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'''Hans P. Binswanger-Mkhize''' (born in [[Kreuzlingen]] ([[Switzerland]]) in [[1943]], died August 4th, [[2017]]) was a [[Swiss]] [[economist]].<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kmaf1o GoogleScholar webpage of Hans P. Binswanger-Mkhize. Retrieved June 16th, 2019.]</ref> His research focused mainly on [[agricultural economics]] in [[developing countries]].
== Biography==
A native of Kreuzlingen, Hans Binswanger studied first at the [[University of Paris]], where he earned a certificate in [[political science]]s in 1964, followed by a [[Master of Science|M.S.]] in [[agricultural science]]s from the [[ETH Zurich]] in 1969. In 1973, Binswanger completed his [[Ph.D.]] in [[economics]] at the [[North Carolina State University]]. After his Ph.D., Binswanger worked at [[International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics]] (ICRISAT) in [[Hyderabad]] from 1795 to 1980, during which he also briefly held a position as research associate at [[Yale University]]. From 1980 to 2005, Binswanger worked in various positions for the [[World Bank]], before taking up a position as senior fellow at the [[Amsterdam Institute for Development]], which he held until his death. Moreover, Binswanger was [[professor extraordinarius]] at the [[Tshwane University of Technology]] ([[South Africa]]).
His research was acknowledged by the [[American Agricultural Economics Association]] with a fellowship in 1997, through another fellowship from the [[American Association for the Advancement of Sciences]] in 2002 and with the Elmhirst Medal of the International Association of Agricultural Economists in 2006.
== Research==
Binswanger's fields of work combined topics from agricultural economics, development economics, political economy, the economics of technology, and environmental economics. In terms of research output, he ranked among the top 3% of economists registered on [[IDEAS/RePEc]].<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Rh2Ocq Hans Binswanger-Mkhize is ranked 1693rd among 56171 researchers registered on IDEAS RePEc. Retrieved June 16th, 2019.]</ref>
=== Economics of Technical Change and Its Impacts, and Agricultural Mechanization===
A key area of Binswanger's research has been the economics of technical change in agriculture, in particular agricultural mechanization, and its impacts. In an early study of technical change in U.S. agriculture in 1912-68, Binswanger shows that the adoption of innovations is induced by changes in relative factor prices, although these changes have to be very large.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kmafyq Binswanger, H.P. (1974). The measurement of technical change biases with many factors of production. ''American Economic Review'', pp. 964-976.]</ref> This concept of '''induced innovation''' and its relationship with technology, institutions and development is further explored in 1978 in an eponymous book co-authored with Vernon W. Ruttan.<ref> Binswanger, H.P., Ruttan, V.W. (1978). ''Induced innovation: Technology, Institutions, and Development.'' Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.</ref> In the 1970s and 1980s, Binswanger also conducted research on agricultural mechanization. For instance, summarizing the literature on the economics of tractors in [[India]], [[Pakistan]] and [[Nepal]], Binswanger argues that surveys of tractor use fail to find statistically significant impacts on growth in yields, timeliness or gross farm returns, and - at least until the 1980s - tractors failed to support South Asian agricultural growth.<ref>Binswanger, H.P. (1978). ''The economics of tractors in South Asia.'' International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.</ref> Reviewing historical patterns of agricultural mechanization, Binswanger shows that in both developed and developing countries power-intensive processes were mechanized first, followed by control-intensive operations, with small manufacturers (and not the public sector or corporate research) typically initiating the process of inventing new types of machinery.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RgqgX4 Binswanger, H. (1986). Agricultural mechanization: a comparative historical perspective. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 1(1), pp. 27-56.]</ref> Together with Prabdhu Pingali and Yves Bigot, Binswanger also investigated patterns of agricultural mechanization and the evolution of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting that many technological failures were due to mismatches between technological strategies, farming systems and countries endowments of land, labour and climate.