An overview of many currently topical issues around food and agriculture, with particular emphasis on their implications for development. These include Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel's discussion of nutritional standards and the implications of new theories of evolution in assessing the extent of malnutrition. Historical analysis informs contemporary surveys, including Yair Mundlak's comparison of the postwar record of 130 countries in agricultural technology and outputs. The important implications of labour markets, income distributions and the impact of welfare states on these issues are considered by a number of papers. The contributors include many leading academics from North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Israel.

Inhalt
The International Economic Association - Preface; M.Bruno - List of Contributors - Abbreviations - Introduction; Y.Mundlak - PART 1: INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND THE WELFARE STATE - Incentives in the Welfare State: Lessons for Would-be Welfare States; A.Lindbeck - Income Distribution Theory: A Survey of Selected Recent Contributions; T.Piketty - The International Evidence on Income Distribution in Modern Economies: Where Do We Stand? ; T.M.Smeeding & P.Gottschalk - Openness and Within-Country Inequality; S.Horton , R.Kanbur & D.Mazumdar - PART 2: DEVELOPMENT ISSUES - Does History Have Useful Economics? Lessons from Europe's Golden Age (1950-73); G.Toniolo - Have the Extent and the Impact of Chronic Malnutrition Been Underestimated? A Theory of Technophysio Evolution and Its Implications for Nutritional Standards; R.W.Fogel - Food, Nutrition and Economic Development; J.Strauss & D.Thomas - On the Optimal Duration of Migration; M.Rode & O.Stark - PART 3: AGRICULTURE - Agricultural Development: Issues, Evidence and Consequences; Y.Mundlak & A.Crego - Incentive Distortions in Developing Agriculture in South Africa and Implications for Tenure Reform; W.L.Nieuwoudt , G.M.Moor & R.A.A.Baber - Agriculture in Transition: Land Reform in Former Socialist Countries; Z.Lerman PART 4: POLICY ASPECTS OF PUBLIC GOODS - Infrastructure: The Contribution of Benchmarking and Economic Analysis to the Reform of the Energy, Water and Transport Sectors; P.L.Swan, D.Lawrence & J.Zeitsch - Economic Regulation and Political Influence; I.Finkelshtain & Y.Kislev