African Export Successes: Surprises, Stylized Facts, and Explanations
William Easterly and Ariell Reshef (2010)
This paper examines the determinants of African export successes with interesting case studies and finds that those determinants are remarkably similar to those in the rest of the world.

African Poverty is Falling… Much Faster Than You Think!
Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Maxim Pinkovskiy (2010)
This paper impressively documents trends in poverty and inequality in Africa, where outcomes are more positive than many scholars and organizations claim.

Agricultural Innovation
Brian D. Wright and Tiffany M. Shih (2010)
This paper investigates recent developments and challenges in agricultural innovation.

Agricultural trade in the greater Mekong sub-region: the case of cassava and rubber in Cambodia
Vutha, Hing and Thun Vathana (2009)
An analysis of production costs and the value-chain for cassava and rubber reveals the potential advantages that Cambodian agriculture can harness through markets and trade, given appropriate policy support.

Agriculture, Roads, and Economic Development in Uganda
Douglas Gollin and Richard Rogerson (2010).
This study argues that the poor quality of transportation infrastructure in Uganda is one of the primary explanations for high population density in rural areas and the share of labor devoted to agriculture. 

Agricultural trade reform and rural prosperity: lessons from China
Jikun Huang, Yu Liu, Will Martin, and Scott Rozelle (2008)
This study finds that market and trade liberalization were essential in increasing the incomes of China's rural farmers over 1981-2005

Are borders barriers? the impact of international and internal ethnic borders on agricultural markets in West Africa
Jenny C. Aker, Michael W. Klein, Stephen A. O'Connell, and Muzhe Yang (2010)
In a study of cross-border trade between Niger and Nigeria and domestic trade within Niger, Aker et al. find that ethnicity is a significant determinant of trade flows.

Asset dynamics in Northern Nigeria
Andrew Dillon and Esteban J. Quinones (2010)
The study examines household asset dynamics and the asset inequality between genders in Northern Nigeria over the period 1988-2008. The authors state that price fluctuations reinforced gender asset inequality within households.

Building Sustainable Small-Scale Agriculture in Southern Africa
International Finance Corporation (2010)
This report summarizes a recent conference that brought together representatives from agriculture, development organizations, and financial institutions to identify ways to improve productivity in African agriculture.

Crop price indemnified loans for farmers: A pilot experiment in rural Ghana
Karlan, Dean, Ed Kutsoati, Margaret McMillan, and Chris Udry (2010)
An experiment in Ghana examines how risk mitigation impacts credit and investment decisions, finding that although indemnified loans did not change borrowing behaviour, farmers are more willing to bear the risk of bringing goods to market rather than accept lower prices at farm gate.

Demand growth in developing countries, OECD food, agriculture and fisheries
Abler, David (2010)
A critical review of studies on agricultural demand in BRIIC countries derives implications for markets and prices, finding that as wealth increases demand will grow for most food categories except cereals, consumption levels will become less susceptible to changes in income, and that prices of agricultural commodities will become less susceptible to the economic cycle but more susceptible to supply shocks.

Doing Our Part in Africa: Innovative IFC Solutions Expanding Access to Finance
International Finance Corporation (2011)
This report illustrates some effective ways to expand financing to small and medium sized enterprises in Africa.

Economic Liberalization and Indian Economic Growth: What's the Evidence?
Ashok Kotwal, Bharat Ramaswami, and Wilima Wadhwa (2010)
This article reviews India's economic development and reforms since the 1980s and concludes with arguments about what India must do next, including focusing on agricultural development to reduce poverty.

Finding missing markets (and a disturbing epilogue): evidence from an export crop adoption and marketing intervention in Kenya
Nava Ashraf, Xavier Giné, and Dean Karlan (2009)
This study examines a program that successfully assisted Kenyan smallholder farmers to export their crops, and then describes in an epilogue how the program collapsed and the farmers defaulted on their loans because their products did not satisfy European export requirements. The authors suggest that the risk of such events is one reason why seemingly profitable export strategies are not more frequently adopted.

Forty years of Latin America's economic development: from the alliance for progress to the Washington consensus
Sebastian Edwards (2009)
This article reviews the 20th century economic history of Latin America, with particular attention to the role of import substituting industrialization and the Washington Consensus.

Globalization, Brain Drain and Development
Frederic Docquier and Hillel Rapoport (2011)
This article reviews the past 40 years of economic scholarship on the brain drain of skilled labor from developing to developed countries. It concludes that the welfare impact of outmigration is highly dependant on policies in developing countries.

Inequality, Human Capital Formation and the Process of Development
Oded Galor (2011)
This paper reviews a recently popular thesis in development economics that income distribution has an important impact on human capital formation and the development process.

Market alternatives for smallholder farmers in food security initiatives: lessons from the Brazilian food acquisition programme
Danuta Chmielewska and Darana Souza (2010)
Analysis of the Brazilian food acquisition programme indicates that initiatives that jointly support food production and food access through agricultural market options for smallholder farmers can simultaneously offer an important commercial possibility for producers and play a significant role in improving their market capabilities.

