________________________________________________________________________ We assess whether bank branch placement in Bangladesh responds to any unexploited potential for non-farm rural development. The location choices of the famous Grameen Bank are compared to those of more traditional banks. We allow for heterogeneity in household characteristics conducive to success in non-farm activities whe...

This paper analyzes the effects of government debt and income taxes on consumption and saving in a world of infinitely lived households having uncertain and heterogeneous incomes. The special structure of the model allows exact aggregation across households despite incomplete markets. The effects of government debt are shown to be substantial, roughly comparable to those resulting from finite h...

Two key measures of U.S. economic growth—the annual rate of change in real output and in productivity—have improved considerably in recent years.1 Between 1996 and 1998, growth in productivity in the largest segment of the economy, the private nonfarm business sector, averaged nearly 2 percent. This growth rate, the strongest sustained pace since 1983-85, appears to signal some fundamental impr...

have seen nonfarm employment growth rates become much more stable than they were in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. However, the volatility of employment growth has declined by different amounts in different regions. In addition, although the general reasons for greater stability are similar across regions, the individual sectors making the greatest contribution to smoother growth differ. Th...

As principal farm operators age, retirement and succession planning has become increasingly important to the U.S. agriculture industry. This study examined differences in determinants of preparation between nonfarm households using Survey Consumer Finances. Factors such as risk preferences, financial capability, human capital, other demographic characteristics farmers that may play a role their...