<ref>Pingali, P., Bigot, Y., Binswanger, H.P. (1987). ''Agricultural mechanization and the evolution of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.</ref><ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kmag5s Binswanger, H., Pingali, P. (1988). Technological priorities for farming in sub-Saharan Africa. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 3(1), pp. 81-98.]</ref> Overall, reviewing the effect of technical change and commercialization in agriculture on the poor until the late 1980s, Binswanger concluded that these dynamics stimulate growth in agriculture, rural development and food supply, though these don't generally lend themselves to poverty targeting.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RgTW6w Binswanger, H.P., Braun, J. (1991). Technological change and commercialization in agriculture: the effect on the poor. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 6(1), pp. 57-80.]</ref>
=== Economic Behaviour under Risk and Uncertainty===
In the 1980s, Binswanger turned to the study of economic behaviour in agriculture under risk and uncertainty. Through an experiment in rural India, he notably found large discrepancies between experimental measures of risk aversion and certainty equivalents elicited through interviews, with the experimental measures suggesting that, for high payoffs, nearly everybody was moderately risk averse, with even wealthy individuals not significantly less risk averse; more specifically, Binswanger observed decreasing absolute risk aversion, increaseing partial risk aversion, declining relative risk aversion, and asset disaggregation.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ki6Jow Binswanger, H.P. (1980). Attitudes towards risk: Experimental measurement in rural India. ''American Journal of Agricultural Economics'', 62(3), pp. 395-407.]</ref><ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqoET Binswanger, H.P. (1981). Attitudes towards risk: Theoretical implications of an experiment in rural India. ''Economic Journal'', 91(364), pp. 867-890.]</ref> Summarizing the literature on risk aversion and farmers' credit constraints, Binswanger and Donald Sillers find that farmers in developing countries are almost universally risk averse and show why many lenders would ask rural borrowers for collateral, giving credence to the view that small farmers may be at a disadvantage because of credit constraints.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2KmahGy Binswanger, H.P., Sillers, D.A. (1983). Risk aversion and credit constraints in farmers' decision-making: A reinterpretation. ''Journal of Development Studies'', 20(1), pp. 5-21.]</ref> Finally, Binswanger and [[Mark Rosenzweig]] document how farmers adapt the composition of their agricultural investments in response to the exposure of the profitability of their agricultural activities to weather risk.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqpbV Rosenzweig, M.R., Binswanger, H.P. (1993). Wealth, weather risk, and the composition and profitability of agricultural investments. ''Economic Journal'', 103(416), pp. 56-78.]</ref>
=== Agricultural Production Relations and Econometric Studies===
Many of Binswanger's studies of agricultural dynamics are econometric, with early works including e.g. the measurement of elastcities of factor demand and substitution<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kjd9Ut Binswanger, H.P. (1974). A cost function approach to the measurement of elasticities of factor demand and elasticities of substitution. ''American Journal of Agricultural Economics'', 56(2), pp. 377-386.]</ref> and a microeconomic approach to induced innovation.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqpIX Binswanger, H.P. (1974). A microeconomic approach to induced innovation. ''Economic Journal'', 84(336), pp. 940-958.]</ref> In a study with Maw-Cheng Yang, Alan Bowers and Yair Mundlak on the determinants of cross-country aggregate agricultural supply, Binswanger finds only weak short-run supply elasticities within countries.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kps3sm Binswanger, H. et al. (1987). On the determinants of cross-country aggregate agricultural supply. ''Journal of Econometrics'', 36(1-2), pp. 111-131.]</ref> Further work of Binswanger has investigated the policy response of agriculture, highlighting agriculture's low price short-run price elasticity, the role of investments in infrastructure, institutions and public goods, and the effects of structural adjustment programmes.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqqfZ Binswanger, H. (1989). The policy response of agriculture. ''World Bank Economic Review'', 3(Supp. 1), pp. 234-262.]