Limited access to reliable financial instruments makes it difficult for rural households to manage daily cash flows. Selling goods through cooperatives can improve savings, but cooperative income is not easily accessible when facing an emergency.
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This paper reports on a randomized experiment conducted among Malawian agricultural households to study nonclassical measurement error (NCME) in self-reported plot area, and farmers' responses to new information — the objective plot area measure —
Random digit dial surveys with mobile phones risk under-representation of women. To address this, we compare the characteristics of women recruited directly with those of women recruited through referrals from male household members.
Addressing public health externalities often requires community-level collective action. Due to social norms, each person’s sanitation investment decisions may depend on the decisions of neighbors.
Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
The paucity of reliable, timely household consumption data in many low- and middle-income countries have made it difficult to assess how global poverty has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We use plant level census data to identify spillovers from FDI in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector.
Misperceiving and misreporting input quality: Implications for input use and productivity
Farmers in developing countries routinely misperceive or misreport input quality for various reasons, which introduces substantial measurement error in farm survey data.
As development and humanitarian agencies increasingly advance the objective of ‘building resilience’, three resilience measurement methods have come into especially widespread use: the Resilience Indicators for Measurement and Analysis approach de
Land market distortions and aggregate agricultural productivity: Evidence from Guatemala
A theoretical framework to model the optimal size distribution of farms and assess to what extent market imperfections can explain non-optimal land allocation and output inefficiency. (Guatemala)
How light is too light touch: The effect of a short training-based intervention on household poultry production in Burkina Faso
This paper reports on the effects of a training-based intervention seeking to increase household engagement in poultry production in Burkina Faso, analyzing data from a large-scale cluster randomized trial in which 1798 households in 60 communes w
Cheap talk and coordination in the lab and in the field: Collective commercialization in Senegal
In Senegal, revealing farmers’ intentions improves collective commercialization, & learning in the lab transfers to day-to-day behaviors.
Fertilizer Quality Assessment: Perception versus testing in selected Ghanaian districts
Fertilizer use in Sub-Saharan Africa remains below recommended rates, contributing to low yields, and increasing poverty. Poor quality fertilizer – whether perceived or real – is often cited as a reason for low adoption rates.
Farm input subsidies and commodity market trends in Ghana: An analysis of market prices during 2012–2020
Ghana has a long history of intervening in food markets to balance consumers’ expectations of low and stable food prices, farmers’ demands for high farmgate prices, and traders’ demand for predictability in seasonal price patterns.
This study provides an assessment of changes in household income, livelihood sources, food consumption, and diet quality during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis in a sample of households drawn from both urban and rural areas in Ghana.
Are we done yet? Response fatigue and rural livelihoods
Lengthy surveys where designated respondents provide information about their household members can lead to both losses & biases as fatigue grows during interviews.
“Moving umbrella”: Bureaucratic transfers and the comovement of interregional investments in China
This paper studies the pattern of interregional investment after bureaucratic transfers across Chinese cities.
Agricultural input markets in Ghana: A descriptive assessment of input dealers in eight districts
This paper provides a description of the agricultural input market in Ghana in 2019 across six districts with high maize production and two municipal districts noted for agricultural marketing activities.
Farm-level effects of the 2019 Ghana planting for food and jobs program: An analysis of household survey data
Ghana’s rising population, coupled with erratic weather patterns and soil nutrient deficiencies, pose a significant challenge to food crop production.