Today there is no agreement as to how developing countries can achieve sustained economic growth and wellbeing. Over the last 50 years many suggested policy panaceas have failed. Policy makers are now faced with growing economic challenges and confusing policy prescriptions. Against this background, the re-emerging study of institutions now offers new promise in explaining why development has so far eluded so many countries, and consequently, what can be done about it. This thesis deals with questions which to date have only received partial or cursory attention. The study asks: What really are institutions? Why do they matter? What can we learn about them that can help us deal with the current challenging development debacle? This study starts by reaffirming what institutions are. It shows that institutions are inescapable influencers of the way we relate to each other, and the effects we have on our societies’ economic development. Yet so far, scholars and policy makers have not yet fully taken up the opportunity of identifying and utilising the insights that the institutional perspective offers. This study deliberately picks up the challenge. Using the experience of the Uganda coffee sector, it shows that the nature of institutions can be better understood, and their role and impact, better addressed towards pressing development questions. The study shows that by integrating old and new institutionalist perspectives and theories of institutions and institutional change, it is possible to make much more progress towards understanding, explaining and addressing the role and influence of institutions in the development of an economic sector. In so doing this study goes beyond existing works on definition, taxonomy and explanation of institutional influence. It raises new insights to be considered as we face today’s contemporary development challenges. This research should therefore be of interest and value to researchers, students, policy makers and entrepreneurs concerned with economic development and the factors that shape and influence it in practice.

Masters of Science / Department of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health / Edgar Chambers IV / In today’s market, there is a growing demand for high-quality coffee with distinctive sensory characteristics. An example of such coffees is the cold brew which has become quite popular. Despite the increasing prevalence of cold drip/brewed coffee, little-published research exists on the factors that impact the sensory characteristics of cold brew coffee. The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of a) degree of roasting, b) coffee to water ratio (C2WR) and c) brewing methods on cold brew coffee from d) Ugandan coffee beans. Four distinct coffee samples, sourced from different lowland and mountainous regions in Uganda, were roasted and tested using a factorial design that allowed comparison of all main factors (a-d) and their interactions. The samples were evaluated by a highly trained sensory panel based on 42 attributes from a previously published coffee lexicon. Results showed that all aspects studied (Ugandan variety, roast degree, C2WR, and brewing method) had an impact on most of the attributes. For example, Robusta coffees generally had a more bitter taste than Arabica coffees and the Dark roast samples generally were more bitter than the Medium roast coffees. In addition, coffee samples that were brewed using a higher coffee to water ratio (C2WR) generally were more bitter than the coffees that were brewed using a lower C2WR. However, although most of the main effects had a significant impact, their effects were mitigated by their interaction with other factors. For example, Medium roast Robusta that was slow-dripped with a high C2WR had a more bitter taste than the corresponding Arabica samples however when the Medium roast Robusta was steeped with a high C2WR it had a similar bitter intensity with the corresponding Arabica samples. Thus, although major impacts are critical, individual sample combinations must be considered when evaluating coffee samples for their impact on the sensory characteristics.

To achieve economic development, regional authorities have to address issues that relate to climate change, efficient information flow in the market place, and health care. This dissertation presents three essays on current issues of concern to economic development in Africa. Climate change is examined in terms of its effects on the Egyptian agricultural sector; transmission of world price to small scale growers is examined in Uganda; and the benefits of insecticide-treated bed nets use is examined in Africa. In essay I, to address the impact of climate change on the Egyptian agricultural sector under alternative population growth rates, water use and crop yield assumption; the Egyptian Agricultural Sector Model (EASM) is updated and expanded to improve hydrological modeling and used to portray agricultural activity and hydrological flow. The results indicate that climate change will cause damages (costs) to the Egyptian agricultural sector and these will increase over time. Egypt may reduce these future damages by controlling its population growth rate and using water conservation strategies. In essay II, I use vector autoregressive analysis to examine the transmissions of price information to Uganda coffee growers; using monthly coffee price data on retail, futures, farmgate and world prices from 1994 to 2010. Improved transmission of world prices to farmers may increase their decision making to obtain a better market price. Directed acyclic graphs reveal that there is a causal flow of information from the indicator price to the London futures price to the Uganda grower?s price in contemporaneous time. Forecast error variance decomposition indicates that at moving ahead 12 months, the uncertainty in Uganda grower price is attributable to the indicator price (world spot price), own price (farmgate), London future and Spain retail price in rank order. In essay III, the cost of malaria in children under five years and the use of insecticide treated bed nets is examined in the context of 18 countries in Africa. I examine the direct and indirect cost of malaria in children under five years and the benefit of investing in insecticide treated mosquito nets as a preventative strategy in 18 African countries. The results indicate that the use of mosquito treated nets reduces the number of malaria cases in children; and this can induce 0.5% reduction in outpatient treatment costs, 11% reduction in inpatient treatment costs, 11% reduction in productivity loss, and 15% reduction in disability adjusted life years (DALY) annually.