A Conceptual Framework for Studying Institutions in Watershed Development
Ahmedabad Gandhi, Vasant P. (2010)
The experience of a few watershed programmes in India point towards the need for better improved governance for watersheds to play an effective role in raising agricultural productivity and conserving natural resources.

Adaptive social protection: Mapping the evidence and policy context in the agriculture sector in South Asia
Brighton Alex Arnall, Katy Oswald, Mark Davies, Tom Mitchell and Cristina Coirolo (2010)
For a range of programmes for the agricultural sector in five South Asian countries, the study examines to what extent there is an amalgamation of various approaches like social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in these public policies.

Adverse shocks and social protection in Africa: what role for formal and informal financial institutions?
Abena D. Oduro (2010)
Evidence on the wide range of adverse shocks experienced by households in Africa, reveal that the coping mechanisms adopted by most households comprise mainly of self insurance and help from family and other networks, with little access to formal financial institutions, thereby suggesting that public interventions are required to help households deal with the adverse shocks effectively as well as reducing the incidence of such shocks.

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 growth and poverty reduction in Tanzania 2000-2010: where has agriculture worked for the poor and what can we learn from this?
Oswald Mashindano, Kim Kayunze, Lucia da Corta, Festo Maro (2011)
High economic growth and moderate agricultural growth in Tanzania has not translated into poverty reduction. Based on evidence gathered from six research sites, the authors show that distortions in market, high rate of inflation, skewed distribution of assets are some factors that lie at the root of the mismatch between agricultural growth and stagnating or worsening living standards among a large section of the Tanzanian population.

Agriculture's Role in the Indian Enigma: Help or Hindrance to the Undernutrition Crisis?
Derek Headey, Alice Chiu and Suneetha Kadiyala (2011)
In this paper the authors reassess agriculture's role in explaining the Indian enigma – that of the unusual combination of high economic growth coupled with sluggish improvements in child and adult under nutrition. Exploring two key pathways that link agricultural conditions to nutrition outcomes, they find that agriculture is only one of the several factors that explain India's under-nutrition problems.

Agricultural development in an emerging non-agrarian regional economy: Kerala's challenges, economic and political weekly
Kannan, K.P.  (2011)
The revival of agriculture in an increasingly diversifying economy like Kerala in India requires addressing issues like technology, organization and environment through the means of the functional planning process in the state.

Agricultural Growth and Investment Options for Poverty Reduction in Nigeria
Xinshen Diao, Manson Nwafor, Vida Alpuerto, Kamiljon Akramov, and Sheu Salau (2010)
This study examines the optimal agricultural development strategy in Nigeria, focusing on subsectors, spillovers, and state and national public policy targeting.

Analyzing Pro-Poor Growth in Southern Africa: Lessons from Mauritius and South Africa
Jean-Yves Duclos and Audrey Verdier-Chouchane (2010)
This article compares and contrasts the growth trajectories of Mauritius and South Africa, two countries that have achieved impressive growth but which have achieved very different levels of success in poverty reduction. 

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.

Barriers to household risk management – evidence from India
Shawn Cole, Xavier Gine, Jeremy Tobacman, Petia Topalova, Robert Townsend and James Vickey (2010)
The paper examines a financial contract designed to insure rural Indian households against an exogenous income risk: rainfall variation during the monsoon season

Bright Lines, Risk Beliefs, and Risk Avoidance: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in Bangladesh
Lori Bennear, Alessandro Tarozzi, Alexander Pfaff, H.B. Soumya, Kazi Matin Ahmed, and Alexander van Geen (2010)
Interventions aiming to change health behavior through risk communication are gaining ground in the developing world. This randomized evaluation of a program communicating the health risks of arsenic in Bangladesh suggests that the format of the information conveyed is an important determinant of how individuals respond. Unfortunately, risk communication may be the least effective for high risk individuals.

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.

Cape Verde and Mozambique as Development Successes in West and Southern Africa
Jorge Braga de Macedo and Luís Brites Pereira (2010)
This study examines the interaction between globalization and governance in two of Africa's success stories, Cape Verde and Mozambique.

