Levels of economic development vary
widely within countries in the Americas. This paper argues
that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial
era. Colonizers engaged in different economic activities in
different regions of a country, depending on local
conditions. Some activities were "bad" in the
sense that they depended heavily on the exploitation of
labor and created extractive institutions, while

There is a general consensus that most
of the poor in developing countries are net food buyers and
food price increases are bad for the poor. This could be
expected of urban poor, but it is also often attributed to
the rural poor. Recent food price increases have increased
the importance of this issue, and the possible policy
responses to these price increases. This paper examines the
characteristics of net food sellers and buyers in nine

Climate change is a serious
environmental challenge that could undermine the drive for
sustainable development. Since the industrial revolution,
the mean surface temperature of earth has increased an
average of 1degree celsius per century due to the
accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Furthermore, most of this change has occurred in the past 30
to 40 years, and the rate of increase is accelerating, with

The success of development programs,
including water resource projects, depends on two key
factors: the role of underlying institutions and the impact
synergies from other closely related programs. Existing
methodologies have limitations in accounting for these
critical factors. This paper fills this gap by developing a
methodology, which quantifies both the roles that
institutions play in impact generation and the extent of

Trade policies can promote aggregate
efficiency, but the ensuing structural adjustments generally
create both winners and losers. From an incomes perspective,
trade liberalization can raise gross domestic product per
capita, but rates of emergence from poverty depend on
individual household characteristics of economic
participation and asset holding. To fully realize the growth
potential of trade, while limiting the risk of rising

This paper reviews the status of weather
and climate services in Europe and Central Asia
(ECA).Worldwide, the accuracy and value of weather and
climate services are rising, bringing great economic
benefits. However, many National Meteorological and
Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Europe and Central Asia are
in decline. As a result, these potential gains are often
missed. Much more could be done to mitigate weather

This Sourcebook deals with social
analysis in policy reform, encompassing the transition from
gaining a better understanding of the distributional impacts
of proposed or continuing reform to influencing a more
informed and locally embedded process of policy review and
design. In a generic sense, the term "social
analysis" encompasses institutional, political, and
social analyses. These three overlapping areas, derived from

In this paper, the authors examine the
impact of reductions in barriers to migration on the
consumption of rural households in China. The authors find
that increased migration from rural villages leads to
significant increases in consumption per capita, and that
this effect is stronger for poorer households within
villages. Household income per capita and non-durable
consumption per capita both increase with out-migration, and

This paper tells a story about
conditions in Tanzania's hidden economy, the parts of
the natural resource sector often ignored in conventional
economic analyses and studies, and makes recommendations for
future policy actions. The paper draws primarily from
extensive background studies undertaken of the forestry,
fishery, wildlife, mining, and tourism sub sectors (COWI
2005) as well as a wide range of complementary studies

The competitiveness of firms in open
economies is increasingly determined by access to low-cost
and high-quality producer services - telecommunications,
transport and distribution services, financial
intermediation, etc. This paper discusses the role of
services in economic growth, focusing in particular on
channels through which openness to trade in services may
increase productivity at the level of the economy as a

The policy reforms called for in the
transition from a socialist command economy to a developing
market economy bring both opportunities and risks to a
country's citizens. In poor economies, the initial
focus of reform efforts is naturally the rural sector, which
is where one finds the bulk of the population and almost all
the poor. Economic development will typically entail moving
many rural households out of farming into more remunerative

Three years after the G8 Summit at L’Aquila, Italy, the international community recognizes the importance of food security to development, inclusive economic growth and the dignity of all women and men. In that spirit, we welcome the success of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) in demonstrating African ownership and leadership, its call for expanded public and private investment in agriculture and desire to build on the progress that African governments have made in advancing a vision for agricultural development in Africa.