Pulling Agricultural Innovation and the Market Together
Elliott, Kimberly Ann (2010)
This article examines the potential for using advance market commitments and proportional prizes to stimulate agricultural innovation in developing countries.

Rebuilding Business and Investment in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone
Investment Climate Advisory Services (2011)
This report reviews how the World Bank’s Removing Administrative Barriers to Investment program significantly contributed to improving the business and investment climate in post-conflict Sierra Leone, and concludes with recommendations for improving business climates in other developing countries.

Remittances, schooling, and child labor in Mexico
Carlo Alcaraz, Daniel Chiquiar, Salcedo (2010)
This study examines the relationship between remittances and school attendance and child labor in Mexico and finds that decreased remittances during the 2008-2009 recession led to decreased school attendance and increased child labor.

Rethinking the (European) foundations of Sub-Saharan African regional economic integration: a political economy essay
Draper, Peter (2010)
A multi-disciplinary analysis of regional economic integration in Africa perceives a movement towards institution and regulation-heavy integration, and recommends a less ambitious approach which centers around a regional leader, avoids supra-national institutions, and stays within the political and economic capacity of the nations involved.

Rethinking the global food crisis
Derek D. Headey (2010)
This article argues against the conventional explanations of the 2008 global food crisis and suggests that trade factors were more important than previously realized.

Smallholder agriculture in East Africa: trends, constraints and opportunities
Adeleke Salami, Abdul B. Kamara and Zuzana Brixiova (2010)
This paper investigates trends and opportunities in smallholder farming in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania.

State-led or market-led green revolution? role of private irrigation investment vis-à-vis local government programs in West Bengal's farm productivity growth
Pranab Bardhan, Dilip Mookherjee, and Neha Kumar (2009)
A study of West Bengal farms finds that both public initiatives and private investment in irrigation were drivers of the region's spectacular growth in agricultural productivity.

The development impact of a best practice seasonal worker policy
John Gibson and David McKenzie (2010)
This study finds that New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer program had a very positive impact on migrant-sending communities in Tonga and Vanuatu and recommends the scheme as a best practice model for other countries.

The impact of connectivity on market interlinkages: evidence from rural Punjab
Shami, Mahvish (2010)
A road infrastructure project in rural Pakistan provides a natural experiment, finding that improving the connectivity of isolated villages will reduce the likelihood of market interlinkages to the benefit of landlord-dominated villagers and the lowest social class.

The interaction of global value chains and rural livelihoods: the case of smallholder raspberry growers in Chile
Challies, Edward R. T. and Warwick E. Murray (2011)
The integration of smallholders into global value chains, even for raspberry growers in Chile where there is a natural 'small size' bias, necessarily requires public interventions in terms of training and institutional reform that addresses quality requirements and fulfillment.

The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction—an empirical perspective
Luc Christiaensen, Lionel Demery, and Jesper Kuhl (2010)
This article conducts a valuable review of the literature on agriculture's impact on economic growth and poverty reduction and then empirically studies this relationship. The authors find that agricultural growth is particularly effective in reducing poverty among the extremely poor (i.e. those making less than a dollar a day), but that it is less effective in doing so in unequal societies.

Trade, poverty and the lagging regions of South Asia
Krishna, Pravin, Devashish Mitra, and Asha Sundaram (2010)
An empirical study of the impact of international trade on poverty alleviation in "leading" versus "lagging" states in India finds trade to be associated with reduced poverty but to a statistically insignificant extent in lagging states and to a greater magnitude in urban rather than rural areas in leading states; geographic remoteness and imperfect price transmission is found to impede poverty reduction in lagging regions.

Trade barrier volatility and domestic price stabilization: evidence from agriculture
Kym Anderson and Signe Nelgen (2010)
The paper examines how trade policy responses by both exporters and importers can make government interventions in stabilizing domestic prices and combating international market instability ineffective. The study finds that during periods of price increases and exogenous shock, there is a transfer of welfare from food deficit to food surplus countries. This results in an increase in poverty, contrary to government claims that the interventions are designed to prevent a rise in poverty. The paper further compares recent policy responses with how governments responded to the price shocks of 1973-74 and the fall in food prices in the mid-1980s.

Unlocking productive entrepreneurship in Ethiopia: which incentives matter?
Zuzana Brixiova and Emerta Asaminew (2010)
This study examines the state of small and medium sized enterprises in Ethiopia and recommends search subsidies to encourage their development.

Who Is Benefiting from Fertilizer Subsidies in Indonesia?
Camilo Gomez Osorio, Dwi Endah Abriningrum, Enrique Blanco Armas, and Muhammad Firdaus (2011)
This article argues that Indonesia's fertilizer subsidy program is not the optimal policy for small farmers or for agricultural productivity in general.

When is Capital Enough to Get Female Microenterprises Growing? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ghana
Marcel Fafchamps, David McKenzie, Simon Quinn, and Christopher Woodruff (2011)
In contrast to the results of three recent randomized controlled trials conducted in Asia, this randomized controlled trial finds that grants benefit male enterprise owners more than female enterprise owners, and wealthier female enterprise owners tend to benefit more than poor female enterprise owners.