Cash on delivery: A new approach to foreign aid
Nancy Birdsall, Ayah Mahgoub, and William D. Savedoff (2010)
This article examines the new foreign aid movement of cash on delivery.

Challenges in Banking the Rural Poor: Evidence from Kenya's Western Province
Pascaline Dupas, Sarah Green, Anthony Keats, and Jonathan Robinson (2011)
This randomized evaluation of access to financial services in Kenya highlights that demand as well as supply factors are important determinants of service uptake.

Civil conflict and human capital accumulation: the long term effects of political violence in Perú
Gianmarco León (2010)
A study of post-conflict Peru finds that political conflict negatively affects future educational attainment. Interestingly, the study finds that children in conflict situations can catch up in later educational attainment if they have already started school, but those who begin school after conflict has set in are permanently affected.

Collective Action in Diverse Sierra Leone Communities
Rachel Glennerster, Edward Miguel, and Alexander Rothenberg (2010)
This study finds that ethnic diversity does not undermine public goods provision in Sierra Leone.

Comparative Analysis of Agricultural Productivity between Newly Resettled Farmers and Communal Farmers in Mashonaland East Province
Angeline Chamunorwa (2010)
Field study based comparison of performance of newly resettled famers with communal area farmers in Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe shows that to make the fast track land reform programme a success it is necessary to address issues related to availability of and access to inputs, prices for farm output and provision of extension services and security of tenure.

Crop insurance in India
June Gurdev Singh (2010)
Based on a historical and largely qualitative assessment of crop insurance programmes in India, the paper evaluates the relative advantages and disadvantages of existing crop-insurance practices in Indian agriculture.

Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development?
Matthias Doepke and Michèle Tertilt (2010)
This study suggests that though transfer payments to women often increase household spending on children, they may have unintended consequences in some contexts.

Dial 'A' for Agriculture: A Review of Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries
Jenny C. Aker (2011)
This paper makes the case for mobile phone based agricultural extension services.

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.

Education as liberation?
Willa Friedman, Michael Kremer, Edward Miguel, and Rebecca Thornton (2011)
This follow-up study of a randomized intervention that provided merit scholarships to rural Kenyan girls unearths some surprising findings about their long run social and political attitudes. The program increased political knowledge but also identification with one's ethnic group and led to a broad rejection of authority, both at home in terms of parental involvement in marriages and domestic violence and in politics.

Effects of inclusive public agricultural extension service: results from a policy reform experiment in Western China
Ruifa Hu, Yaqing Cai, Kevin Z. Chen, Yongwei Cui, and Jikun Huang (2010)
This study of China's recent reform of its agricultural extension services finds that targeted policies improved availability for small farmers.

Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa: Pilot Evidence from Rwanda
Daniel Ayalew Ali, Klaus Deininger, and Markus Goldstein (2011)
This study finds that a pilot program to regularize land tenure in Rwanda was very successful in increasing land-related investment and female ownership.

Escaping poverty in Tanzania: what can we learn from cases of success?
Kate Higgins (2011)
Analysis based on qualitative data set collected in six research sites in Tanzania, shows that while agriculture is a key factor in supporting upward mobility, it is non-farm businesses, the accumulation of physical assets, salaried employment and favourable marriage that are critical in helping people exit poverty.

Evaluating the Long-term Impact of Antipoverty Interventions in Bangladesh: An overview
Agnes R. Quisumbing, Bob Baulch and Neha Kumar (2011)
This paper provides an overview of a research project that assessed the long-term impact of three antipoverty interventions in Bangladesh. The analysis of the long-term impact on outcome, including positive gender outcomes, shows that the divergence from short-term impact evaluation can arise from factors such as the characteristics of the technology introduced, targeting methods applied as well as the modalities of implementation used.

Examining the MGNREGA: Women's participation and impacts in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan, India
Ratna M. Sudarshan (2010)
Fieldwork carried out to understand the reasons behind the unusually large participation of women workers in the NREGA programme, find that the documented variation in women’s participation and other impacts across various states of India arise from specific context and hence provide valuable cues about the changes required for enhancing the impact of the programme.

