los niveles más altos de reducción cuando el tiempo de exposición al programa es más amplio; en este caso, tres años y particularmente para el grupo de edad comprendido entre los 12 a 14 años. Finalmente se evidencia que el programa es más efectivo en la reducción del número de horas trabajadas a la semana de los niños (hombres) que de las niñas (mujeres).

Hacia un nuevo marco interpretativo de la asistencia internacional para el desarrollo (Artículos Varios)

Este artículo intenta construir una perspectiva alternativa al estudio de la asistencia internacional para el desarrollo. Para ello, el autor analiza las variables internacionales que han determinado la trayectoria y el cambio de la misma, desde sus inicios en 1948 hasta el presente. Estas variables tendrían que ver con los intereses de los donantes, la dinámica organizacional de las agencias canalizadoras de la asistencia,y las ideas y teorías que sobre el desarrollo internacional han predominado en cada momento. El artículo concluye con la presentación de un marco interpretativo de la asistencia, el cual busca explicar su origen, carácter y cambio en las últimas décadas, de un paradigma centrado en la formación de capital al paradigma del desarrollo humano sustentable.

Energy substitutability in transition agriculture: estimates and implications for Hungary

Subsidised energy prices in pre-transition Hungary had led to excessive energy intensity in the agricultural sector. Transition has resulted in steep input price increases. In this study, Allen and Morishima elasticities of substitution are estimated to study the effects of these price changes on energy use, chemical input use, capital formation and employment. Panel data methods, Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and instrument exogeneity tests are used to specify and estimate technology and substitution elasticities. Results indicate that indirect price policy may be effective in controlling energy consumption. The sustained increases in energy and chemical input prices have worked together to restrict energy and chemical input use, and the substitutability between energy, capital and labour has prevented the capital shrinkage and agricultural unemployment situations from being worse. The Hungarian push towards lower energy intensity may be best pursued through sustained energy price increases rather than capital subsidies. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An analysis of linkage between foreign direct investment and GDP per Capita in Pakistan : A time series analysis

This study aims to investigate the relation between foreign direct investment (FDI) and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in Pakistan. The study is based on a basic Cobb-Douglas production function. Population over age 15 to 64 is used as a proxy for labor in the investigation. The other variables used are gross capital formation, technological gap and a dummy variable measuring among other things political stability. We find positive correlation between GDP per capita in Pakistan and two variables, FDI and population over age 15 to 64. The GDP gap (gap between GDP of USA and GDP of Pakistan) is negatively correlated with GDP per capita as expected. Political instability, economic crisis, wars and polarization in the society have no significant impact on GDP per capita in the long run.

Two essays on education and governament policies

Whether human capital increases or decreases wage uncertainty is an open ques- tion from an empirical standpoint. Yet, most policy prescriptions regarding human capital formation are based on models that impose riskiness on this type of invest- ment. We slightly deviate from the rest of the literature by allowing for non-linear income taxes in a two period model. This enables us to derive prescriptions that are robust to the risk characteristics of human capital: savings should be discouraged, human capital investments encouraged and both types of investment driven to an e¢ cient level from an aggregate perspective. These prescriptions are also robust to what choices are observed, even though the policy instruments used to implement them are not.

O modelo de integração econômico e social nas cooperativas agropecuárias do Paraná

