GEORGE JOSEPH, affiliation not provided to SSRN
QUENTIN T. WODON, World Bank
Email: QWODON@WORLDBANK.ORG

Concerns have been raised about the impact of rising food prices worldwide on the poor. To assess the (short term) impact of rising food prices in any particular country it is necessary to look at both the impact on food producers (who benefit from an increase in prices) and food consumers (who loose out when the price increases), with a focus on poor producers and consumers. In Mali the impact of a change in the price of rice is not ambiguous because about half of the rice consumed in the country is imported, so that the negative impact for consumers is much larger than the positive impact for producers. By contrast, for millet and sorghum, as well as corn, the impact is more ambiguous since much of the consumption is locally produced. Using a recent and comprehensive household survey, this paper provides an assessment of the potential impact of higher food prices on the poor in Mali using both simple statistical analysis and non-parametric methods. The paper finds that rising food prices for rice, millet and sorghum, corn, as well as wheat and bread could together lead to a substantial increase in poverty, with the increase in the price of rice having by far the largest negative impact.

DHAMMIKA DHARMAPALA, University of Connecticut - Department of Economics
Email: dhammika.dharmapala@uconn.edu

Tax havens have attracted increasing attention from policymakers in recent years. This paper provides an overview of a growing body of research that analyzes the consequences and determinants of the existence of tax haven countries. For instance, recent evidence suggests that tax havens tend to have stronger governance institutions than comparable non haven countries. Most importantly, tax havens provide opportunities for tax planning by multinational corporations. It is often argued that tax havens erode the tax base of high-tax countries by attracting such corporate activity. However, while tax havens host a disproportionate fraction of the world's foreign direct investment (FDI), their existence need not make high-tax countries worse off. It is possible that, under certain conditions, the existence of tax havens can enhance efficiency and even mitigate tax competition. Indeed, corporate tax revenues in major capital-exporting countries have exhibited robust growth, despite substantial FDI flows to tax havens.

KWAKU OWUSU AFRIYIE, University of Amsterdam
Email: nanaafriye@yahoo.co.uk

This paper seeks to argue that even though globalization processes such as structural-adjustment programs may in one way or the other be beneficial to developing countries, they do not actually lead to the reduction of poverty in these countries.

The first part of this paper deals with indept definitions held on the concept of globalization. The second part also discusses some of the arguments held by those who subscribe to concept of globalization and its impact on the poor in developing countries. Lastly this paper in the final part argues that globalization does not result in the reduction of poverty among the poor in developing countries as we are most of the time made to believe.

DIEGO A. COMIN, Harvard Business School, Business, Government and the International Economy Unit
Email: dcomin@hbs.edu
WILLIAM EASTERLY, New York University - Stern School of Business, Department of Economics
Email: William.Easterly@NYU.edu
ERICK GONG, University of California, Berkeley - Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Email: erick.gong@gmail.com

We assemble a dataset on technology adoption in 1000 BC, 0 AD, and 1500 AD for the predecessors to today's nation states. We find that this very old history of technology adoption is surprisingly significant for today's national development outcomes. Our strong and robust results are for 1500 AD determining per capita income today. We find technological persistence across long epochs: from 1000 BC to 0 AD, from 0 AD to 1500 AD, and from 1500 AD to the present. Although the data allow only some suggestive tests of rival hypotheses to explain long - run technological persistence, we find the evidence to be most consistent with a model of endogenous technology adoption where the cost of adopting new technologies declines sufficiently with the current level of adoption. The evidence is less consistent with a dominant role for population as predicted by the semi - endogenous growth models or for country - level factors like culture, genes or institutions.

BRUNO S. FREY, University of Zurich - Institute for Empirical Research in Economics (IEW), CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Email: bsfrey@iew.unizh.ch
KATJA ROST, University of Zurich - Institute for Organization and Administrative Science
Email: katja.rost@iou.unizh.ch

Publication and citation rankings have become major indicators of the scientific worth of universities and countries, and determine to a large extent the career of individual scholars. We argue that such rankings do not effectively measure research quality, which should be the essence of evaluation. For that reason, an alternative ranking is developed as a quality indicator, based on membership on academic editorial boards of professional journals. It turns out that especially the ranking of individual scholars is far from objective. The results differ markedly, depending on whether research quantity or research quality is considered. Even quantity rankings are not objective; two citation rankings, based on different samples, produce entirely different results. It follows that any career decisions based on rankings are dominated by chance and do not reflect research quality. Instead of propagating a ranking based on board membership as the gold standard, we suggest that committees make use of this quality indicator to find members who, in turn, evaluate the research quality of individual scholars.

KYM ANDERSON, University of Adelaide - Centre for International Economic Studies (CIES), Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), World Bank Group - International Trade Unit
Email: kym.anderson@adelaide.edu.au

The current WTO negotiations have a strong focus on development, but a number of developing countries are uncertain as to how to approach these negotiations. Trade liberalization tends to boost economic growth and contribute to the reduction of poverty in the longer term, but it may also impose important short-term adjustment costs. This paper explores the poverty implications of the current post-Doha multilateral trade reform agenda of the WTO for developing countries, so those benefits can be weighed against perceived adjustment costs. It addresses the effects of trade reform on poverty at three levels: first on developing countries as a group; then on different types of developing countries; and finally on different types of households within developing countries. The modelling results point to both opportunities and challenges provided by the WTO negotiations for developing countries seeking to trade their way out of poverty. While important gains are to be made from liberalization in the OECD countries, the paper also highlights gains to be made from policy changes in the developing countries that would help to reduce the anti-agriculture, anti-export and anti-poor bias of current policies. The paper addresses such questions as whether food-importing countries would suffer from higher food prices in international markets, and what impact reform could have on food security and poverty alleviation. The paper concludes with lessons of relevance for the domestic and trade policies of developing countries.