The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, causes over 300 million episodes of "acute illness" and more than one million deaths annually. Most of the deaths occur in poor countries of the tropics, and especially sub- Saharan Africa....

Malaria is a parasitic disease that causes over 300 million "acute illness" episodes and one million deaths annually. Most occur in the tropics, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Countries with high rates of malaria prevalence are gen- erally poor, and some researchers have suggested a direct link...

How will global climate change affect the prevalence of tropical diseases? In general, warmer temperatures will expand the areas in which these diseases are endemic. However, if households can take actions to protect themselves from disease—such as purchasing bednets or insecticidal...

According to national accounts data for developing countries, value added per worker is on average four times higher in the non-agriculture sector than in agriculture. Taken at face value this "agricultural productivity gap" suggests that labor is greatly misallocated across sectors in the...

Most developing countries are far less productive in agriculture than in the non-agriculture sector compared to the rest of the world. Standard Ricardian trade theory predicts that developing countries should be large importers of food and should have few workers in agriculture. The data is in...

We document several new facts regarding urbanization and structural change in developing countries and develop a model that can account for them. Most developing countries follow a standard pattern: urbanization is a by-product of either "push" from agricultural productivity growth or a "pull"...

A recent literature in development economics has focused renewed attention on land redistribution. Driven in part by political events in countries like Zimbabwe, the literature has sought to understand the economic implications of land reform. Much of this literature focuses on credit market...

Dementia-like diseases like Alzheimer are forecasted to affect a growing proportion of the population within decades. These diseases cannot be treated but their likelihood can be forecasted with genetic analysis and through memory tests, which has implications for forward looking behavior. The...