In the decollectivization of agriculture in Vietnam, local allocation of land use rights reduced overall inequality - thanks to initial conditions at the time of reform and actions by the center to curtail the power of local elites. The decollectivization of agriculture in Vietnam was a crucial...

Using original survey data on Senegal that include an individualized measure of consumption, we study the role played by land inheritance, other bequests and parental background as influences on an adult's economic welfare and economic activities. While intergenerational linkages are evident, we...

Proxy-means testing is a popular method of poverty targeting with imperfect information. In a now widely-used version, a regression for log consumption calibrates a proxy-means test score based on chosen covariates, which is then implemented for targeting out-of-sample. In this paper, the...

The policy reforms called for in the transition from a socialist command economy to a developing market economy bring both opportunities and risks to a country's citizens. In poor economies, the initial focus of reform efforts is naturally the rural sector, which is where one finds the bulk of...