50 years since independence, agriculture remains a key driver for economic growth, rural development and poverty reduction in many African countries. Yet, the sector has suffered from market and policy failures and has largely failed to fulfil its potential. Why do agricultural policies seem to have failed in seizing development opportunities? This paper argues that this is partly due to the fa...

This paper studies how a politician’s preferences and abilities to influence public and private sector productivity affect her choices over economic policies. Extremism between policies of leftand right-wing incumbents increases with ability, because voters are more willing to re-elect competent politicians. Positive correlations between certain ability dimensions and preferences amplify politi...

Climate change mitigation policies will bring with them ancillary or secondary benefits and costs in addition to those directly associated with avoided temperature changes. The ancillary public health effects of air pollutant emission changes (such as in reductions in particulate matter (PM)) have been the focus of some research attention. However, none of the major economic models of climate i...

5.1 INTRODUCTION Can banking systems become less skewed towards those already better off in developing countries? Although this question has become an important item on the overall development agenda, there is still no rigorous analysis of the policies aimed at expanding financial services into largely unbanked areas (with the exception of microfinance) and their actual impact on inclusion. Ane...

School policy debates vacillate between policies emphasizing improvement in general skills and those aimed at strengthening the linkages between schools and the workplace. While these policies do not necessarily conflict, each is frequently motivated by shortcomings in the other. This paper presents basic evidence about the very substantial impacts of general cognitive skills on individual earn...

This paper investigates the importance of political ideology and opportunism in the choice of the tax structure. In particular, we examine the effects of cabinet ideology and elections on the distribution of the tax burden across factors of production and consumption for 21 OECD countries over the period 1970-2000 by employing four alternative cabinet ideology measures and by using the methodol...

Current progress with regard to the adoption, diffusion and regulation of biotechnology in Africa has mainly been in the area of agricultural biotechnology. Industrial and pharmaceutical sectors are still in their infancy. Most African countries rely on agriculture for economic growth as well as food security. Appropriate policies are necessary for progress in biotechnology and the development ...

The biological and physical environment of the planet is changing at an unprecedented rate as a result of human activity, and these changes may have an enormous impact on human health. One of the goals of human development is to protect health in the face of rapid environmental change, but we often fail to do this. The aim in this paper is to distinguish between socioeconomic aspects of develop...

FRONTIER CENTRE: In August the National Post published a provocative article in which you argue that Canada's rate of economic growth could out pace the impressive American rate and that Canada's standard of living could surpass that of our American cousins within twenty years should we adopt certain changes in public policy. Wouldn't such an about face, in fact, restore the Canadian advantage?...

This paper surveys recent evidence suggesting that market-oriented institutions and policies are strongly related to economic growth, focusing on studies using the economic freedom indicator of the Fraser Institute. This index is critically discussed. Also various serious shortcomings of empirical studies using this index are identified. Nevertheless there are strong indications that liberaliza...