HomePeople

Karol Boudreaux: Articles, Commentary, and Publications

A New Call of the Wild: Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Namibia

May 1, 2008

The Namibian government is currently addressing twin goals of environment protection and rural economic development by means of an innovative policy of community-based natural resource management. This policy, implemented by a legislative amendment in 1996, is helping to revive a previously decimated environment. At the same time, the policy is empowering local people.

Book Review of Paul Collier's "The Bottom Billion"

May 1, 2008

In this book review, Karol Boudreaux notes that Paul Collier makes a strong case that the world’s billion poorest people face unique challenges that call for strategic development assistance. In the end, however, Ms. Boudreaux emphasises that what is needed most is sustained entrepreneurship.

Empowering the Poor through Property Rights

April 14, 2008

As a member of the Working Group on Property Rights of the U.N. Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto, Enterprise Africa! lead researcher Karol Boudreaux contributed to chapter two of Making the Law Work for Everyone Volume II, titled, “Empowering the Poor through Property Rights.”

International Property Rights Index 2008

February 26, 2008

Enterprise Africa! lead researcher Karol Boudreaux comments on land titling efforts in Africa as a means of erasing the problems of poverty. 

Mercatus On Policy - Planting Seeds of Hope

January 14, 2008

Despite tremendous worldwide economic progress over the past 50 years, hunger and food insecurity remain the daily reality for people around the world. In Africa alone, millions struggle against the ravages of hunger. However, one innovation, the Combi-Pack is showing great potential to reduce hunger and poverty among smallholder farmers in South Africa.

Mercatus On Policy - Conserving Communities

January 10, 2008

While many countries in Africa, such as Kenya, struggle with declining wildlife populations, Namibia’s wildlife numbers are on the rise thanks to an innovative program called Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). 

The Micromagic of Microcredit

January 8, 2008

Can microcredit achieve the massive changes its proponents claim? Is it the solution to poverty in the developing world, or something more ­modest—­a way to empower the poor, particularly poor women, with some control over their lives and their ­assets?

Property Rights and Incentives in Africa

December 17, 2007

Karol Boudreaux speaks with Dr. Russell Roberts, host of the EconTalk Podcast, on Enterprise Africa! findings in Rwanda and Langa Township in South Africa.

Economics in Many Lessons

November 20, 2007

Mercatus scholars Karol and Donald Boudreaux share some positive lessons from Rwanda in this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review piece. "If you travel through Rwanda today you'll find that something nearly miraculous is happening: People who not long ago were bitter enemies are now working together to build businesses, to improve their lives and the lives of their families and to shape a new and a better future."

Economics in many lessons: A better brew for Rwanda

November 20, 2007

Mercatus On Policy - Perking up the Economy

November 1, 2007

Since the post-genocide deregulation of the coffee industry, entrepreneurship is now flourishing, international trade volume is increasing, human capital is developing, income and employment are increasing, and most surprisingly, grass-roots reconciliation is taking place.

Mercatus On Policy - The Business of Reconciliation

November 1, 2007

In the years since the Rwandan genocide in the mid-1990s, Rwandans and the rest of the world have wondered how the nation would recover—both socially and economically—from the devastation and what lessons, if any, can be learned from reconciliation.

State Power, Entrepreneurship, and Coffee: The Rwandan Experience

October 31, 2007

In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the new government lifted tight controls on the coffee market.  As a result of increasing income and new opportunities for entrepreneurship, Rwandans are better able to care for themselves and their families. 

Economic Affairs

July 27, 2007

This special issue of Economic Affairs, the scholarly journal of London’s Institute of Economic Affairs, focuses on progress in the vital areas of entrepreneurial business development, post-conflict resolution, international trade, communications technology, and education.   While conditions are not perfect, these case studies clearly show how local entrepreneurs are making a positive difference to the lives of their fellow citizens.

Capitalism for Africa

April 25, 2007

Africa's leaders have the power to encourage patient capitalism (where returns are 5 to 10 percent and payback is over a longer period of time) by reducing barriers to businesses, by improving tenure security for both men and women, and by respecting indigenous institutions and customs.

Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Poverty Alleviation in Namibia: A Case Study

March 18, 2007

Through community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), Namibians who form conservancies now have legal rights to manage wildlife and benefit from tourism. With these secure rights, and with help from NGOs and the government, something extraordinary is happening: wildlife numbers, which were decimated by war and poaching, are rising.