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.

Food security and the EU's common agricultural policy: Facts against fears' european centre for international political economy
Zahrnt, Valentine (2011)
While concerns for food insecurity in EU that underlines the CAP are largely unfounded, enhanced agricultural research, conservation of the environment and support to developing country agriculture are more appropriate for fighting global hunger.

Food Crisis, Household Welfare and HIV/AIDS Treatment: Evidence from Mozambique
Damien de Walque, Harounan Kazianga, Mead Over, and Julia Vaillant (2011)
The 2007-2008 global food price crisis had a significant negative impact on welfare in developing countries. There is reason to expect that it might affect HIV/AIDS infected individuals even more, since antriretroviral regimens require good nutrition. However, this study of HIV-positive households in Mozambique finds that they did not exhibit welfare decreases greater than HIV-negative households.

Foreign aid to agriculture- review of facts and analysis
Nurul Islam (2011)
The paper attempts to provide an overview of the trends in aid to agriculture over time, within the framework of changes in the pattern of total development aid. It seeks to examine the factors relating to the agriculture sector and the priorities and allocation processes of the total aid.

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.

Impacts of climate change on agriculture and policy options for adaptation: the case of Vietnam
Yu, Bingxin, Tingju Zhu, Clemens Breisinger, and Nguyen Manh Hai
A dual model of the effects of climate change and policy on rice yield finds the reduction to be severe, rising to 2.7 million tons by 2050, although intensification and investment in rural infrastructure could mitigate the reduction, the effectiveness will depend on targeting marginalized communities and tailoring to regional variations

India's rural financial system: does it support pro-poor innovation?
Sonne, Lina (2010)
The rural financial system in India, in spite of its deep and elaborate nature, provides inadequate support to pro-poor entrepreneur-led innovations, which are essential for growth and development.

India's role in the new global farmland grab: an examination of the role of the Indian Government and Indian companies engaged in overseas agricultural land acquisitions in developing countries
Rick Rowden (2011)
In recent years developing countries such as China and India too have joined in the process of multinational agribusiness companies acquiring prime agricultural land in developing countries. This paper explores the role of Indian agricultural companies that have been involved in the recent trend of large-scale overseas acquisitions of farmland.

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.

Inheritance and the intergenerational transmission of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: policy considerations
Chronic poverty research centre, working paper no. 159, May, Elizabeth Cooper (2010)
Property inheritance systems are known to influence intergenerational transmission of poverty (IGT poverty), however, review of existing academic literature and policy initiatives on questions concerning the relationship between inheritance and the IGT poverty in different Sub-Saharan African societies shows that there are gaps in knowledge as well as policy initiatives regarding the link between inheritance practices and their relationship to IGT poverty.

Instruments of Development: Randomization in the Tropics, and the Search for the Elusive Keys to Economic Development.
January, Angus S. Deaton (2009)
Many development economists advocate the use of randomized controlled trials by development institutions. Deaton takes a more sceptical view, arguing that there are several drawbacks to randomized evaluations.

Long-Term Impact of Investments in Early Schooling—Empirical Evidence from Rural Ethiopia
Subha Mani, John Hoddinott, and John Strauss (2010)
This article identifies path dependence in educational outcomes in rural Ethiopia, arguing that shocks to school enrolment significantly impact future attainment.

Maize is life, but rice is money! A village case study of the 2001/02 famine in Malawi
Tiba, Zoltán (2011)
The lack of timely intervention by ADMARC in the food markets, when maize prices were abnormally surging, was more the cause for the Malawi famine in 2002 than any sharp decline in production.

Market alternatives for smallholder farmers in food security initiatives: lessons from the Brazilian food acquisition programme
International policy centre for inclusive growth, working paper no. 64, june, 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.

May government transfers to the poor have modest effects on reducing rural inequality?
Lehman, Christian (2010)
A randomized control evaluation in Mexico finds no effect of government transfer programs on reducing inequality in rural villages, yet greater household spending by the poorest villagers raises the welfare of all villagers through linkages in financial and commodity markets.

