VTechWorks staff will be away for the winter holidays starting Tuesday, December 24, 2024, through Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and will not be replying to requests during this time. Thank you for your patience, and happy holidays!

Browsing by Author "Fafchamps, M."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Land tenure and allocative efficiency in Niger
    Gavian, S.; Fafchamps, M. (1996)
    Using field-level data, an investigation is made of whether traditional land tenure systems are an impediment to allocative efficiency in Niger. It is found that yields are strongly influenced by the manpower available to farming households, an indication that marginal returns to labour and land are not equalized across households. No relationship between manuring and whether or not local customs allow land sales is found. However, manuring is influenced by tenure security: farmers who cultivate both borrowed and owned fields divert manure toward the latter. The findings do not imply that a change in land tenure system is called for. (CAB Abstracts)
  • Networks, communities and markets in sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for growth and investment
    Fafchamps, M. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001)
    This article explores the importance that relationships and networks have in market exchanges in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study concludes that in order to reduce transactions costs, Africans traders establish long term trading relationships, which are determinant for business and market outcomes. These relationships are based on trust, but often keeping family and relatives separate from business. Socialization is another important part of business for different networks including technology informants. Resource allocation is organized through gifts, markets, and command and control.
  • The spatial integration of livestock markets in Niger
    Fafchamps, M.; Gavian, S. (1996)
    A study of the integration of livestock markets in Niger is presented. Analysis is based on data of 15 animal categories collected monthly in 38 districts over a period of 21 years (1968-88). Price variability over space is examined by testing whether Nigerian livestock prices are spatially integrated. It is shown that livestock markets are poorly integrated. Prices are seldom co integrated, suggesting that large price differentials occasionally persist between adjacent areas for long periods of time. A parity bounds approach indicates that one has to assume high transportation costs and large quality variations to reconcile the data with efficient spatial arbitrage. These results confirm descriptive studies that have emphasized regional segmentation in West African livestock trade. (CAB Abstracts)