Economic theory is replete with causal hypotheses that are scarcely tested because economists are generally constrained to work with observational data. This article describes the use of causal inference methods for testing a hypothesis that one random variable causes another. Contingent on a...

We describe a means of rejecting a null hypothesis concerning observed, but not deliberately manipulated, variables of the form H0: A -/- B in favor of an alternative hypothesis HA: A -- B, even given the possibility of causally related unobserved variables. Rejection of such an H0 relies on the...

This paper assesses the cost efficiency of indicator-based targeting. Using household survey data from Malawi, we examine whether an indicator-based targeting of the poor is more target- and cost-efficient than the currently used mechanisms for targeting agricultural subsidy programs in the...

State level data on food environment variables for the period 2000 through 2013, gathered from the Food Environment Atlas and various other government sources are used to model a panel VAR to capture specific state-level fixed and random effects. The set of food environment variables can be...

The paper investigates geo-physical, agro-ecological, and socio-economic determinants of past land use change in two districts of Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands of Vietnam and assesses the influence of rural development policies on land cover change. Landsat satellite images from the...

In this paper the dynamic information flows among monthly prices of agricultural commodities in the United States (U.S.) and Mexico for the years 2000-2012 are analysed. Error correction models and directed acyclical graphs are employed with observational data to identify the dynamic...

This study aims to test 1. whether two indicator-based tools for poverty assessment in rural Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, developed in 2005 are capable of predicting absolute poverty in 2007, and 2. whether the indicator composition of these poverty assessment tools remains robust over time. In...

The recent international financial crisis and the steady decrease in development assistance have put many poor countries under increasing pressure to target more accurately their public spendings at the poor and the population in need. However, further progress is hampered by the lack of...

Conflicts push back development endeavors of a society by many years. The authors attempt to investigate the dynamic effects of conflicts on development, as well as the causal relationships among conflicts, development and foreign assistance, by using Panel-VAR and directed acyclic graphs (DAG)...