A central question in economics is why some countries are substantially richer than others. The income per capita of the five richest countries in the world is 30 times the income of the five poorest. It is a fundamental quantitative question for which growth and development economists still have no definite answer. The first chapter of this dissertation contributes to this literature. The chapter offers new evidence on the sources of cross-country income differences by investigating the role public capital in development accounting. I explicitly measure private and public capital stocks, and I find large differences in both types of capital across countries. Moreover, differences in private capital are larger than the ones I find for total capital for the richest and poorest countries. The methodology I use implies a share of public capital in output of at most 10%. My findings indicate that differences in capital stocks can not account for a substantial part of the observed dispersion in income across countries . Other macroeconomic facts of underdeveloped and developing economies may also explain their low income per capita. These facts may be related to economic policies that could distort the allocation of resources in these economies. In the second chapter of this dissertation I document differences in labor supply between a set of Latin American countries and the U.S. in the period 1990-2005. In the U.S. the female labor force participation was 69% by 1990, while in Brazil and Mexico was 39% and 37%, respectively. Females began to participate more in the labor market of these countries after more households acquired access to basic infrastructure and when distortive policies affecting the price of household appliances were partially removed. I use a model of home production with endogenous labor force participation to account for these facts. I conclude that the price of household appliances and access to infrastructure are quantitatively important in explaining cross-country labor supply differences.

This dissertation combines concepts from the human capital and early intervention literature to develop a theoretical and empirical model of child development relationships. This model is empirically estimated using data from the Early Intervention Research Institute's Longitudinal Study on the effects of intervention for young children with disabilities. The model is estimated using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) relating the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) scores to child, family, and early intervention variables. These relationships are also examined using a type of Sequential Method of Moments (SMM) estimation strategy that accounts for data and other problems such as endogeneity, censoring, and selectivity. The OLS and SMM estimates are compared to evaluate the influence of variables such as age, birth order, ethnicity, gender, education of the mother, income, number of siblings, and hours of early intervention service, among other forces, on the development of infant and preschool children with moderate to severe disabilities.

The major theoretical and practical economic issues on pollution have apparently been sorted out. However, the bulk of the literature in environmental economics shares a shortcoming: the disregard of the welfare implications and consequences of pollution control. Traditionally, pollution is viewed as a joint product. In this study, the issue of trade and environmental regulations is cast as a problem of input regulation, and the subsequent welfare implications of input regulation are then derived. The purpose of the present r esearch is to emphasize the welfare consequences of pollution control in the context of international or interregional trade. The Batra and Casas, Yohe, and McGuire models lay out the theory of the use of the environment in an open economy, deriving the effects of pollution on factor rewards. Using some generalizations of the models, the welfare impacts of changing regulations which govern the use of the environment are derived. It is seen that for both a small and large country (region) with identical individuals, there is an optimal level of pollution. In the case where the economy is made up of two different groups of individuals, workers and capitalists (capital owners) in a small country (region), the workers lose while capitalists can either gain or lose. In the large country (region), it cannot be unam biguousl y determined whether workers and capitalists will be better or worse off than before the regulation changes.

This study analyzes aspects of Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro adoptions. After primary data are gathered by a questionnaire sent to wild horse and burro adopters, various statistics, and regression test results are reported, which indicate that the demand for the wild horses is multifaceted and that the wild animals are not a homogeneous product. The results overwhelmingly indicate that young and female horses are preferred by the majority of adopters. This finding had supportive evidence in both a price determination model as well as adopters ' responses to the survey that was conducted as a part of this study. This study found that many adopters value their adopted animals very highly, while others have not had the best experience. Because of a combination of public laws and land use plans, there are about 10,000 unadopted animals being maintained by the Bureau of Land Management at an estimated cost of $10 million per year. Currently, there is no foreseeable solution for this situation.

The purposes of this thesis are twofold. The first is to show problems encountered in collecting and analyzing data on small-holder agriculture. The second is to describe the role of data in supporting research and rationalization of alternatives for sustaining agricultural strategies in development. Data collected from six villages of the Lower Shebelle Region of Somalia are taken as a case study to show the difficulties encountered in procurement and analysis of that data. The thesis discusses data collection methods that ensure gathering adequate data that can be used to undertake production economics and farm management research. The thesis also discusses critical sources of data biases that may preclude any meaningful conclusion from the research effort.

