The financial surplus of agriculture has been central to theories of the role of agriculture in economic development. Morrisson and Thorbecke (MT) have used a constant-price social accounting matrix (SAM) framework to rigorously measure the financial surplus of agriculture and decompose the...

Cash transfers can help poor families to meet the costs associated with sending their children to school. Demand constraints are a major impediment to schooling attainment in rural areas. Educational grants can contribute to raise schooling attainment in rural areas and thereby to close the gap...

The present work assesses the effectiveness of educational grants at raising schooling attainment of poor children in rural areas. The per grade gains in reducing drop outs cumulate in an additional half a year in total schooling. Progressive impacts are found along three dimensions: degree of...

A household's decision to send migrants is based on information the household has on the expected returns and the costs of migration. Information on migration flows from both family migrant networks and community migrant networks. Direct assistance - in the form of money, housing,...

The practice of mutual insurance is conditioned by two types of transaction costs: "association" costs in establishing links with insurance partners and "extraction" costs in using these links to implement insurance transfers. Data on insurance-motivated water exchanges among households along...