The South Asia Region (SAR) includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. With over 1.6 billion people, it is the most densely populated region in the world. The populations vary from 400,000 in the Maldives to 1.2 billion in India. The economies...

Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Poverty remains high at 43 percent of the population subsist on less than United States (U.S.) $1.25 per day (2010). Bangladesh achieved several millennium development goal (MDG) targets in education, health, and poverty...

Nepal has made a remarkable progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially in extreme poverty and education. Nepal has achieved MDG 5 but only one in three births is attended by skilled medical personnel. Disparities exist in access to maternal care by residence and...

Afghanistan suffers from poverty and low human development aggravated by 23 years of conflict. In 2012, the population was 29 million and per capita income US $268. Economic growth was estimated at 3.6 percent in 2013, down from 14.4 percent in 2012. The transition led to investor and consumer...

Capital is a fundamental component of agricultural production, and the accumulation of capital is key to growth in agriculture and the process of development. Unfortunately, cross-country data sets on agricultural fixed capital are rare. Using a common methodology that allows comparisons across...

Analysis of decade-long growth rates in all countries shows a striking regularity: episodes of rapid growth are limited largely to a middle range of initial income; neither very poor nor very rich countries experienced rapid growth. Episodes of negative growth are limited to low and middle-income...

The author presents a simple endogenous growth model (with two types of capital) that shows the sizable long-run effects on growth of distortionary policies. The model applies to many different types of distortions of relative prices common in developing countries - for example, price controls,...

The introduction of new high-yielding varieties of cereals in the 1960s, known as the green revolution. Changed dramatically the food supply I Asia, as well as in other countries. The authors examine over an extended period, the growth consequences for agriculture in Indonesia, the Philippines,...

The paper presents empirical analysis of a panel of countries to estimate an agricultural production function using a measure of capital in agriculture absent from most studies. The authors employ a heterogeneous technology framework where implemented technology is chosen jointly with inputs to...

After years of poor economic performance, many Latin American countries undertook ambitious programs of macroeconomic stabilization andstructural reform in recent years. This change in policy created high expectations for the region, and some observers have questioned whether actual growth...