</ref> Last, Binswanger, Rosenzweig and Shahidur Khandker describe how the availability of education infrastructure and rural banks co-determine agricultural investment and agricultural output's price responsiveness, with public infrastructure investments in turn being determined by agroclimatic potential and bank locations being influenced by public infrastructure investments.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2KkPRh6 Binswanger, H.P., Khandker, S.R., Rosenzweig, M.R. (1993). How infrastructure and financial institutions affect agricultural output and investment in India. ''Journal of Development Economics'', 41(2), pp. 337-366.]</ref>
With Rosenzweig, Binswanger has developed an influential model of agricultural production and its behavioural and material determinants that facilitates the analysis of barriers to the emergence of rural financial markets and efficient agricultural factor markets, along further implications.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RkM3gA Binswanger, H.P., Rosenzweig, M.R. (1986). Behavioural and material determinants of production relations in agriculture. ''Journal of Development Studies'', 22(3), pp. 503-539.]</ref> By contrast, earlier work of Binswanger and Rosenzweig addresses contractual arrangements, employment and wages in rural labour markets.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2KkO1wL Binswanger, H.P., Rosenzweig, M.R. (1981). ''Contractual arrangements, employment and wages in rural labor markets: A critical review.'' New York: Agricultural Development Council.]</ref> Another major contribution of Binswanger's research - together with Klaus Deininger and Gershon Feder - is an analysis of the power relationships governing rental and sales markets for agricultural land in developing countries and their impacts on policy distortions, revolts and reforms.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Rlqrk3 Binswanger, H.P., Deininger, K., Feder, G. (1995). Power, distortions, revolt and reform in agricultural land relations. In: Behrman, J., Srinivasan, T.N. (eds.). ''Handbook of Development Economics'', vol. 3. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 2659-2772.]</ref>
=== Environment, Natural Resource Management and Policies===
In the 1990s, Binswanger's research turned increasingly towards environmental topics. For instance, he showed that general tax policies, special tax incentives, the rules of land allocation and the agricultural credit system in [[Brazil]] all contributed to the acceleration of [[deforestation of the Amazon rainforest]], increasing in the process the size of land holdings and reducing the chances of the poor to become farmers.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ko6ath Binswanger, H.P. (1991). Brazilian policies that encourage deforestation in the Amazon. ''World Development'', 19(7), pp. 821-829.]</ref> Turning to [[water rights]], Binswanger (together with Mark Rosegrant) makes the case for tradable water rights as a means to formalize and secure the water rights held by water users, reduce transaction costs and induce the internalization of opportunity costs and negative externalities (e.g. due to [[irrigation]]).<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqrR5 Rosegrant, M.W., Binswanger, H.P. (1994). Markets in tradable water rights: potential for efficiency gains in developing country water resource allocation. ''World Development'', 22(11), pp. 1613-1625.]</ref> Addressing the relationship between natural resource degradation and population growth in [[Colombia]], Binswanger (with Jon Heath) argues that rather than being population-driven, natural resource degradation is mainly driven by policies that constrain poor people's access to land.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kk555V Heath, J., Binswanger, H. (1996). Natural resource degradation effects of poverty and population growth are largely policy-induced: the case of Colombia. ''Environment and Development Economics'', 1(1), pp. 65-84.]</ref>
=== Land Policy and Land Reform===
