Trade Protection and Tax Evasion: Evidence from Kenya, Mauritius, and Nigeria
Author: Antoine Bouet and Devesh Roy
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 36
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Lanterna Rally
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Participation by Men and Women in Off-Farm Activities: An Empirical Analysis in Rural Northern Ghana
Author: Nancy McCarthy, Yan Sun
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 36
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Using survey data from the Upper East region of Ghana collected in 2005, the paper evaluates the household- and community-level factors influencing women's and men's decisions to participate in off-farm activities, either in the off-farm labor market or in local community groups, and the relationship with on-farm crop returns. Results indicate that crop returns are not affected by increased labor availability over a certain labor-land ratio. Female participation in off-farm labor markets increases at higher levels of labor availability, but participation in women's groups' only increases as labor scarcity is relaxed at lower levels. Alternatively, male participation in off-farm work increases over all levels of labor availability. Results also indicate that male labor is relatively more productive on-farm versus off-farm than female labor, and, though education increases the likelihood that both women and men will work off-farm (with no impact on crop revenues), the impact is greater for women. Finally, participation in off-farm work does not appear to be driven by the need to reduce exposure to risk or to manage risk ex post; wealthier households located in wealthier communities are more likely to participate in off-farm work. Evidence for participation in groups and risk is more complicated; wealthier households in wealthier communities are also more likely to participate, but so too are female-headed households with higher dependency ratios."--Authors' abstract.
The Evolution of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms: Township-Village Enterprises Revisited
Author: Chenggang Xu, Xiaobo Zhang
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 32
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Township-village enterprises (TVEs) were a major engine of China's rapid rural industrialization in the past three decades. TVEs also played a key role in fostering entrepreneurship and served as a major stepping-stone for institutional changes when legal protections of private property rights were not in place and the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were slow to react to changing market demand. As private ownership was gradually recognized legally, TVEs lost their edge in competing with private firms. In the past two decades, industrial clusters with a concentration of private entrepreneurial firms coordinated by local governments have emerged rapidly in many areas. The structures of such firms as TVEs and the subsequent clustering modes of production are an outcome of interaction with other local and macro environments. As the environment changes, a firm's organization and organizational structure may change as well."--Authors' abstract.
Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact?
Author: Bouet, Antoine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2018-12-21
Total Pages: 56
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) represents a prominent phenomenon in Africa. Several studies suggest that for certain products and countries, the value of informal trade may meet or even exceed the value of formal trade. This paper provides a review of existing efforts to measure informal trade. We list 18 initiatives aimed at measuring ICBT in Africa. The paper also summarizes discussions conducted with many stakeholders in Africa between December 2016 and May 2018 regarding the measurement, the determinants, and the implications of ICBT. The methodologies used to measure ICBT in Africa differ widely, but they do confirm that informal trade in Africa is both sizeable and volatile. Both evidence on the determinants of ICBT and discussions with stakeholders suggest that policies should aim to reduce the existing costs associated with formal trade and provide positive incentives for traders and producers to move into the formal economy in order to avoid the loss of economic potential stemming from informal trade.
Dynamics of Structural Transformation: An Empirical Characterization in the Case of China, Malaysia, and Ghana
Author: Thaddee Badibanga, Xinshen Diao, Terry Roe, Agapi Somwaru
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Do Institutions Limit Clientelism? A Study of the District Assemblies Common Fund in Ghana
Author: Afua Branoah Banful
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 36
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Analyses of how coveted central-government resources in Africa are shared have shown widespread patronage, ethnic cronyism, and pork-barrel politics. While some governments have attempted to rectify the situation by establishing revenue-sharing formulas, a key unanswered question is whether such institutions are able to achieve this goal. This paper presents an empirical investigation of a pioneering formula-based system of resource allocation from the central government to local governments in Ghana--the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). The evidence is consistent with governments being able to politically manipulate resource allocation within the confines of the formula-based system. Nevertheless, this does not suggest that the DACF completely fails to limit political influence. It indicates that other guiding structures of a formula-based system--in particular, how and when the formula can be altered--are important determinants of how well a program such as the DACF is able to resist political pressures."--Authors' abstract.
