The research program on agricultural and rural development focuses on three broad themes: (1) effective ways to raise productivity (2) supplying public goods and dealing with external effects, and (3) ways to address poverty, volatility and vulnerability.
More about the program 

Research Manager: Will Martin

Policy Research Working Papers

Moving off the farm: Land institutions to facilitate structural transformation and agricultural productivity growth in China
Agriculture has made major contributions to China's economic growth and poverty reduction, but the literature has rarely focused on the institutional factors that might underpin such structural transformation and productivity. This paper aims to fill that gap.
Working Paper 5949, January 2012

Optimal food price stabilization in a small open developing country
In poor countries, most governments implement policies aiming to stabilize the prices of staple foods, which often include storage and trade measures insulating their domestic market from the world market. It is of crucial importance to understand the precise motivations and efficiency of those interventions, because they can have consequences worldwide. This paper addresses those issues by analyzing the case of a small, open developing country confronted by shocks to both the crop yield and foreign price.
Working Paper 5943, January 2012

Reducing distortions in international commodity markets : an agenda for multilateral cooperation
Global commodity markets are affected by a variety of government policies that may expand or lower overall supply and as a result affect world prices for the specific products concerned. Market failures and market structures (market power along the value chain) also affect supply. This paper briefly reviews a number of factors that may distort international commodity markets with a view to identifying elements of an agenda for multilateral cooperation to reduce such distortions.
Working Paper 5928, January 2012

Estimating the long-term impacts of rural roads: A dynamic panel approach
This research—based on a household survey as part of a Bank rural roads improvement project in Bangladesh—shows the observed benefits to households and communities vary considerably over time as short-term outcomes generate or are subsumed by longer-term impacts.
Working Paper 5867, October 2011

More working papers >>