Since the mid-1990s, Binswanger has also extensively written about land policy and [[land reform]]. Studying South Africa's case, Binswanger and Deininger argue that the dualistic structure of its farm structure - a few very large, highly productive farms often owned by Afrikaner and many relatively small farms owned by native Africans - cannot be explained due to economies of scale in the commercial sector, but is instead due to systematic historical distortions in land allocation, output markets, and access to infrastructure, rural finance and public services;<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ri3H4p Binswanger, H.P., Deininger, K. (1993). South African land policy: The legacy of history and current options. ''World Development'', 21(9), pp. 1451-1475.]</ref> the topic of land reform in South Africa is further explored with regard to policies, markets and mechanisms with Johan van Zyl and Johann Kirsten.<ref>[https://amzn.to/2KskWzB Van Zyl, J., Kirsten, J., Binswanger, H.P. (1996). ''Agricultural land reform in South Africa: Policies, markets and mechanisms''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.]</ref> At the turn of the century, Binswanger and Deininger examine the evolution of the World Bank's land policy, highlighting (i) the desirability of owner-operated family farms, (ii) the need for markets permitting land transfers to more productive users, and (iii) an egalitarian asset distribution. To this, they add the relative cost effectiveness of communal tenure systems, the assessment of titling programms based on efficiency and equity, the potential of land rental markets, the integration of the development of land-sale markets into broader rural development initiatives, the success of decentralized and market-oriented approaches to land reform, and the need for adaptation to local conditions.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RgVVb5 Deininger, K., Binswanger, H. (1999). The evolution of the World Bank's land policy: principles, experiences, and future challenges. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 14(2), pp. 247-276.]</ref><ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ki6JF2 Van den Brink, R. et al. (2005). Consensus, confusion, and controversy: selected land reform issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.]</ref>
=== Rural Finance===
In a study by Binswanger and Khandker, both argue that the impact of credit expansion on agricultural output in India has been insubstantial, with the programme having a positive return on investment only under very optimistic assumptions.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Rnqc8e Binswanger, H.P., Khandker, S.R. (1978). The impact of formal finance on the rural economy of India. ''Journal of Development Studies'', 32(2), pp. 234-262.]</ref> More recently, Binswanger-Mkhize has argued on the subject of weather index-based agricultural insurance that its prospects for upscaling are poor, given that better-off farmers tend to already be insured through income diversification and social networks, whereas poor farmers are too cash constrained to afford the premia for an insurance that will pay out at earliest after harvest.
<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ki6KJ6 Binswanger-Mkhize, H.P. (2012). Is there too much hype about index-based agricultural insurance? ''Journal of Development Studies'', 48(2), pp. 187-200.]</ref>
== References==
== External links==
* [http://bit.ly/2Kmaf1o Google Scholar webpage of Hans Binswanger-Mkhize]
* [http://bit.ly/2Ki6Lg8 Homepage of Hans Binswanger-Mkhize]
[[Category:Development economists]]
[[Category:Swiss economists]]
[[Category:Agricultural economists]]
[[Category:People from Kreuzlingen]]
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:ETH Zurich alumni]]
[[Category:North Carolina State University alumni]]
[[Category:Tshwane University of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
== Biography==
A native of Kreuzlingen, Hans Binswanger studied first at the [[University of Paris]], where he earned a certificate in [[political science]]s in 1964, followed by a [[Master of Science|M.S.]] in [[agricultural science]]s from the [[ETH Zurich]] in 1969. In 1973, Binswanger completed his [[Ph.D.]] in [[economics]] at the [[North Carolina State University]]. After his Ph.D., Binswanger worked at [[International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics]] (ICRISAT) in [[Hyderabad]] from 1795 to 1980, during which he also briefly held a position as research associate at [[Yale University]]. From 1980 to 2005, Binswanger worked in various positions for the [[World Bank]], before taking up a position as senior fellow at the [[Amsterdam Institute for Development]], which he held until his death. Moreover, Binswanger was [[professor extraordinarius]] at the [[Tshwane University of Technology]] ([[South Africa]]).
His research was acknowledged by the [[American Agricultural Economics Association]] with a fellowship in 1997, through another fellowship from the [[American Association for the Advancement of Sciences]] in 2002 and with the Elmhirst Medal of the International Association of Agricultural Economists in 2006.
