Agricultural productivity growth is widely seen as an essential instrument of poverty reduction, food security and broader economic growth. Paradoxically, however, the agricultural sector is often neglected by African governments in what is often termed ‘urban bias’. This paper explores what...

This paper argues that investment in agriculture has a large and continuing developmental importance in terms of both economic growth and poverty reduction. Moreover, targeted public resources have proven to be indispensable in achieving these results. Both arguments are supported with novel...

This paper assesses the impact of the composition of government spending on economic growth in developing countries. We use a dynamic GMM model and a panel data set for 44 developing countries between 1980 and 2004. We find that the various types of government spending have different impact on...

The recent surge in food prices around the world may reverse the gains of reducing hunger and poverty in the recent years. This paper employs factor and sequential typology analysis using data for 175 countries to identify groups of countries categorized according to four measures of food...

This paper argues that investment in agriculture has a large and continuing developmental importance in terms of both economic growth and poverty reduction. Moreover, targeted public resources have proven to be indispensable in achieving these results. Both arguments are supported with novel...

In Uganda, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, poverty is concentrated in rural areas. Because agriculture accounts for a large share of incomes for these households, policies and external shocks that affect agriculture, including shifts in world prices, changes in agricultural productivity, and...

This paper re-visits the age old proposition that agriculture growth contributes to overall economic development, and asks whether the relationship still holds in an increasingly globalized world. There is overwhelming empirical support for the above proposition, indeed, it is hard to find...

Land and water are the natural partners in the process of agricultural development. Their coordinated use is essen tial for long-term optimization of economic as well as social welfare. Deliberately planned or policy induced divergence from integrated land and water use management may bring...

The growing body of literature devoted to study the impact of inequality on economic growth have centred its attention in the income distribution effect, even though the theoretical relationships are more related to assets distributions than to income distribution. While some recent studies have...