It is now widely recognized that
low-income countries in tropical and sub-tropical regions
will be disproportionally affected by the adverse impacts of
climate change. The combination of already fragile
environments, dominance of climate-sensitive sectors in
economic activity, and low autonomous adaptive capacity in
these regions implies a high vulnerability to the harmful
effects of global warming on agricultural production and

The authors explore how Latin American
livestock farmers adapt to climate by switching species.
They develop a multinomial choice model of farmer's
choice of livestock species. Estimating the models across
over 1,200 livestock farmers in seven countries, they find
that both temperature and precipitation affect the species
Latin American farmers choose. The authors then use this
model to predict how future climate scenarios would affect

Traditionally both national and regional
development planning in Vietnam has been driven by
'top-down' Central Government social and economic
targets based on limited analytical investigation. However,
with the advent of the free market economy in Vietnam since
the late 1980s, vigorous global economic competitiveness and
Vietnam's membership to the World Trade Organization
(WTO), changes in national policy in Vietnam have now

This Country Economic Memorandum (CEM),
prepared in collaboration with the Turkish authorities,
summarizes recent accomplishments in achieving high growth
and analyzes remaining public policy challenges and options
available to the authorities to meet these challenges. The
country seeks to double the nominal per capita income of its
population by 2013. It wants this rapid growth to be
inclusive of all segments of society, regions, and economic

This study examines the impact of
climate change on cropland in Africa. It is based on a
survey of more than 9,000 farmers in 11 countries: Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger,
Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The study uses
a Ricardian cross-sectional approach in which net revenue is
regressed on climate, water flow, soil, and economic
variables. The results show that net revenues fall as

Panama is experiencing spectacular
economic growth, averaging 7.5 percent during 2004-06; a
construction boom; and emerging new opportunities and
growing export markets. Despite this impressive growth
performance, at the national level poverty remained almost
unchanged during 1997-2006 at around 37 percent (masking a
decline in rural poverty and an increase in urban and
indigenous areas). Key development challenges for Panama

Mozambique's continuous efforts to
sustain economic growth and reduce poverty face a number of
constraints including its economic and political history,
and its geography and climatic conditions. It is widely
accepted that future economic growth of the country will
continue to rely on its natural resources base and,
specifically, on sustainable use of land and water
resources. Mozambique has plentiful land and water resources

This paper analyzes the impact of
climate change on animal husbandry in Africa. It regresses
the net revenue from raising animals in small and large
farms across Africa on climate, soil, and other control
variables to test the climate sensitivity of livestock. The
study is based on a survey of over 9,000 farmers across 11
countries conducted by the World Bank and the Global
Environment Facility. From this dataset, 5,400 farms were

This report addresses the issues
associated with trade in liquid biofuels is a second Energy
Sector Management Assistance Program report on biofuels, and
part of a broader assessment of bioenergy undertaken by the
World Bank. The report asks how liberalizing trade in liquid
biofuels might affect biofuel production and consumption.
Bioenergy is playing an increasingly important role as an
alternative and renewable source of energy. Bioenergy

The first of a series on climate change,
this evaluation assesses International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International
Development Association (IDA) experience with key win-win
policies in the energy sector. It focuses on energy price
reform and policies for energy efficiency, both of which
offer potentially large gains at the country level together
with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The

Previous Ricardian analyses of
agriculture have either omitted irrigation or treated
irrigation as though it is exogenous. In practice, it is a
choice by farmers that is sensitive to climate. This paper
develops a choice model of irrigation in the context of a
Ricardian model of cropland. The authors examine how climate
affects the decision to use irrigation and then how climate
affects the net revenues of dryland and irrigated land. This

Costa Rica's Program of Payments
for Environmental Services (Pago de Servicios Ambientales,
PSA) provides a unique opportunity to evaluate direct
payments as a conservation policy tool. This paper reports
evidence on how much more forest has been conserved in Costa
Rica as a result of PSA contracts with landowners. Such
evidence requires estimating a counterfactual outcome: how
much forest would have been preserved if there had been no