== Research==
Binswanger's fields of work combined topics from agricultural economics, development economics, political economy, the economics of technology, and environmental economics. In terms of research output, he ranked among the top 3% of economists registered on [[IDEAS/RePEc]].<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Rh2Ocq Hans Binswanger-Mkhize is ranked 1693rd among 56171 researchers registered on IDEAS RePEc. Retrieved June 16th, 2019.]</ref>
=== Economics of Technical Change and Its Impacts, and Agricultural Mechanization===
A key area of Binswanger's research has been the economics of technical change in agriculture, in particular agricultural mechanization, and its impacts. In an early study of technical change in U.S. agriculture in 1912-68, Binswanger shows that the adoption of innovations is induced by changes in relative factor prices, although these changes have to be very large.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kmafyq Binswanger, H.P. (1974). The measurement of technical change biases with many factors of production. ''American Economic Review'', pp. 964-976.]</ref> This concept of '''induced innovation''' and its relationship with technology, institutions and development is further explored in 1978 in an eponymous book co-authored with Vernon W. Ruttan.<ref> Binswanger, H.P., Ruttan, V.W. (1978). ''Induced innovation: Technology, Institutions, and Development.'' Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.</ref> In the 1970s and 1980s, Binswanger also conducted research on agricultural mechanization. For instance, summarizing the literature on the economics of tractors in [[India]], [[Pakistan]] and [[Nepal]], Binswanger argues that surveys of tractor use fail to find statistically significant impacts on growth in yields, timeliness or gross farm returns, and - at least until the 1980s - tractors failed to support South Asian agricultural growth.<ref>Binswanger, H.P. (1978). ''The economics of tractors in South Asia.'' International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.</ref> Reviewing historical patterns of agricultural mechanization, Binswanger shows that in both developed and developing countries power-intensive processes were mechanized first, followed by control-intensive operations, with small manufacturers (and not the public sector or corporate research) typically initiating the process of inventing new types of machinery.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RgqgX4 Binswanger, H. (1986). Agricultural mechanization: a comparative historical perspective. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 1(1), pp. 27-56.]</ref> Together with Prabdhu Pingali and Yves Bigot, Binswanger also investigated patterns of agricultural mechanization and the evolution of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting that many technological failures were due to mismatches between technological strategies, farming systems and countries endowments of land, labour and climate.<ref>Pingali, P., Bigot, Y., Binswanger, H.P. (1987). ''Agricultural mechanization and the evolution of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.</ref><ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kmag5s Binswanger, H., Pingali, P. (1988). Technological priorities for farming in sub-Saharan Africa. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 3(1), pp. 81-98.]</ref> Overall, reviewing the effect of technical change and commercialization in agriculture on the poor until the late 1980s, Binswanger concluded that these dynamics stimulate growth in agriculture, rural development and food supply, though these don't generally lend themselves to poverty targeting.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RgTW6w Binswanger, H.P., Braun, J. (1991). Technological change and commercialization in agriculture: the effect on the poor. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 6(1), pp. 57-80.]</ref>
=== Economic Behaviour under Risk and Uncertainty===
In the 1980s, Binswanger turned to the study of economic behaviour in agriculture under risk and uncertainty. Through an experiment in rural India, he notably found large discrepancies between experimental measures of risk aversion and certainty equivalents elicited through interviews, with the experimental measures suggesting that, for high payoffs, nearly everybody was moderately risk averse, with even wealthy individuals not significantly less risk averse; more specifically, Binswanger observed decreasing absolute risk aversion, increaseing partial risk aversion, declining relative risk aversion, and asset disaggregation.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ki6Jow Binswanger, H.P. (1980). Attitudes towards risk: Experimental measurement in rural India. ''American Journal of Agricultural Economics'', 62(3), pp. 395-407.]</ref><ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqoET Binswanger, H.P. (1981). Attitudes towards risk: Theoretical implications of an experiment in rural India. ''Economic Journal'', 91(364), pp. 867-890.]