Article history: Received 31 May 2006 Received in revised form 19 April 2007 Accepted 22 May 2007 Available online 13 July 2007 Agriculture produces more than just crops. Agricultural practices have environmental impacts that affect a wide range of ecosystem services, including water quality, pollination, nutrient cycling, soil retention, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. In ...

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expresse...

We construct a new credit spread index, employing an extensive micro-level data set of secondary market prices of outstanding senior unsecured bonds over the 1973– 2009 period. Compared with the standard default-risk indicators such as the Baa-Aaa corporate bond spread and the paper-bill spread, our credit spread index is a robust predictor of future economic activity across a variety of econom...

This article examines the unequal distribution of credit and credit subsidies in the Brazilian agricultural sector from 1969 to 1990. Total credit subsidies exceeded US$ 40 billion in this period. The distribution across crops is studied econometrically. After controlling for area, the crops that benefited most had superior access to credit institutions, were tradeable, had high prices, and wer...

Does Off-Farm Labor Relax Farmers’ Credit Constraints? Evidence from Longitudinal Data for Vietnam We examine the relationship between participation in non-agricultural labor activities and farming production decisions, focusing on the use of inputs. In particular, we are interested in the hypothesis that income from non-agricultural labor relaxes credit constraints. Using longitudinal data for...

agricultural extension workers’ service has been placed as the central pattern of agricultural transformation in general and smallholder farmers in particular. due largely to this commensurately known trend, identifying factors that determine farmers’ access to extension workers’ service and the effect of the service on crop yield was found to be imperative. cross sectional data was collected t...

The problem of evaluation of agricultural land suitability is consid­ ered as a fuzzy modeling task. For assessment of land suitability, it is proposed to use fuzzy indicators. Application of individual fuzzy indicators gives oppor­ tunity for assessment of suitability of lands as degree or grade of performance when the lands are used for agricultural purposes. Using composite fuzzy indi­ cator...

Financial trade credit theories argue that suppliers have an advantage over other lenders in financing credit-constrained firms. While the reasons for this advantage differ across theories, they are usually related either to product characteristics or to market structure. We exploit this insight to analyze trade credit volume and contract terms. Ceteris paribus, service suppliers offer as much ...

background: pasteur institute of iran was established in 1919 with the aim to produce vaccines and prevent communicable diseases in iran. over time, their activities extended into areas of research, education and services. naturally, such a vast development begs establishment of a comprehensive management and monitoring system. with this outlook, the present study was carried out with the aim t...