Africa agriculture trade monitor 2019
Author: Antoine Bouët
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2019-09-04
Total Pages: 184
ISBN-13: 0896296903
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The second annual Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor assesses emerging and long-term trends and drivers shaping Africa’s trade in agricultural products and evaluates the possible impacts of current trade tensions. The 2019 report focuses on intraregional trade and competitiveness, with chapters on measuring regional trade integration and competitiveness of agriculture, a feature chapter on the potential impact of global trade tensions, and an in-depth look at trade integration in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.
Existing data to measure African trade
Author: Mitaritonna, Cristina
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2017-03-10
Total Pages: 32
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →One finds a broad consensus in the literature regarding the lack of good information on trade in Africa, particularly intraregional trade. This paper attempts to identify gaps and remedies in measuring and tracking trade in Africa. We review the major international and regional databases that track trade in Africa, identifying the gaps therein. We also review the studies that have attempted to track informal trade between African countries, and we look at the major ongoing initiatives to track such informal trade. It appears that both international and regional databases suffer from a lack of reporting or from faulty reporting of African trade statistics. Informal trade flows pose an ongoing problem when measuring intraregional trade, although actual border-monitoring initiatives ongoing in selected countries constitute an interesting option for their quantification. When no direct monitoring method is available, estimating gravity equations represents an alternative with which to measure the potential trade between two partner countries, giving us an estimate of missing trade. A final avenue consists of estimating unregistered trade via national accounts data by comparing consumption, production, and declared trade.
Is smuggling welfare-improving? Evidence from avocados in Costa Rica
Author: Metivier, Jeanne
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2018-07-13
Total Pages: 37
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Does smuggling improve economic welfare? This paper provides a theoretical model of illegal trade and determines the impact of smuggling on economic welfare. We focus on Costa Rica's recent prohibition of avocados imported from Mexico. Using unique data on trade, production, and the price of Costa Rican and Mexican avocados, we find that the quantity of avocados smuggled into Costa Rica on an annual basis ranges from 4,668 to 10,232 metric tons, representing up to four times the quantity of locally produced avocados. Furthermore, we demonstrate that smuggling is necessarily welfare-improving compared to the ``no-smuggling situation''. Compared to the ``free-trade situation'', smuggling does not always compensate for the negative effects arising from the restrictive trade measure. In most cases, welfare is lower after the prohibition and smuggling than prior to the implementation of the prohibition. In some cases, however, smuggling results in a gain in terms of trade that offsets the harmful effects associated with the trading cost of smuggling. We find that such situations occur when the trading cost of smuggling is low, and thus when enforcement of the prohibition by public authorities is weak.
The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling
Author: Max Gallien
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-12-21
Total Pages: 418
ISBN-13: 1000508773
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling offers a comprehensive survey of interdisciplinary research related to smuggling, reflecting on key themes, and charting current and future trends. Divided into six parts and spanning over 30 chapters, the volume covers themes such as mobility, borders, violent conflict, and state politics, as well as looks at the smuggling of specific goods – from rice and gasoline to wildlife, weapons, and cocaine. Chapters engage with some of the most contentious academic and policy debates of the twenty-first century, including the historical creation of borders, re-bordering, the criminalisation of migration, and the politics of selective toleration of smuggling. As it maps a field that contains unique methodological, ethical, and risk-related challenges, the book takes stock not only of the state of our shared knowledge, but also reflects on how this has been produced, pointing to blind spots and providing an informed vision of the future of the field. Bringing together established and emerging scholars from around the world, The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling is an indispensable resource for students and researchers of conflict studies, borderland studies, criminology, political science, global development, anthropology, sociology, and geography.
