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Agricultural and Resource Economics

2006

Poverty

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The Elimination Of Madagascar’S Vanilla Marketing Board, Ten Years On, Laure C. Dutoit, Olivier Cadot, Jaime De Melo Aug 2006

The Elimination Of Madagascar’S Vanilla Marketing Board, Ten Years On, Laure C. Dutoit, Olivier Cadot, Jaime De Melo

Olivier Cadot

This paper explores how the elimination of Madagascar’s Vanilla Marketing Board (VMB) in 1993 affected prices paid to farmers, incentives, and regional indicators of poverty and inequality. After steadily losing market share, Madagascar has been able to regain some of the lost ground since the mid-1990s. Margins between FOB and farmgate prices have narrowed down and analysis of changes in poverty and inequality suggests some positive impact in regions where vanilla is grown, though it is difficult to control for other intervening factors. A counterfactual analysis based on a model of Cournot competition between vanilla traders suggests that whatever limited …


How Rural Working Families Use The Earned Income Tax Credit: A Mixed Methods Analysis, Sheila Mammen, Frances C. Lawrence Jan 2006

How Rural Working Families Use The Earned Income Tax Credit: A Mixed Methods Analysis, Sheila Mammen, Frances C. Lawrence

Sheila Mammen

The Federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) affords cash-strapped and credit-constrained working families the opportunity to increase their purchasing power and savings potential. Mixed methods were used on a sample of 237 rural working mothers who participated in a multi-state study. Approximately two thirds of those eligible claimed the EITC. They stated the tax credit was used to pay bills and loans, improve access to transportation, purchase various consumer durables and nondurables, establish savings and build assets, engage in leisure activities, and make human capital investments. Use of the EITC within the context of the Behavioral Life Cycle Theory, implications …