</ref> Summarizing the literature on risk aversion and farmers' credit constraints, Binswanger and Donald Sillers find that farmers in developing countries are almost universally risk averse and show why many lenders would ask rural borrowers for collateral, giving credence to the view that small farmers may be at a disadvantage because of credit constraints.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2KmahGy Binswanger, H.P., Sillers, D.A. (1983). Risk aversion and credit constraints in farmers' decision-making: A reinterpretation. ''Journal of Development Studies'', 20(1), pp. 5-21.]</ref> Finally, Binswanger and [[Mark Rosenzweig]] document how farmers adapt the composition of their agricultural investments in response to the exposure of the profitability of their agricultural activities to weather risk.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqpbV Rosenzweig, M.R., Binswanger, H.P. (1993). Wealth, weather risk, and the composition and profitability of agricultural investments. ''Economic Journal'', 103(416), pp. 56-78.]</ref>
=== Agricultural Production Relations and Econometric Studies===
Many of Binswanger's studies of agricultural dynamics are econometric, with early works including e.g. the measurement of elastcities of factor demand and substitution<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kjd9Ut Binswanger, H.P. (1974). A cost function approach to the measurement of elasticities of factor demand and elasticities of substitution. ''American Journal of Agricultural Economics'', 56(2), pp. 377-386.]</ref> and a microeconomic approach to induced innovation.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqpIX Binswanger, H.P. (1974). A microeconomic approach to induced innovation. ''Economic Journal'', 84(336), pp. 940-958.]</ref> In a study with Maw-Cheng Yang, Alan Bowers and Yair Mundlak on the determinants of cross-country aggregate agricultural supply, Binswanger finds only weak short-run supply elasticities within countries.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kps3sm Binswanger, H. et al. (1987). On the determinants of cross-country aggregate agricultural supply. ''Journal of Econometrics'', 36(1-2), pp. 111-131.]</ref> Further work of Binswanger has investigated the policy response of agriculture, highlighting agriculture's low price short-run price elasticity, the role of investments in infrastructure, institutions and public goods, and the effects of structural adjustment programmes.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqqfZ Binswanger, H. (1989). The policy response of agriculture. ''World Bank Economic Review'', 3(Supp. 1), pp. 234-262.]</ref> Last, Binswanger, Rosenzweig and Shahidur Khandker describe how the availability of education infrastructure and rural banks co-determine agricultural investment and agricultural output's price responsiveness, with public infrastructure investments in turn being determined by agroclimatic potential and bank locations being influenced by public infrastructure investments.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2KkPRh6 Binswanger, H.P., Khandker, S.R., Rosenzweig, M.R. (1993). How infrastructure and financial institutions affect agricultural output and investment in India. ''Journal of Development Economics'', 41(2), pp. 337-366.]</ref>
With Rosenzweig, Binswanger has developed an influential model of agricultural production and its behavioural and material determinants that facilitates the analysis of barriers to the emergence of rural financial markets and efficient agricultural factor markets, along further implications.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RkM3gA Binswanger, H.P., Rosenzweig, M.R. (1986). Behavioural and material determinants of production relations in agriculture. ''Journal of Development Studies'', 22(3), pp. 503-539.]</ref> By contrast, earlier work of Binswanger and Rosenzweig addresses contractual arrangements, employment and wages in rural labour markets.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2KkO1wL Binswanger, H.P., Rosenzweig, M.R. (1981). ''Contractual arrangements, employment and wages in rural labor markets: A critical review.'' New York: Agricultural Development Council.]</ref> Another major contribution of Binswanger's research - together with Klaus Deininger and Gershon Feder - is an analysis of the power relationships governing rental and sales markets for agricultural land in developing countries and their impacts on policy distortions, revolts and reforms.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Rlqrk3 Binswanger, H.P., Deininger, K., Feder, G. (1995). Power, distortions, revolt and reform in agricultural land relations. In: Behrman, J., Srinivasan, T.N. (eds.). ''Handbook of Development Economics'', vol. 3. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 2659-2772.]</ref>
=== Environment, Natural Resource Management and Policies===
