Replaced with revised version of paper 06/22/11.

We use a combination of pipeline comparison, propensity score matching, and double differences to evaluate economic and social impacts of a large community driven development program in India. While we find positive empowerment and nutritional effects for households in program areas, allowing...

Concerns about the slow down in agricultural growth and the macroeconomic impact of rising fiscal deficits have refocused attention to public expenditures in the agricultural sector. Rising levels of agricultural subsidies have been blamed for crowding out much needed productivity-enhancing...

Despite strong beliefs that property titling and registration will enhance credit access, empirical evidence in support of such effects remains scant. The gradual roll-out of computerization of land registry systems across Andhra Pradesh’s 387 sub-registry offices (SROs) allows us to combine...

We quantify the importance of peer effects in group lending by estimating a static game of incomplete information. In our model, group members make their repayment decisions simultaneously based on their household and loan characteristics as well as their expectations on other members’...

Land reforms in India were aimed at securing access to land for poor rural households. We use data from West Bengal to highlight the impact of the state’s 1978 land reform program on human capital accumulation within the beneficiary households. The results from the study indicate that reform...

Using a 5,000 household panel from Zambia, we find that asset ownership, but not access to fertilizer, has an extremely important impact on output and that investment in oxen would yield returns above the market rate. Policies should thus focus on asset ownership more than on short term working...