This paper proposes that Colonialism is a major explanation behind today’s differences in Income Inequality among countries. We argue that colonies that received an important number of European settlers were characterized by a concentration of economic and political power in the hands of these last ones. Moreover, European settlers later achieved independence from the metropolis and were able t...

We examine the effect of rainfall shocks on crimes against women using data from 583 Indian districts for 2002-2007. We find that a one standard deviation decline in annual rainfall from the local mean increases reported domestic violence by 4.4 percent and dowry deaths by 7.8 percent. Wet shocks have no apparent effect. These patterns are consistent with consumption smoothing by households rel...

This paper revisits the problem of estimating ex ante cost functions previously studied by Pope and Just (1996) and Moschini (2001). An ex ante cost function that generalizes their ex ante cost functions is introduced, and an econometric procedure for estimating a flexible approximation to it is developed. That generalized cost function is economically relevant not only for the Just and Pope (1...

In MENA, household food insecurity, which is closely related to poverty and undernourishment, is most severe in rural areas and concentrated within Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen. 25% of the MENA population may be poor and 7% undernourished. The key to increased national and household-level food security is pro-poor growth, driven by export-oriented, labor-intensive sectors. Agricultural sector policie...

In this paper we search for pollution haven consistent evidence within China. Using a province level data set and three different measures of environmental stringency, we investigate whether inward foreign direct investment (FDI) is attracted to those regions with relatively low environmental regulations. Our results are consistent with pollution haven seeking behaviour by foreign investors. In...

Over the past several decades, significant efforts have been made to regulate the use of resource and pollution in most industrialized countries, and the stringency of pollution regulations has continued to increase globally. At the same time, physical and social infrastructures are influenced by changes in the use of resources which contribute to the wealth of many regions. Technical progress ...

Water saving agricultural technologies are a potentially important but under utilized lever to conserve groundwater in India. Technologies like laser levelers have high private returns and lead to water savings, yet the adoption rates are not very high. In order to provide insight for the design of policies to promote adoption, we conducted a survey based study about factors that influence the ...

Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between “dirty” (internal combustion engine) and “clean” (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technologies when they face higher tax-inclusive fuel pr...

This paper analyses the role barriers to trade in the form of high transaction costs have on market participation and supply response in rural food markets in developing countries. We present an empirical application on a sample of households in the Tanzanian region of Kagera. Exploiting the availability of a long term panel dataset to develop an error components switching regression model we c...

the effect of economic growth and free trade on environment and transnational pollutions is one of the most important current discussions in the field of environmental economics. nowadays, the economics, social and developmental consequences of the climatic changes around the world is increasingly accepted and approved. in fact, the environment is considered as one of the key elements for susta...