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Based on the calculation of the inclusive financial development level of 22 provinces and 4 municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017, this paper uses the Kernel density estimation method to further analyze the evolution of the inclusive financial index. Based on the above analysis, we make empirical analysis of the impact of China's inclusive financial inclusion development index on farmers' entrepreneurship using static panel and dynamic panel estimation method. The empirical conclusions show that there are certain differences in inclusive financial inclusion development level in various provinces in China. Improving the inclusion development level of inclusive finance can better promote farmers' entrepreneurship. Urbanization level, economic openness and regional economic development level have a significant positive effect on farmers' entrepreneurship, while farmers' income and education level have a significant negative effect on farmers' entrepreneurship. It is possible to promote farmers' entrepreneurship by improving the inclusive development level of inclusive finance, combining urbanization, increasing government investment in productive fixed assets, increasing economic openness and improving regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the process of colonial state formation on Java during the nineteenth century. It argues that this was characterized by a succession of experiments aimed at increasing export production and raising taxes from the indigenous population. These experiments were shaped by the possibilities offered by indigenous socio-political structures and institutions, and by the important role played by comprador groups forming a crucial link between the European segment of the population and the indigenous Javanese, the Chinese and Indian merchants active on the island. On the basis of newly reconstructed historical national accounts of Java in the nineteenth century, it is possible to assess the impact of the various experiments on growth and productivity, and to explain why - for example - the (in)famous Cultivation System, which apparently was a huge success, had in the long term to be abolished, and was replaced by more market oriented economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of mineral extraction in South East Asia, the rural poor are generally portrayed as victims of large, invading corporatized mining enterprises. However, this paper argues that local villagers have also shown considerable agency in taking advantage of the mineral resource boom by diversifying their livelihoods to include informal mining. In South East Asia, the growth of informal mining has occurred within the overall process of agrarian transition. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich valley in southern Laos to highlight the location-specific nature of such transitions. The valley's environmental transformation has both caused and accompanied a modification in the peasant ways of life, and the recent entry of transnational mining companies and the growing market price of tin have fundamentally altered the relationships of the peasants with place, while at the same time encouraging them to claim mineral resource rights in ways that are not accommodated in conventional mining legislation. To conclude, the paper notes the multiple interpretations and contradictions of the increasing mineral dependence among Lao peasants in a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, notwithstanding the current global recession, the tripling of food prices in the period 2005–2008 presages a permanent increase in the average real price of food over the next 30 years. The underlying causes are likely to be rising energy prices, adverse effects of climate change on agriculture and rising food consumption in Asia. The consequences will be increased social and political turbulence of the urban poor and misguided government policies to try to mitigate this instability. Adam Smith's invisible hand indicates the shape of more constructive policies, consistent with economic development objectives. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of environmental change on internal migration has received wide attention in recent years. Mass internal migration has been a significant economic and social phenomenon in China, and soil erosion is a major environmental problem that impacts sustainable socioeconomic development. This study aims to identify the impact of soil erosion on internal migration in China at the county level based on gravity model by analyzing related data, such as the sixth national population census data and the soil and water conservation survey data. The results of spatial overlay could not identify an obvious relationship between soil erosion and net outmigration in China. The traditional gravity model of migration is modified to analyze the impact of soil erosion on net outmigration while other variables are controlled. The results indicate that only serious soil erosion increases the possibility of outmigration and that the impact is considerably higher in agricultural counties than in non-agricultural counties. In general, the impact of soil erosion on internal migration is far less than the impact of socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice breeders in Asia and elsewhere in the world have long overlooked trying to shorten the time it takes to develop new varieties. Plant breeders have proposed a technique called Rapid Generation Advance (RGA) as a way to accelerate the results of public rice breeding programs. However, little is known about RGA’s potential impact. Here, we present the first results of a global impact study of RGA. More specifically, we calculated the multiplicator effects of RGA on the research benefits generated by conventional rice breeding programs and applied them to a meta-analysis of selected impact studies in the literature. These insights are a first crucial step in developing a targeted approach for disseminating RGA technology among rice breeders to accelerate the impact of their public rice breeding programs around the world. We show that the additional benefits due to time savings are considerable and offer some insights into the economics of breeding. Our results confirm that the adoption of accelerated breeding would lead to substantial advantages to rice breeding programs and the earlier variety release leads to significant economic benefits to society. This can be important to policy makers when reshaping their public breeding methods and optimising their return on research investments in breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the recent literature on finance, growth and hunger, we have examined the experience of Asian countries over the period 1960-2010 by dynamic and static panel data models. We have found evidence favouring a positive role of finance-defined as private credit by banks-on growth of GDP and agricultural value added. Private credit as well as loans from the World Bank significantly reduces undernourishment, whereas remittances and loans from microfinance institutions appear to have a negative impact on poverty. Our empirical evidence shows that growth performance was significantly lower during the recent global financial crisis than non-crisis periods, although the severity is much smaller during the recent financial crisis than Asian financial crisis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Was economic growth in East Asia jobless? An analysis of Okun's Law in eight countries between 1997 and 2011 suggests that it was not. However, there is considerable variation across countries. Generally, the effect of growth on employment magnifies in more flexible labor markets. Yet even under tight labor regulation, economic growth affects employment, especially in its composition. Agricultural employment moves counter-cyclically, as opposed to non- agricultural employment. The effect is particularly pronounced in periods of economic crisis, suggesting that agriculture serves as a shock-absorber for workers laid off in the industrial sector. Isolating nonagricultural employment reveals a stronger relationship between growth and job creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spike in global food prices in 2007–08 not only led to riots on several continents; it also reawakened fears about the world's future ability to feed itself, as growing populations place greater demands on agricultural systems operating in increasingly difficult environmental and climatic conditions. With more than half the world's people and high levels of inequality, Asia lies at the centre of the global food-security challenge of the twenty-first century. The region – especially China and India – is drawing on world stocks and importing more staples, as its own farms strain to meet the growing middle classes’ desire for more meat and processed foods. Meanwhile, the smallholder farmers who supply 80% of the continent's food confront continued poverty, as they struggle to raise output in the face of creeping environmental degradation, looming water shortages and the unpredictable effects of climate change. As thisAdelphishows, there are no simple solutions. Today, rice is exported while some households still go hungry, unrest grows as land is appropriated for biofuels or industry, and nations compete over waters and fishing rights. Only integrated policies that take into account the complex socio-economic and political aspects of food security have any chance of succeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Twenty years ago, Lenski and Nolan published a seminal article in which they established empirical links between modern development and traditional technology in developing countries. This analysis is expanded in two ways: by improving the indicators of traditional technologies, and by introducing a second dimension of structural complexity, the sociopolitical differentiation of traditional societies. Though two indices measure functionally related aspects, they have distinct impacts on the socio-economic development of the 65 non-western countries analyzed in this article. Since traditional socio-political differentiation explains modern development better than traditional technology, we suggest significant revisions, and a new interpretation of Lenski and Nolan's results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forces of economic and social change are reworking rural areas of the developing world, sometimes fundamentally so. Agriculture is being squeezed by nonagricultural pursuits, aspirations are increasingly informed by a wish to avoid farming and the ‘household’ is being restructured as the genders and generations contest and renegotiate their respective roles. The diversification of the household economy and the interpenetration of rural and urban have created multiple hybridities where individuals and households shift between agricultural and industrial pursuits and cross between rural and urban areas. Farm is in thrall to nonfarm, and industry is often dependent on ‘rural’ labour. Drawing largely on work from southeast Asia, the article reviews these changes to rural life and livelihood, discusses their impacts on agriculture and reflects on their implications for rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]