Analisar o modelo de integração das cooperativas de produtores agropecuários no estado do Paraná foi o propósito deste estudo. Foram estudadas as características, os fatores que dificultam e as ações que facilitam a integração entre cooperados e suas cooperativas e destas entre si. As cooperativas têm características distintas dos outros atores do mercado, nos seus objetivos, na forma de gestão, na formação do capital e na sua identificação com a comunidade onde atuam. O desenvolvimento das cooperativas agropecuárias no Paraná é resultante dos Projetos Integrados de Cooperativismo (PICs), implementados a partir de 1972. O modelo previa cooperativas singulares, cada qual com sua área de ação, com o objetivo de proporcionar assistência técnica, creditícia e apoio logístico aos produtores associados, e centrais cooperativas, por região, para industrialização e comercialização da produção. Os resultados proporcionados pelos projetos integrados são evidentes, pois, quase 60% da produção agropecuária atual provém das cooperativas em todo o estado. Porém, ao longo do tempo, em razão do crescimento desigual das cooperativas, surgiram disputas por área de ação entre cooperativas e conflitos de interesses em relação às centrais que comprometeram o modelo de integração idealizado. Pesquisa de campo realizada para este estudo, mostra que 75% das pessoas que compõem o público interno das cooperativas – cooperados, dirigentes e funcionários, concordam que há concorrência entre cooperativas no Paraná. Trata-se de tema polêmico porém relevante para o desenvolvimento do cooperativismo paranaense, que concorre com grandes conglomerados econômicos nacionais e internacionais. A superação do dilema da integração constitui importante desafio às organizações cooperativas. Esta dissertação utiliza metodologia de análise de conteúdo, descrita por VERGARA (2007, p. 15) para extrair da bibliografia e da pesquisa de campo os resultados almejados. Com base na Teoria da Delimitação dos Sistemas Sociais, concebida por Guerreiro Ramos (1981), conclui-se que as cooperativas agropecuárias paranaenses são organizações de interesse econômico que apresentam características isonômicas de gestão. A maioria dos fatores que dificultam a integração nas cooperativas é originada de atitudes internas de cooperados e dirigentes, tais como: individualismo, falta de conhecimento sobre as cooperativas e falta de interesse em participar da cooperativa. Entre as ações que poderiam contribuir para a integração foi citada a necessidade de se constituir novo modelo de integração, apoiado por programas de educação, comunicação e capitalização em volumes compatíveis com as demandas dos projetos das cooperativas, tanto aos cooperados quanto para projetos integrados entre cooperativas.

New evidence of the causal effect of family size on child quality in a developing country

This paper presents new evidence of the causal effect of family size on child quality in a developing-country context. We estimate the impact of family size on child labor and educational outcomes among Brazilian children and young adults by exploring the exogenous variation of family size driven by the presence of twins in the family. Using the Brazilian Census data for 1991, we nd that the exogenous increase in family size is positively related to labor force participation for boys and girls and to household chores for young women. We also and negative e ects on educational outcomes for boys and girls and negative impacts on human capital formation for young female adults. Moreover, we obtain suggestive evidence that credit and time constraints faced by poor families may explain the findings.

Is 'tagging' a rationale for affirmative action in education?

In this paper, we try to rationalize the existence of one of the most common affirmative action policies: educational quotas. We model a two period economy with asymmetric information and endogenous human capital formation. Individuals may be from two different groups in the population, where each group is defined by an observable and exogenous characteristic. The distribution of skills differ across groups. We introduce educational quotas into the model by letting the planner reduce the effort cost that a student from one of the groups has to endure in order to be accepted into a university. Affirmative action policies can be interpreted as a form of ``tagging" since group characteristics are used as proxies for productivity. We find that although educational quotas are usually efficient, they need not subsidize the education of the low skill group.

Welfare and growth effects of alternative fiscal rules for infrastructure investment in Brazil

This article studies the interplay between fiscal rules, public investment and growth in Brazil. It is investigated if it would make sense to raise public investment and, if so, under which fiscal rule it is best to do it — whether through tax financing, debt financing, or a reduction of public consumption. We construct and simulate a competitive general equilibrium model, calibrated to Brazilian economy, in which public capital is a component of the production function and public consumption directly affects individuals’ well-being. After assessing the impacts of alternative fiscal rules, the paper concludes that the most desirable financing scheme is the reduction of public consumption, which dominates the others in terms of output and welfare gains. The model replicates the observed growth slowdown of the Brazilian economy when we increase taxes and reduce public capital formation to the levels observed after 1980 and shows that the growth impact of the expansion of tax collection in Brazil was much larger than that of public investment compression.

Macroeconomic constraints to growth of Brazilian economy diagnosis and some policy proposals

The recent process of accelerated expansion of the Brazilian economy was driven by exports and fixed capital formation. Although the pace of growth was more robust than in the 1990´s, we can still witness the existence of certain macroeconomic constraints to its continuation in the long run such as, for instance, the exchange rate overvaluation in particular since 2005, and in general the modus operandi of monetary policy. Such constraints may jeopardize the sustainability of the current pace of growth. Therefore, we argue that Brazil still lies in a trap made up of high interest and low exchange rates. The elimination of the exchange rate misalignment would bring about a great increase in the rate of interest, which on its turn would impact negatively upon investment and hence upon the sustainability of long run economic growth. We outline a set of policy measures to eliminate such a trap, in particular, the adoption of an implicit target for the exchange rate, capital controls and the abandonment of the present regime of inflation targeting. Recent events seem to go in this direction.

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2007

Includes bibliography

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2011

Incluye Bibliografía

Shaping the future of social protection: access, financing and solidarity

Includes bibliography

Education and the labour market in Latin America: why measurement is important and what it tells us about policies, reforms and performance

Includes bibliography