Micro-loans, Insecticide-Treated Bednets and Malaria: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Orissa (India)
Alessandro Tarozzi, Aprajit Mahajan, Brian Blackburn, Dan Kopf, Lakshmi Krishnan, and Joanne Yoong (2011)
In this paper, the authors use a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact on malaria reduction of free bednet provision versus microfinancing services to help households purchase full cost bednets. They find that free provision substantially increases bednet usage compared to microfinancing. They suggest that microfinancing is a possible policy tool where free provision is impossible, but caution that bednets may be ineffective unless provided on a large scale.

Political Economy of Tribal Development: A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh
M. Gopinath Reddy and K. Anil Kumar (2010)
Scrutiny of the various policies of the state during the successive plan periods, including the new act - Forest Right Act, 2006, show that there is a need to address issues like traditional rights and livelihood patterns of the forest-dependent tribals in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India to bring about greater livelihood security of the tribal communities and ensure their inclusion into the mainstream.

Powerful women: does exposure reduce bias?
Beaman, Lori, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande, and Petia Topalova (2008)
A study of randomly assigned gender quotas in Indian village councils finds that exposure to female leaders does not change villagers' preference for male leaders, but does reduce gender stereotypes and eliminate male villagers' negative perception of female leader effectiveness. Ten years after the implementation of the quota policy, women were found to be more likely to run for and win elections.

Public Support to Food Security in India, Brazil And South Africa: Elements for a Policy Dialogue
Darana Souza and Danuta Chmielewska (2011)
Presenting a comparative study of the food-security policy agendas in India, Brazil and South Africa, the paper shows that there are similarities as well as differences in the policies adopted, priorities given to various food-security issues. The experience of each of these countries in ensuring food-security provides an important opportunity for these three countries to share knowledge on the fight against poverty, hunger and diseases

Raising voice – securing a livelihood: The role of diverse voices in developing secure livelihoods in pastoralist areas in Ethiopia
Institute of Development Studies, Working Paper 340, March, Brighton, Mary Ann Brocklesby, Mary Hobley and Patta Scott-Villiers (2010)
A qualitative analysis of the engagement of pastoral communities in Ethiopia with the state and other institutions reveal the dynamics and effectiveness of their 'voice' in attaining livelihood security and addressing vulnerabilities.

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.

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.

Reshaping Institutions: Evidence on External Aid and Local Collective Action
Katherine Casey, Rachel Glennerster, and Edward Miguel (2011)
This randomized controlled trial of a community driven development program in Sierra Leone casts doubt on this popular intervention method, finding few long-term effects on public goods provision or the inclusion of marginalized groups in politics.

Rethinking agricultural production collectivities: The case for a group approach to energize agricultureand empower poor farmers
Institute of Economic Growth January, New Delhi, Bina Agarwal (2010)
Drawing upon experiences of collective farming in a few transition countries and in India in contemporary times, the paper reconstructs the case for production collectivities in a situation of increasing marginalization and feminization of agriculture.

Rethinking the (European) foundations of Sub-Saharan African regional economic integration: a political economy essay
Working paper no. 293, development centre, organization for economic cooperation and development, Paris, 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.

Revival of the Public Distribution System: Evidence and Explanations
Reetika Khera (2011)
A nine-state survey of the PDS in India shows that the revival of the scheme in several states, which can be traced, in large part, to a renewed political interest, has positively impacted food security situation in rural India. Therefore it is perhaps more sensible to further improve the PDS, rather than replace it with cash transfers.

Diana Fletschner and Lisa Kenney (2011)
Enhancing financial access for women is contingent upon specific targeting of women through suitable innovations in financial products that account for the differential socio-economic working conditions for women.

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.

Social contracts, market and efficiency: groundwater irrigation in North India
Centre for development economics, delhi school of economics, working paper 183, April, New Delhi, Banerji, A., Gauri Khanna and J.V. Meenakshi (2010)
The world bank policy, research working paper no. 5466, November, Anna D’Souza and Dean Jollife (2010) Exploring the complex water market in an Indian village, the study locates the role of social contracts in efficient allocation of water across farm households and suggests institutional reforms to ease the constraint of water supply for agriculture.

