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

Distortions to Agriculture and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper looks at to what extent Sub-Saharan Africa's slow economic growth over the past five decades has been due to price and trade policies that discouraged production of agricultural relative to non-agricultural tradables.
Working Paper 6206, September 2012

Grameen Bank Lending:  Does Group Liability Matter?
Competing theories increasingly support the positive role of social capital in small loan default costs of group lending; at the same time, potential group collusion may increase loan delinquencies. This paper attempts to resolve that estimation bias by utilizing longitudinal data from 297 Grameen Bank groups since their inceptions.
Working Paper 6204, September 2012

Should African Rural Development Strategies Depend on Smallholder Farms? An Exploration of the Inverse Productivity Yypothesis
This paper explores a research design conundrum that encourages researchers who study the relationship between productivity and scale to use surveys with a narrow geographic reach, when policy would be better served with studies based on wide and heterogeneous settings.
Working Paper 6190, September 2012

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Tanzania
This paper uses calibrated crop models to predict crop yield changes for 110 districts in the country.
Working Paper 6188, September 2012

More working papers >>