Until the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia, the West knew very little about the economic aspects of the country. Since then, foreign assets have grown , and the balance of payment of Saudi Arabia have reflected an accumulation of continuously rising surpluses, particularly after 1973. Real income increased and consequentIy, supply and demand for money increased. During the period 1974-77, the Saudi economy experienced a high rate of inflation, but during the subsequent years (the late 1970s and the early 1980s) the Saudi inflation rate began declining. The main objective of the present study is to conduct an empirical investigation analyzing the interrelationships among foreign assets, money supply, and the domestic inflation in Saudi Arabia utilizing a modeI incorporating traded and non-traded goods. The theoretical model produces the final two equations where inflation generated in the non-traded goods sector and the overall domestic inflation represent the dependent variables, while the rate of change in the excess supply of money, world inflation, and the rate of change in last years inflation represent the explanatory variables for both dependent variabIes. The empirical analysis reveals no significant relationship between the behavior of the excess supply of money and the behavior of inflation in Saudi Arabian economy during the entire period of study (1963-83). It indicates that neither money supply nor foreign assets has played an active role in determining the behavior of domestic inflation in the Saudi Arabian economy. A strong relationship has been found between the inflationary expectations of the pubIic and the inflation generated in the non-traded goods sector. During the period (1963-72) imported inflation explained significantly the overall domestic inflation. But this is not so for the second period (1973-83) of study, even though inflation peaked during 1974-77. Furthermore, no structural shift in the economy occurred between these two sub-periods. The causality test conducted confirms the empirical results where no unidirectional causality existed between the overall domestic inflation rate and the excess supply of money. However, a positive causality has been found between the world inflation rate and the Saudi overalI domestic inflation rate. Another unidirectional causality from inflation generated in the nontradable sector to the overalI domestic inflation rate has been found. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed .

The main purpose of this study is to analyze theoretically and empirically the short- run dynamics of Iranian reserve flows, black market exchange rate, and domestic rate of inflation. To achieve this purpose, a monetary approach was adopted to measure the simultaneous effect of an ex ante excess flow supply of money on the three variables. This study also attempts to test the hypothesis that in the long run growth in output and price level is associated with a balance of payments surplus, while growth in the domestically - determined portion of the money stock tends to be associated with deficits. The empirical findings for the longrun balance of payments shows that monetary authorities in Iran cannot control the change in the stock of international reserves through domestic credit creation or destruction; rather, the authorities have a substantial control over this variable through the money supply multiplier. In the short run, monetary imbalances do explain the flow of international reserves, whereas, domestic inflation is mainly explained by world inflation. However, changes in the black market exchange rate are solely determined by factors outside of the model.

The Utah apple industry is a small competitor in a major market. Efforts were made to analyze the long-term market and profitability potential of the industry. This study consisted of two parts, whole farm simulations and a consumer preference survey. A whole-farm simulation model (FLIPSIM) was used to evaluate and test variations in price, debt load and sizes of Utah apple production units. These variations examined the effects of various possible market and financial conditions that producers could face given the current situation of the apple industry. FLIPSIM was used to demonstrate the stochastic nature of prices and yields of producers in Utah County, Utah. Five scenarios representing long-term nominal price trends were examined using FLIPSIM to test the financial health of the industry under the various financial situations. Each scenario investigated the impact of different price trend assumptions on a 40-acre and an 80-acre apple production unit under different initial debt loads. Consumer tastes and preferences for apples were determined through a survey conducted along the Wasatch Front. This survey established general consumer preferences and attempted to measure consumer behavior given various options. The results show producers the purchasing habits of apple consumers. Results indicate that as long as prices continue to increase in response to counter the escalating prices of inputs, the typical producer will experience success. If prices do not continue to increase, producers will experience financial difficulties. This suggests that apple producers in Utah are currently producing near a level where average total costs equal expected output price. Consequently, major increases in supply without corresponding increases in demand would reduce prices below break-even levels. These difficulties especially affect those producers with high debt loads and smaller operations (40 acres). If prices remain level, producers with 40 acres and 80% debt will experience severe financial problems. If prices decline, these financial problems will become general for all debt levels. Eighty-acre operations are expected to withstand lower prices better than the 40-acre operations, with problems beginning to arise if prices decrease by 1% with and 80% debt. If prices decline by 3% per year, both sizes of operations are expected to experience major financial problems. If prices drop 3% per annum, neither 40 nor 80 acre operations are expected to survive if they have 80% debt to fixed assets. Results of the consumer preference study indicate that apples, in general, are losing market share to other fruits in the Utah market. In general, apple producers must consider developing new markets, penetrating existing nonaccessible markets, expanding current markets, improving the product image of apples, diversifying to meet the variety requirement of the consumers and/or developing more efficient methods of production to provide a less expensive product in an effort to maintain profit margins.

This thesis investigates the development and use of viii agricultural enterprise budgets. An e nterprise is a single crop or livestock commodity, and e nterprise budgets are valuable management tools. They serve as the basic building blocks of complete farm planning. Two separate surveys gathered information from the Extension Service concerning the use and development of enterprise budgets. Analysis of the survey results identified the most common methods used to create enterprise budgets as well as factors that contribute to their use. A regression analysis was performed to determine the factors influencing the number of times county agents directly refer to published budget informat ion in a year . The agent's understanding of the use of budget information in management decisions, the geographic units that budgets are published for, and receiving the budgets in multiple forms (e.g., sheets, booklets, or software) have significant positive impacts on the use of budgets by the agents. Finally, based on the findings of this research, a number of recommendations are made to help increase the efficiency with which budgets are made and the use of these Pvaluable tools.

An analysis of costs and receipts associated with the production of manufacturing milk in El Vigia area of Venezuela was the focus of this study. A personal interview survey of a sample of dairy farm operators was conducted. Averages for costs, receipts, and net returns were calculated by size groups . Tabular analysis was used to study relationships between size and other factors and net return. Net return per cow was positive on the average, but the study indicated a general need for improved levels of production. Size of operation and capital investment were two factors found to be associated with higher net returns.