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...

Given the large share of major staples in the budgets of the poor, governments in many developing countries intervene in food markets to limit variation in the prices of staple foods. This paper examines the recent experience of Madagascar in stabilizing prices through international trade and...

Traditional models of export bonus programs focus only on the effects of disposing public stocks on the world market. We show that the economic effects of export bonus programs are significantly different when one includes the costs of acquiring these stocks. Including stock acquisition costs...

We study the structure and performance of the coffee export sector in Ethiopia, Africa’s most important coffee producer, over the period 2003 to 2013. We find an evolving policy environment leading to structural changes in the export sector, including an elimination of vertical...

We study the value chain of teff, Ethiopia’s most important staple food crop by area and value. Based on large-scale primary surveys, we find significant changes in the last decade. First, there is increasing adoption of modern inputs (chemical fertilizer, improved varieties, and...

We study the structure and performance of the coffee export sector in Ethiopia, Africa’s most important coffee producer, over the period 2003 to 2013. We find an evolving policy environment that leads to structural changes in the export sector, including an elimi-nation of vertical...

We study cereal wholesale markets in Ethiopia in the last decade (2001–2011), a period that has been characterized by important local changes affecting agricultural markets, including strong economic growth, urbanization, improved road and communication infrastructure, an increase in...

Feeding nine billion people by 2050 is a top priority on the global agenda for sustainable and inclusive development. This task is especially formidable in Asia, where more than two-thirds of the world’s poor and malnourished people live. Food prices in Asia are projected to remain high...