Village democratization in rural China is found to have profound impacts on many socio-economic aspects, but little is understood as to how welfare impacts may occur through farmers' principal production activities. This study helps to fill this gap by investigating how village democracy affects rural household welfare through these channels, using a unique household survey. The authors first establish a theoretical framework that links democracy to household welfare through changes in production efficiency. Focusing on both agricultural and forest production, they then implement empirical estimation using stochastic production frontier techniques with careful consideration of household heterogeneity in technical efficiency. They find that higher levels of village democracy significantly increase farmers' production efficiency, thereby improving their welfare. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study on the impacts of democracy on producer welfare using micro-level data.

This study estimates the benefits from adopting Bt cotton seeds in Punjab, Pakistan over two cropping seasons - 2008 and 2009. The study uses the panel modeling approach to determine the average effects of Bt cotton technology on short-run profits, yields and farm inputs. This approach controls for biases resulting from self-selection and endogenous farm inputs. The study shows that, on average, Bt adopting farmers receive 9 per cent higher yields per hectare (ha), reduce per-ha pesticide use by 21.7 per cent, and increase per-ha use of irrigation water by 6 per cent. Our estimates of the increase in cotton yield are far below estimates from previous studies conducted in Pakistan and India, which do not use panel methods. Allowing more Bt cotton varieties and ensuring the availability of quality Bt cotton seeds in the market is likely to lead to further increase in the private benefits from Bt cotton.

Using eight rounds of household survey data that span two decades, this paper analyzes the determinants of household fuel choice in urban China. Using the correlated random effects generalized ordered probit model, the authors find that household fuel choice in urban China is related to fuel prices, households’ economic status and size and household head's gender and education. The results suggest that policies and interventions that increase households’ income, reduce the price advantage of dirty fuels (e.g., taxing coal) and empower women in the household are of great significance in encouraging the use of clean energy sources.

Exploiting a natural experiment involving the imposition of a technical regulation by Germany on Indian leather and textile industries in 1994, a firm-level data set is used to study the trade, adaptation and discontinuity effects and how they vary by firm size. It is found that: (a) regulation significantly increases the export revenues of a firm through use of new technology and high-quality imported raw materials – indicating a possible signalling effect; (b) this gain is concentrated only on the upper half of the firm size distribution, i.e., in the 3rd and 4th quartiles; (c) use of imported raw materials significantly explains low exit probabilities of a firm; and (d) there is evidence of a sorting effect – regulation significantly affecting the operation of small firms.

In this study, the author estimates the demand for improvements in the site quality of Hussain Sagar, a large lake in metropolitan Hyderabad, India. Using both revealed and stated preference approaches, it is estimated that the park provides recreational benefits of US$35 per person for on-site respondents and US$14 for off-site respondents per visit to the park. Given that over one million people visit the lake and its parks every year, based on different scenarios, the annual estimated amenity value of the lake ranges from INR1.76bn (US$29m) to INR3.48bn (US$58m). Thus it is recommended that park authorities double the access fee to the park from the current INR10 (US$0.16). With this increase, the government can potentially earn US$0.36–1.48m in revenues per year, which will make it possible to improve the quality of the lake and its surroundings.

Tropical deforestation has been one of the most significant global environmental changes of recent decades and has spurred a substantial academic literature. Despite this, the empirical literature provides inconsistent evidence on the role of basic economic determinants of deforestation such as income and population. The authors suggest that one explanation for this inconsistency is a tendency to use incomplete or incorrect dynamic regression specifications. They derive three plausible dynamic empirical model specifications and compare their performance both with each other and with an ad hoc model typical of those used in the literature. Statistical tests support the use of more completely specified models which allow for dynamic adjustment of forest cover.