In the 1990s, Binswanger's research turned increasingly towards environmental topics. For instance, he showed that general tax policies, special tax incentives, the rules of land allocation and the agricultural credit system in [[Brazil]] all contributed to the acceleration of [[deforestation of the Amazon rainforest]], increasing in the process the size of land holdings and reducing the chances of the poor to become farmers.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ko6ath Binswanger, H.P. (1991). Brazilian policies that encourage deforestation in the Amazon. ''World Development'', 19(7), pp. 821-829.]</ref> Turning to [[water rights]], Binswanger (together with Mark Rosegrant) makes the case for tradable water rights as a means to formalize and secure the water rights held by water users, reduce transaction costs and induce the internalization of opportunity costs and negative externalities (e.g. due to [[irrigation]]).<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RlqrR5 Rosegrant, M.W., Binswanger, H.P. (1994). Markets in tradable water rights: potential for efficiency gains in developing country water resource allocation. ''World Development'', 22(11), pp. 1613-1625.]</ref> Addressing the relationship between natural resource degradation and population growth in [[Colombia]], Binswanger (with Jon Heath) argues that rather than being population-driven, natural resource degradation is mainly driven by policies that constrain poor people's access to land.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Kk555V Heath, J., Binswanger, H. (1996). Natural resource degradation effects of poverty and population growth are largely policy-induced: the case of Colombia. ''Environment and Development Economics'', 1(1), pp. 65-84.]</ref>
=== Land Policy and Land Reform===
Since the mid-1990s, Binswanger has also extensively written about land policy and [[land reform]]. Studying South Africa's case, Binswanger and Deininger argue that the dualistic structure of its farm structure - a few very large, highly productive farms often owned by Afrikaner and many relatively small farms owned by native Africans - cannot be explained due to economies of scale in the commercial sector, but is instead due to systematic historical distortions in land allocation, output markets, and access to infrastructure, rural finance and public services;<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ri3H4p Binswanger, H.P., Deininger, K. (1993). South African land policy: The legacy of history and current options. ''World Development'', 21(9), pp. 1451-1475.]</ref> the topic of land reform in South Africa is further explored with regard to policies, markets and mechanisms with Johan van Zyl and Johann Kirsten.<ref>[https://amzn.to/2KskWzB Van Zyl, J., Kirsten, J., Binswanger, H.P. (1996). ''Agricultural land reform in South Africa: Policies, markets and mechanisms''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.]</ref> At the turn of the century, Binswanger and Deininger examine the evolution of the World Bank's land policy, highlighting (i) the desirability of owner-operated family farms, (ii) the need for markets permitting land transfers to more productive users, and (iii) an egalitarian asset distribution. To this, they add the relative cost effectiveness of communal tenure systems, the assessment of titling programms based on efficiency and equity, the potential of land rental markets, the integration of the development of land-sale markets into broader rural development initiatives, the success of decentralized and market-oriented approaches to land reform, and the need for adaptation to local conditions.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2RgVVb5 Deininger, K., Binswanger, H. (1999). The evolution of the World Bank's land policy: principles, experiences, and future challenges. ''World Bank Research Observer'', 14(2), pp. 247-276.]</ref><ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ki6JF2 Van den Brink, R. et al. (2005). Consensus, confusion, and controversy: selected land reform issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.]</ref>
=== Rural Finance===
In a study by Binswanger and Khandker, both argue that the impact of credit expansion on agricultural output in India has been insubstantial, with the programme having a positive return on investment only under very optimistic assumptions.<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Rnqc8e Binswanger, H.P., Khandker, S.R. (1978). The impact of formal finance on the rural economy of India. ''Journal of Development Studies'', 32(2), pp. 234-262.]</ref> More recently, Binswanger-Mkhize has argued on the subject of weather index-based agricultural insurance that its prospects for upscaling are poor, given that better-off farmers tend to already be insured through income diversification and social networks, whereas poor farmers are too cash constrained to afford the premia for an insurance that will pay out at earliest after harvest.
<ref>[http://bit.ly/2Ki6KJ6 Binswanger-Mkhize, H.P. (2012). Is there too much hype about index-based agricultural insurance? ''Journal of Development Studies'', 48(2), pp. 187-200.]</ref>
== References==
== External links==
* [http://bit.ly/2Kmaf1o Google Scholar webpage of Hans Binswanger-Mkhize]
* [http://bit.ly/2Ki6Lg8 Homepage of Hans Binswanger-Mkhize]
[[Category:Development economists]]
[[Category:Swiss economists]]
[[Category:Agricultural economists]]
[[Category:People from Kreuzlingen]]
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:ETH Zurich alumni]]
[[Category:North Carolina State University alumni]]
[[Category:Tshwane University of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
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