Economics Commons^™

An Overlapping-Generations Model Of Firm Heterogeneity In Economic Development, Yu Chen, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

We study firm heterogeneity in economic development in an overlapping-generations general equilibrium model in which manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition. Individuals differ in their productivities in the manufacturing sector and choose to become entrepreneurs or workers. The model is surprisingly tractable. In the steady state, an increase in the entry barrier in the manufacturing sector or an increase in the percentage of income spent on the agricultural good decreases the wage rate, but the level of output in the manufacturing sector does not necessarily decrease. An increase in the degree of patience of an individual increases the steady state …

Small Farmers' Cooperatives In Brazil, 1964-1984 Reasons For Success Or Failure, Henry H. Gerber

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study is concerned with cooperative business enterprises of small farmers. The topic has been chosen because peasants' association in supply and marketing cooperatives is considered an essential element in rural development. The author's field experience leads him to agree in principle with this assumption. But, as exemplified by Brazil, a variety of factors (ecological, sociohistorical, legal, economic and so forth) may hinder or help the inception and survival of cooperatives.

Thus, if a government aims at integrating the small producer into the national economy as supplier and consumer (as in Brazil), measures to implement t~is policy must not be …