This paper assesses the impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Nets Programme (PSNP), the largest social protection programme in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. Using propensity score matching techniques, we find that the programme has little impact on participants on average, due in...

This paper presents comparative qualitative and quantitative evidence from rural Kenya and Madagascar in an attempt to untangle the causality behind persistent poverty. We find striking differences in welfare dynamics depending on whether one uses total income, including stochastic terms and...

<title>A<sc>bstract</sc> </title> There is a vigorous debate on the liberalisation of heavily regulated agricultural markets in India. A crucial institutional characteristic is the role of state regulated brokers in wholesale markets. Relying on data from a unique survey in Uttarakhand, a state in North India, we find...

We study cereal markets in Ethiopia over the last decade, a period that has been characterised by important local changes, including strong economic growth, urbanisation, improved road and communication infrastructure, and higher adoption of modern inputs in agriculture. These changes are...

Using original survey data collected at the county (commune) level, we examine the relationship between insecurity and welfare in Madagascar. Correcting for unobserved heterogeneity at the commune level, we find that insecurity is associated with lower incomes and health status in all our...

All members of the United Nations have pledged to meet eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. This study looks at the MDG objectives and linkages between poverty, education, access to water, and household water use based on primary data collected in Madagascar. We find...

This article documents the role that personal relationships play in economic exchange. Original survey data show that agricultural traders in Madagascar perceive relationships as the most important factor for success in their business. Evidence details the extent to which relationships are used...