Ethiopia's rural non-farm sector is
significant and participation is increasing. The sector is
particularly important for women and poorer households.
Non-farm enterprises provide income-earning opportunities to
those lacking alternative options and supplementary income
for farming households. This report is organized into seven
chapters. The first chapter lays the analytical groundwork
for assessing the rural investment climate in Ethiopia and

While the economic returns to using
chemical fertilizer in Africa can be large, application
rates are low. This study explores whether this is due to
missing and imperfect markets. Results based on a panel
survey of Ethiopian farmers suggest that while fertilizer
markets are not altogether missing in rural Ethiopia, high
transport costs, unfavorable climate, price risk, and
illiteracy present formidable hurdles to farmer

Standard approaches to decomposing how
much group differences contribute to inequality rarely show
significant between-group inequality, and are of limited use
in comparing populations with different numbers of groups.
This study applies an adaptation to the standard approach
that remedies these problems to longitudinal household data
from two Indian villages -- Palanpur in the north, and Sugao
in the west. The authors find that in Palanpur the largest

This paper provides an overview of the
history of development research at the World Bank and points
to new future directions in both what we research and how we
research. Six main messages emerge. First, research and data
have long been essential elements of the Bank's country
programs and its contributions to global public goods, and
this will remain the case. Second, development thinking is
in a state of flux and uncertainty; it is time to reconsider

When a groundwater basin is exploited by
a large number of farmers, acting independently, each farmer
has little incentive to practice conservation that would
primarily benefit other farmers. This can lead to excessive
groundwater extraction. When farmers pay less than the full
cost of electricity used for groundwater pumping, this
problem can be worsened; while the problem can be somewhat
relieved by rationing the electricity supply. The research

This study documents the long-term
welfare effects of household non-traditional agricultural
export (NTX) adoption. The analysis uses a unique panel
dataset, which spans the period 1985-2005, and employs
difference-in-differences estimation to investigate the
long-term impact of non-traditional agricultural export
adoption on changes in household consumption status and
asset position in the Central Highlands of Guatemala. Given

The World Bank group, among the
world's largest development institutions, is a major
source of financial and technical assistance to developing
countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank
group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of
$58.8 billion, distributed in credits, loans, grants, and
guarantees. This fiscal year's funding marks a 54
percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record

China's progress in poverty
reduction over the last 25 years is enviable. One cannot
fail to be impressed by what this vast nation of 1.3 billion
people has achieved in so little time. In terms of a wide
range of indicators, the progress has been remarkable.
Poverty in terms of income and consumption has been
dramatically reduced. Progress has also been substantial in
terms of human development indicators. Most of the

This report " Country Social
Analysis (CSA) " focused on ethnicity and development
in Vietnam is a provocative analysis of marginality in
contemporary Southeast Asia. It seeks to understand the
macro social and political processes, and provides an
analysis of how social, political, and cultural factors
influence the opportunities and constraints to more
equitable, inclusive development. This study provides

This study examines agricultural and
rural development (ARD) public expenditures in Mexico. The
study is based on federal public expenditures. The study is
structured in six parts as follows: the first part presents
the Mexican ARD context in terms of policy and performance.
The second part dissects the ARD public budget, classifying
expenditure programs in various ways so as to provide an
overview of the scope and composition of ARD spending. The

China's progress in poverty
reduction over the last 25 years is enviable. One cannot
fail to be impressed by what this vast nation of 1.3 billion
people has achieved in so little time. In terms of a wide
range of indicators, the progress has been remarkable.
Poverty in terms of income and consumption has been
dramatically reduced. Progress has also been substantial in
terms of human development indicators. Most of the

This paper argues that inclusive growth
analytics has a distinct character focusing on both the pace
and pattern of growth. Traditionally, applied
country-specific poverty and growth analyses have been done
separately. This paper describes the conceptual elements for
an analytical strategy aimed to integrate these two strands
of analyses, and to identify and prioritize country-specific
constraints to sustained and inclusive growth. The authors