One area of weakness in current
agricultural policy work in Vietnam is the lack of a clear
understanding of both the private profitability of farmers
for different crop activities and the social profitability
of such activities. Agricultural performance is thus gauged
in physical terms (i.e. yields and the volume of aggregate
output) rather than in financial or economic terms. This has
hampered efforts to compare and contrast the impacts and

Agriculture plays an important role in
the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Most of its production
depends on small family-owned farms, which are greatly
exposed to climatic and price shocks. In order to help small
farmers to manage risks, the federal and state governments
have been carrying out several programs and measures to
reduce and transfer agricultural risks. Santa Catarina ranks
seventh out of 26 Brazilian states in terms of agricultural

Diversification into high-value cash
crops among smallholders has been propagated as a strategy
to improve welfare in rural areas. However, the extent to
which cash crop production spurs projected gains remains an
under-researched question, especially in the context of
market imperfections leading to non-separable production and
consumption decisions, and price shocks to staple crops that
might be displaced on the farm by cash crops. This study is

Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction
Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as
annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on
four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b)
expanding access to social services for the poor; c)
increasing employment and income-generating activities for
the poor; and d) promoting good governance. Increased public
expenditure and targeted social service provision also led

In countries ravaged by a history of
civil war and genocide, the overarching goal for local
government and international donors alike is to promote
social cohesion, stability and community reconstruction. In
Sierra Leone, reconstruction programs emphasize a
decentralized approach to: (i) rapidly build market
institutions; (ii) enhance community decision making; and
(iii) strengthen intra and inter-community tolerance and

As countries develop, the demand for
water increases while water supply becomes less certain and
is often not enough to meet demand. In general, pressures
from both environment and human activities can increase the
likelihood of water scarcity. Such pressures include
increased socio-economic development and population growth,
change in people's diets, competition for available
water among different user sectors and growing climate

In the standard model of corruption, the
rich are more likely to pay bribes for their children's
education, reflecting higher ability to pay. This prediction
is, however, driven by the assumption that the probability
of punishment for bribe-taking is invariant across
households. In many developing countries lacking in rule of
law, this assumption is untenable, because the enforcement
of law is not impersonal or unbiased and the poor have

This paper provides an overview of
research on income inequality in China over the period of
economic reform. It presents the results of two main sources
of evidence on income inequality and, assisted by various
decompositions, explains the reasons income inequality has
increased rapidly and the Gini coefficient is now almost
0.5. This paper evaluates the degree of income inequality
from the perspectives of people's subjective well-being

The impacts of climate change on
agriculture are projected to be significant in coming
decades, so response strategies, and their likely costs,
should be evaluated now. That is why this study produced an
open-access, crop-climate-economic impact modeling platform
for Latin America and the Caribbean, that can be extended to
other regions, then modified and improved by users as new
crop, climate, and economic datasets become available. The

This paper uses data from a large survey
of Chinese firms to investigate whether local government
efforts to facilitate market development improve firm
efficiency. Both government provision of information about
products, markets, and innovation and government assistance
in arranging loans are positively associated with firm
efficiency. Those private firms with weak access to and
knowledge of financial, input, and product markets benefit

Access to markets is argued to have a
significant role in development. In order to quantify the
access of places to markets, policy makers are showing
increasing interest in accessibility indicators (Yoshida and
Deichmann 2009). This paper seeks to examine the spatial
relationship of access to market in the Kyrgyz Republic
using a recent census and household survey in order to
identify possible linkages with rates of poverty and other

Niger, owing to its climatic,
institutional, livelihood, economic, and environmental
context, is one of the most vulnerable countries of the
world. Poverty is pervasive in Niger and it ranks low on
almost all the human development indicators. Agriculture is
the most important sector of Niger's economy and
accounts for over 40 percent of national gross domestic
product (GDP) and is the principle source of livelihood for