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.

Structural change, land use and the state in China: making sense of three divergent processes
International Institute of Social Studies, Working Paper No. 509, The Hague, Arsel, Murat and Anirban Dasgupta (2010)
The change of land-use patterns is one of the important components of structural transformation of economies. With economic development as in conventionally comprehended, industrialization and escalated urbanization causes the shift of land from under agriculture to other uses.

The fast track land reform programme and livelihoods in Zimbabwe: a case study of households at Athlone farm in Murehwa districtr poor farmers
Livelihoods after Land Reform in Zimbabwe, Working Paper No. 2, Livelihoods after Land Reform Project, PLAAS, South Africa, June, Shingirai Mandizadza (2010)
After being allocated plots under the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), beneficiaries in Athlone have engaged in activities ranging from crop production to other non-land based activities and despite the challenges that they face, Athlone households have better livelihoods than they would have enjoyed without the land, implying that if certain favourable government policies were put in place and the macro-economic conditions change they could even produce marketable surplus.

The Decline and Rise of Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa Since 1961
Block, Steven (2010)
Contrary to consensus, this paper argues that agricultural productivity growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has been a “qualified success.” Though total factor productivity was nearly stagnant between the 1960s and 1980s, it has accelerated since then and particularly in the 2000s, with a net 36% crop output increase between 1960 and 2002. 

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 environment and directed technical change
Acemoglu, Daron, Philippe Aghion, Leonardo Bursztyn, and David Hemous. (2010)
A theoretical framework of economic growth is derived to study the response of technology to environmental degradation and environmental policy, finding long-run growth to be achievable using clean technology provided that inputs are substitutable, policy involves taxes and subsidies, and action is immediate and decisive.

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.

The Renewed Case for Farmers' Cooperatives: Diagnostics and Implications from Ghana
Francesconi, Gian Nicola and Fleur Wouterse (2011)
This study examines why many Ghanaian farmers' organizations have failed to effectively mobilize, concluding that membership structures and rules of conduct are important determinants of organizational effectiveness.

Transmission of world food price changes to markets in Sub-Saharan Africa
Nicholas Minot (2011)
The study examines the degree to which changes in world food markets influence the price of staples in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study states that staple food prices rose over 50 percent between mid-2007 and mid-2008 and that African governments can moderate the effects of such price increases by pursuing more predictable policies.

Trends in Diversion of PDS Grain
Khera, Reetika (2011)
The diversion of grains from the Public Distribution System and the scale and coverage of the institution's operation has been closely interlinked in India in recent times.

Tribal Movements and Livelihoods: Recent Developments in Orissa
Sakti Padhi and Nilakantha Panigrahi (2011)
Critical review of major tribal policies and programmes of the state of Orissa shows that the various developmental policies of the state of Orissa have had negative impact on tribal people’s access to and structure of livelihood.

Unleashing Rural India's Economic Potential—The Role of ICT
Archana G. Gulati (2009)
This article explores how ICT might promote rural empowerment in India.

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.

Vulnerability in rural Bangladesh: learning from life history interviews
Peter Davis (2011)
Based on 293 life-history interviews, this paper explores the nature of vulnerability and its relationship to chronic poverty in rural Bangladesh. It shows that poverty traps are intricately linked to vulnerability such that denudation of key assets and capabilities, liabilities and disabilities, increased exposure to the most damaging forms of downward pressures, and destructive coping strategies adopted by the vulnerable people all combine in creating poverty traps.

Were the Nigerian Banking Reforms of 2005 a Success... And for the Poor?
Cook, Lisa D. (2011). NBER Working Paper 16890, March
The Nigerian banking reforms of 2005 tried to improve safety, soundness, and accessibility. This paper finds that the reforms improved banks' financial soundness but did not improve bank profitability or increase access for the poor.

Women's Rights and Development
Raquel Fernández (2009)
This study develops a model of how women’s rights evolve over the course of economic development due to changing household and societal male interests, and tests the model against data on the timing of women’s rights acts from the United States in the 1800s.

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.