Bids for the UMTS system: an empirical evaluation of the Italian case

This article surveys the main economic and technical features of the UMTS system. Once defined the general legal scheme in which European countries operate, the article focuses on the Italian case, analysing the legal background regulating the license assignment, and providing an empirical evaluation of the bid held in November 2000. Applying a theoretical model, we highlight and estimate some of the key variables of the problem, such as the parties' bargaining power, the maximum willingness to pay, the optimal time length of the concession

Option values, switches and wages: an analysis of the employmentguarantee scheme in India

Consistent with the theory of real options, it is argued that the value of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in the Indian state of Maharashtra and its impact on workers’ behaviour do not depend so much on its income supplementation as on enlargement of opportunities in an uncertain environment of the local labour market. The choice between the EGS and other activities in rural areas is modelled in a dynamic optimisation framework that takes into account a fixed wage rate and certainty of employment under the former and a stochastic wage rate in the latter. Besides, entry and exit costs of various employment options are taken into account. Finally, allowance is made for volatility of regular labour market activities (e.g. agricultural wage earnings). The predictions of this model are validated with the help of a panel household survey in a semi-arid region of south India. If this analysis has any validity, the incentive case for rural public works schemes such as the EGS in terms of screening and deterrent arguments, premised on a fixed wage rate differential, needs to be reformulated

Exploring the distributional impact of investment in the port sector on households in Mauritius: A social accounting matrix approach

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordResearch on the role that growth in the Ocean Economy can play on poverty reduction and income inequality has been limited to date. Using a Social Accounting Matrix framework this paper examines the distributional effects of investment in the port sector on employees and households in Mauritius. Two investment scenarios (conservative, US$1089 million and optimistic, US$1332 million) are considered. The results suggest that in the short term, investment in the development of the port sector would have an overall positive impact on the Mauritian economy. Poor and lower middle-income households would receive a very small positive impact, as would employees with lower education levels. However, in the medium to long term, impacts at the household level would be uneven with wealthy households and employees with university education receiving the greatest benefit. These results suggest the need for complementary redistributive policies

Science and technology in world agriculture: narratives and discourses

The narratives characterizing the current debate on world agricultural research tend to be part of a discourse that rationalizes past experience and future tendencies along the lines of extreme recounts of successes and failures. Stories of agricultural development and of accomplishments of research and science in agriculture tend to be organized according with either a conservative or a radical paradigm, which are in sharp contrast with each other and are at the origin of basic disagreements and biased information. For the neutral observer these contrasting views, to the extent that they seem to concern facts more than opinions, cause disorientation and stress in the form of the well known phenomenon of cognitive dissonance. Among the international institutions, the World Bank appears to have taken on the responsibility of attenuating such a phenomenon by providing, through its own narratives, stylized truths and balanced interpretations

Trade liberalization and agricultural prices

This article develops an analytical framework for examining the issues of trade liberalization and sector prices in the context of international factor movement. The article first describes the main problems that arise in the attempt to measure the effects of trade liberalization when factors are or have been internationally mobile. After examining some of the results obtained with partial and general equilibrium models, the article analyzes the predictable effects of liberalizing trade under a variety of market conditions on the basis of a general equilibrium model of North-South trade and factor movement

Trade liberalization and agricultural prices

This article develops an analytical framework for examining the issues of trade liberalization and sector prices in the context of international factor movement. The article first describes the main problems that arise in the attempt to measure the effects of trade liberalization when factors are or have been internationally mobile. After examining some of the results obtained with partial and general equilibrium models, the article analyzes the predictable effects of liberalizing trade under a variety of market conditions on the basis of a general equilibrium model of North-South trade and factor movement

Privatising the forests

Does privatisation have a role in world forestry sustainable management? Is privatisation policy valid for the forestry sector? This paper is aimed to the identification of opportunities and risks of forests privatisation in developing countries. Given the above background, privatisation may be defined as the problem of delimiting the extent of what is privately and what is publicly owned by creating social institutions to regulate the distribution of contingent rights and responsibilities. These social institutions include specific arrangements to transfer property rights (such as explicit or implicit auction mechanisms), as well as rules and regulations concerning the extent and the mode in which the rights may be exercised (the "governance" of the privatisation process). The evidence shows that, if done right, the privatisation (of resources and productive processes) produces benefits of economic efficiency and innovation. Because of its world-wide importance and prominent place among natural resources, privatisation of forests appears a research issue of great potential significance

Social supply and the evaluation of food policies

This study develops a model of social supply, based on the hypothesis that society desires that efficient producers remain in business even if their enterprise is too small to withstand the losses caused by extreme price declines. The analysis shows that this concept can be linked to the desire of society of maintaining small producers' income above a minimum level and is consistent with a well-behaved social welfare function. The study further argues that both social demand and social supply functions may be useful for evaluating policies and projects with socially relevant effects