Little is known about the situation
facing widows and their dependent children in West Africa
especially after the widow remarries. Women in Malian
society are vulnerable to the loss of husbands especially in
rural areas. Households headed by widows have significantly
lower living standards on average than male or other female
headed households in both rural and urban areas; this holds
both unconditionally and conditional on observable household

This paper estimates the impact of a
change in procurement strategy of a private buyer in the
central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Beginning in October
2000, internet kiosks and warehouses were established that
provide wholesale price information and an alternative
marketing channel to soy farmers in the state. Using a new
market-level dataset, the estimates suggest a significant
increase in soy price after the introduction of kiosks,

This study examines the relationship
between transport infrastructure and agriculture in
Sub-Saharan Africa using new data obtained from geographic
information systems (GIS). First, the authors analyze the
impact of road connectivity on crop production and choice of
technology. Second, they explore the impact of investments
that reduce road travel times. Finally, they show how this
type of analysis can be used to compare cost-benefit ratios

Recent increases in production of
crop-based (or first-generation) biofuels have engendered
increasing concerns over potential conflicts with food
supplies and land protection, as well as disputes over
greenhouse gas reductions. This has heightened a sense of
urgency around the development of biofuels produced from
non-food biomass (second-generation biofuels). This study
reviews the economic potential and environmental

Economic analyses of development
projects and policies often involve assigning an economic
value to changes in the risk of loss of human life. A
typical term used in the economic analyses is the value of
statistical life, which reflects the aggregation of
individuals' willingness to pay for fatal risk
reduction and therefore the economic value to society to
reduce the statistical incidence of premature death in the

Energy poverty is a frequently used term
among energy specialists, but unfortunately the concept is
rather loosely defined. Several existing approaches measure
energy poverty by defining an energy poverty line as the
minimum quantity of physical energy needed to perform such
basic tasks as cooking and lighting. This paper proposes an
alternative measure that is based on energy demand. The
energy poverty line is defined as the threshold point at

This paper examines the policy options
for India as it seeks to improve living conditions of the
poor on a large scale and reduce the population in slums.
Addressing the problem requires first a diagnosis of the
market at the city level and a recognition that government
interventions, rather than thwarting the operations of the
market, should seek to make it operate better. This can
substantially reduce the subsidies required to assist low

The last two decades have witnessed a
growing recognition of the importance of taking cultural and
ethnic diversity into consideration when designing and
implementing development programs. As societies around the
world have become more culturally diverse, and the role
culture plays in the formation of identity has become better
understood, governments are beginning to pay greater
attention to the management of cultural diversity and are

A number of development partners,
including the World Bank, have been actively supporting the
health sector in Afghanistan since 2003-04 (1382 AC).
Collectively, they invested more than $820 million between
2003 (1382 AC) and 2008-09 (1387 AC) and played key roles in
supporting the government in reshaping the country's
health sector. This support continues, with all partners
starting new projects aimed at further strengthening the

This report assesses the impact of the
movement and access regime in the period 2000-07 on the
economy and the working lives of Palestinians, exploring the
gender dimension of restrictions on labor force
participation, and how new tensions in the arena of work
resulting from movement and access restrictions have
affected relations between women and men. The findings of
this study are based on an analysis of data covering the

The Government of Cameroon has declared
poverty reduction through strong and sustainable economic
growth the central objective of its socioeconomic policy.
This paper uses available household survey data to assess
the performance of the economy with respect to this
objective over the period 1996-2007. The authors use
counterfactual decompositions based on both the Shapley
method and the generalized Oaxaca-Blinder framework to

Microfinance is often criticized for not
adequately addressing seasonality and hard-core poverty. In
Bangladesh, a program known as PRIME was introduced in 2006
to address both concerns. Unlike regular microfinance, PRIME
introduces a microfinance scheme that offers a flexible
repayment schedule and consumption smoothing, as well as
production, loans. It targets the ultra-poor, many of whom
are also seasonally poor, with a severe inability to smooth