Nadia Cuffaro

Population growth and agriculture in poor countries: a review of theoretical issues and empirical evidence.

Abstract The paper contributes a critical survey of the very extensive literature dealing with various aspects of the economic and institutional responses of agriculture to population growth in poor countries, encompassing a discussion of the main underlying theoretical issues. Such responses are evaluated in the framework of the general population-development debate. The main conclusion is that, although population growth induces adjustments in agriculture, in terms of technical progress, intensification, and definition of property rights, optimism may not be justified in the context of very fast population growth and/or already high densities, especially when the environmental resource base is taken into account.

Large Scale Land Acquisitions in Developing Countries: Property Rights and CSR

The current wave of land acquisitions in developing countries differs from past trends because of the speed and magnitude of FDI flows. The main risk is the insufficient legal protection of land users, especially women. Insecure property rights are also a significant risk factor for investors. Strategic CSR in relation to property rights on land in the context of large acquisition should be a likely outcome, on condition that there is sufficient civil society mobilization. A code developed by international organisations could have the function of “model.”

Land grabbing nei Paesi in via di sviluppo: investitori esteri, regolamentazione e codici di condotta

L’articolo tratta gli sviluppi recenti degli investimenti esteri diretti in agricoltura nei paesi in via di sviluppo (Pvs). Tre sono agli argomenti analizzati. Il primo e l’evidenza empirica sulla recente crescita delle acquisizioni di terra per usi agricoli nei paesi in via di sviluppo da parte d’investitori esteri (land grabbing) e la questione collegata del ruolo del controllo sulla terra nel processo d’internazionalizzazione dell’agricoltura dei Pvs. Il secondo sono i possibili rischi di tali progetti, derivanti essenzialmente dal fatto che l’attuale ondata di investimenti riguarda contesti in cui molti soggetti dipendono da diritti di proprieta sulla terra poco certi e sono percio esposti al rischio di gravi perdite. Infine, si discute il possibile ruolo della responsabilita sociale delle imprese e di un codice di condotta promosso su base internazionale nel mitigare tali rischi.

Regulation in the WTO and the North-South Divide: A Post Cancun Evaluation

The demand for trade policy in the developed countries is such that possible WTO agreements include many regulatory issues. On the other hand, regulation is development related in many ways: the best rule may vary with the level of development, the opportunity cost of establishing regulation varies with income level and, finally, liberalisation of regulatory protection between countries at different levels of development is likely to take the form of hegemonic harmonisation. Special and differential treatment for the developing countries could provide solutions but SDT is flawed because of two mutually reinforcing ambiguities: first, it applies to a set of countries with widely different levels of development, on the basis of a self selection; second, its provisions for positive action on the part of developed countries are mostly not legally enforceable. The status quo tends to be defended by the developing countries as for the first ambiguity, by the developed countries as for the second. Therefore, the expansion of the agenda within the framework of the single undertaking rule, coupled with scant liberalisation in agriculture, has produced constant tension up to the Cancun failure. Deep integration through the WTO and single undertaking have proved to be a very difficult combination, which locked the system into a net of issue linkages.

Il Wto dall'Uruguay round a Cancun: una lettura in chiave Nord-Sud

Wto from the Uruguay round to Cancun: A North-South Interpretation - This article presents an analysis of the Gatt/Wto North-South debate the from the Uruguay round to Cancun. The first three sections outline the change in the strategies of the developing countries (DCs), arguing that the results of the Uruguay round were biased in favour of the latter, and that expansion of the agenda into regulatory issues is potentially negative for the DCs, since the asymmetry in techni-cal capability, negotiating power and implementation costs jeopardises the chances of obtaining results favourable to development. Section 4 comments on the Doha results, section 5 examines the agriculture negotiations in closer detail, and section 6 comments on Cancun, where the traditional approach - reaching consensus on the basis of agreements designed by a few, mainly developed, countries - failed, together with the Conference. Although there are risks for the multilateral trading sys-tem, the developing countries had no acceptable alternative in Cancun.

Credence goods, consumers’ trust in regulation and high quality exports

We analyze the impact of the effectiveness of internal regulation for the development of internal and export markets for credence goods, focusing on food products, particularly for a developing country which is an exporter (or a potential exporter). In the model, since goods of actual different quality can be sold as high quality goods, expected quality is a function of consumers’ beliefs about the effectiveness of regulation. Foreign consumers, who cannot observe foreign regulation as closely as domestic ones, may partly base their expectations on the level of development of the exporting country. Low effectiveness, negative stereotype and low consumers’ trust may cause a failure in the market for high quality, and there may be a trap of underdevelopment and no high quality exports. The main policy implications are that increasing the effectiveness of regulation improves export prospects; standard setting and enforcement by external actors, such as supermarkets, or NGOs in the case of certain niche markets, is likely to be beneficial.