Sport Hunting Has Its Gains, Too

March 17, 2007

Kenyans are debating whether the Government should lift its 30-year ban on trophy hunting. While the talk continues, Kenya's elephant population continues to drop.  In countries such as Namibia and South Africa, however, they are increasing. Our research in Namibia has found that under the right circumstances, as elephant populations rebound, so do the fortunes of the people. 

Paths to Property: Creating Property Rights in Africa

February 27, 2007

Even though secure property rights provide a wide variety of benefits, we should be leery of viewing these benefits as justification for a top-down approach to property reform. 

Mauritius: Up Against a Wall of Competition

October 5, 2006

Too frequently, countries find themselves with their metaphorical backs up against a wall. When this happens policy makers face a host of difficult choices. Think of Germany in the 1920s, the U.S. throughout the 1930s, or South Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Today in Mauritius people also talk about having their backs up against a wall: a wall of worldwide competition.

Seeds of Hope from the Private Sector

September 15, 2006

Every day, across rural South Africa, families struggle to make ends meet. They struggle to feed their children. They struggle to buy clothes and pay school fees.  Now, Imagine they had hope.

Seeds of Hope: Agricultural Technologies and Poverty Alleviation in Rural South Africa

September 8, 2006

Enterprise Africa! has released its third research publication Seeds of Hope: Agricultural Technologies and Poverty Alleviation in Rural South Africa, a study examining how the Combi-Pack, an innovative product of the Monsanto Company, is helping to combat hunger and poverty in rural South Africa.

Property Rights and Resource Conflict in the Sudan

June 6, 2006

This article is a chapter in the book Realizing Property Rights, edited by Hernando de Soto and Francis Cheneval.  It explores the role weak property rights play in exacerbating conflict in Sudan.

The Effects of Property Titling in Langa Township, South Africa

May 25, 2006

Can property reforms create a path to prosperity? In Langa Township, South Africa efforts have been underway for well over a decade to provide secure, legal titles to previously disenfranchised citizens. Today, most homes—though not shacks—have titles. Can this policy serve as an example for others to follow? Has this government policy led to economic growth and poverty alleviation for Langa’s residents?

The Unintended Consequences of Taxi Recapitalisation

March 29, 2006

Enterprise Africa! lead researcher Karol Boudreaux comments on the South African government's Taxi Recapitalisation Programme which is designed to fix problems that plague the South African taxi/minibus industry.

Taxing Alternatives: Poverty Alleviation and the South African Taxi/Minibus Industry

March 23, 2006

In order for policies that address taxi violence to be as effective as possible, they must focus on official corruption and establishing mechanisms that determine the access to taxi routes and ranks. This can be achieved by creating secure, defendable, and tradable property rights over routes and ranks. Unless these policies are implemented, violence is likely to continue.

Overlooking the Obvious in the Taxi Debate

March 10, 2006

People believe that the vehicles are unsafe and dangerous. They worry about the continuing violence that has shadowed the industry through more than a decade. And, they feel that drivers are blinded to the rules of road safety by the need or desire to transport more commuters....

On Malagasy Land Titling

January 1, 2006

Of the two key development benefits to land titling -- creating incentives for capital improvements and the ability to use the land as collateral -- which will be more important to Malagasy farmers over the next 10 to 20 years, and how can similar programs be encouraged in other [MCC] compact countries?

Property Holds Africa's Answer

September 23, 2005

Although many think fighting in Africa is about religion, ethnicity, or political differences, these answers hide the true source. Rather, fighting occurs because it is the only way left to determine who "owns" which field, or who has what rights to graze animals, or who should control the revenue from the mineral wealth below people's feet.  In light of this, what should be the policy response?

The Human Face of Resource Conflict: Property and Power in Nigeria

August 1, 2005

This working paper explores the legal origins of land disputes in Nigeria and the unfortunate events that follow.  It was published under the same title in the San Diego International Law Journal, Volume 7, No. 1, Fall 2005.

Property Rights: A Key to Development

June 15, 2005

After years of neglect, the central role that secure property rights play in promoting and sustaining economic growth is being recognised by policy makers and scholars around the world. This is an encouraging development for the poor.

The Role of Property Rights as an Institution: Implications for Development Policy

May 3, 2005

Policy Primers present an accessible explanation of fundamental economic ideas necessary to the practice of sound policy.

From Curse to Cure

October 19, 2004

Americans are accustomed to searching for villains when oil prices rise. Recent spikes in the price of oil to over $50 per barrel can be tagged, in no small part, on a group of gun-toting brigands from the steamy swamps of Nigerias coast.