Fuels and chemicals derived from biomass are regarded as an environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum based products. The concept of using plant material as a source for fuels and commodity chemicals has been embraced by governments to alleviate dependence on the volatile petroleum market. This trend is driven not only by economics but also by social and political factors. Global warmin...

Kerosene subsidy reform is a key policy concern in India and other developing countries. As kerosene is widely used for lighting in India, any price changewill likely have considerable public welfare impacts on the large fraction of the poorwho do not have access to reliable electricity supply for lighting. In this study, we assess historic kerosene use for residential lighting across populatio...

Despite achieving a significant cost reduction over the past two decades, the absolute cost of food subsidies in Egypt is still high relative to the benefits received by the poor. There is scope for better targeting these food subsidies, in particular for targeting cooking oil and sugar ration cards, both because reforms in this area are perceived to be far less politically sensitive than adjus...

3 nancially strapped and concerned about the cost of reform and its ability to meet their population’s needs. Maine, Florida, Iowa, and other states have already indicated that they will seek waivers for some insurance rules that could destabilize local insurance markets. A recent proposal by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Scott Brown (R-MA) would grant states additional f lexibility but falls s...

S ubsidized agricultural exports to developing countries and, worse, food aid kill the output markets of smallholders there, who encompass the majority of the world’s poor. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa, this unfair competition, together with blatant neglect of agriculture in public policy, hampers agricultural growth. Throughout history, agricultural growth has been the engine of overall ec...

We develop an estimation procedure that generates consistent estimates of the technology parameters, long-run (persistent) and short-run (transient) technical inefficiencies marginal effects their determinants for stochastic frontier model developed by Colombi et al. (2014, Journal Productivity Analysis 42, 123) Kumbhakar 41, 321). Our approach accounts three sources potential endogeneity: (i) ...

The paper reviews the experience of Poland and Russia with economic reform, with occasional comparison to China’s experience. The author argues that macroeconomic chaos in Poland and Russia preceded reform and was allayed by reform; that there is no necessary tradeoff between reform and growth, and that the Polish and Russian experience shows that it is possible to create clear property rights ...