Publications by Project

Long Term Research Projects

• Access to Modernizing Value Chains by Small Farmers in Indonesia and Nicaragua

"Small Farmers and Big Retail: trade-offs of supplying supermarkets in Nicaragua," by Hope Michelson, Thomas Reardon, Francisco Perez. Michigan State University Staff Paper 2010-02.

BASIS Brief no. 2007-06. Improving Smallfarmer Access to Modernizing Value Chains in Indonesia and Nicaragua, by Thomas Reardon, Ronnie S. Natawidjaja, and Francisco J. Perez. July 2007. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 71K]

"Informe Preliminar del Estudio del Análisis de Estructura de Gobernación en Grupos Asociados de Productores de Las Cadenas de Valor de Plátano y Fríjol en Nicaragua." February 2008. Preliminary report.

• Cash Transfers, Risk Management and Asset Accumulation: Policy evaluation for rural poverty reduction in Nicaragua

BASIS Brief no. 2007-01. Evaluating and Improving Interventions for Asset Accumulation, Risk Management, and Rural Poverty Reduction in Nicaragua, by Karen Macours, Renos Vakis and Vanessa Castro. July 2007. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 56K]

Macours, Karen, and Renos Vakis. 2008. "Changing households' investments and aspirations through social interactions: Evidence from a randomized transfer program in a low-income country." Johns Hopkins University and World Bank Working Paper Report Number: 45211.

Del Carpio, Ximena, and Karen Macours. 2008. "Leveling the intra-household playing field: Compensation and Specialization in Child Labor Allocation." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Report Number: WPS4822

Publications aimed at dissemination of market and community information gathered during qualitative fieldwork in Spanish: one children's tale (la panadera emprendadora), two comics (Como comprar y vender; Como invertir tus ganancias), and two informational brochures. Contact PIs for information.

• Contracting Out of Poverty in Peru: Some Experimental Approaches

  None to date

• Enhancing Smallholder Competitiveness in the Face of Globalization (Guatemala)

BASIS Brief no. 2010-10
Creating Incentives to Save among Microfinance Borrowers: A Behavioral Experiment from Guatemala, by Jesse Atkinson, Alain de Janvry, Craig McIntosh, and Elisabeth Sadoulet [Adobe Acrobat 64K].

BASIS Brief no. 2010-08. Fair Trade and Free Entry: Examining Producer Benefits, by Alain de Janvry, Craig McIntosh, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. September 2010. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 53K].

Creating Incentives to Save among Microfinance Borrowers: A Behavioral Experiment from Guatemala, by Jesse Atkinson, Alain de Janvry, Craig McIntosh, and Elisabeth Sadoulet.

BASIS Brief no. 2007-04. Enhancing Smallholder Competitiveness in the Face of Globalization, by Alain de Janvry, Elisabeth Sadoulet, Craig McIntosh and Tomas Rosada. July 2007. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 70K]

Ozier, Owen. 2008. "The structure of Fair Trade Coffee Production in Guatemala and Price Transmission to Farmers."

Sanborn, Rebecca. "Fairtrade Coffee Production in Guatemala." Report produced for the University of California, San Diego.

Buck, Steven, Craig McIntosh, Elisabeth Sadoulet, and Tomas Rosada. "Reputation in a Public Goods Game: Taking the Design of Credit Bureaus to the Lab."

• Micro Health Insurance in Rural Cambodia: An evaluation of the impact on the stabilization of incomes and enhancement of agricultural productivity and asset accumulation

Policy Brief: Results of the First Health Centre Survey, by David I. Levine, Rachel Gardner with Gabriel Pictet, Rachel Polimeni and Ian Ramage. June 2009.

BASIS Brief no. 2007-05. Insuring Health: Testing the Effectiveness of Micro-health Insurance to Promote Economic Wellbeing for the Poor, by David I. Levine, Nhong Hema, and Ian Ramage. July 2007. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 71K]

Final Evaluation Design, by David I. Levine, Ian Ramage and Nhong Hema. December 2007. 22 pages. [PDF 396K]

• Natural Capital and Poverty Reduction (Malawi and Uganda)

BASIS Brief no. 2010-07
Impact of Subsidies on Fertilizer Use, Land Allocation and Forest Pressure: Evidence from Malawi, by Christopher Chibwana, Charles Jumbe, John Mazunda, Monica Fisher and Gerald Shively. September 2010. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 60K].

BASIS Brief no. 2010-05
Income, Poverty and Charcoal Production in Western Uganda, by Fydess Khundi, Pamela Jagger, Gerald Shively shivelyg@purdue.edu, and Dick Sserunkuuma. July 2010. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 66K].

Angelsen, A. 2008. "Seeing Both the Forest and the Trees in REDD." Forthcoming in International Forestry Review.

Babigumira, R., A. Angelsen and D. Müller. 2007. "An Integrated Socio-economic Study of Deforestation in Western Uganda, 1990-2000." In Land use Change: Science, Policy and Management, edited by R. Aspinall and M. Hill. New York: CRC Press (Taylor and Francis).

Debela, Bethelhem Legesse. 2009. Forest Resources, Income Diversification and Economic Shocks in Uganda. Unpublished MSC Thesis, Department of Economics and Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life sciences (UMB), Ĺs, Norway.

Fikru K. Alemayehu, Fikru K. 2009. Income Risk and Covariance of Incomes: Evidence from Uganda. Unpublished MSC Thesis, Department of Economics and Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life sciences (UMB), Ĺs, Norway.

Fisher, M. and G. Shively. 2007. "Improved Agricultural Technology and Tropical Forest Pressure: The Case of Malawi's Starter Pack Scheme." Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 32(2): 349-362.

Jumbe C.B.L. and A. Angelsen. 2007. "Has Forest Co-management in Malawi Benefited the Poor?" In Political Institutions and Development: Failed Expectations and Renewed Hopes, pp. 171-199. Global Development Network Series, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.

Jumbe, C. and A. Angelsen. 2007. "Forest Dependence and Participation in CPR Management: Empirical Evidence from Forest Co-management in Malawi." Ecological Economics 62(3-4): 661-672.

Khunde, Fydess. 2009. How do Forest-Based Livelihoods Matter to Rural Households? Evidence from Charcoal Producers in Uganda. Unpublished MSC Thesis, Department of Economics and Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life sciences (UMB), Ĺs, Norway.

Kijima, Y., K. Otsuka and D. Sserunkuuma. 2008. "Assessing the Impact of NERICA on Income and Poverty in Central and Western Uganda." Agricultural Economics 38: 327-37.

Rios, A., W. Masters and G. Shively. 2008. "Linkages between Market Participation and Productivity: Results from a Multi-Country Farm Household Sample." American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, 27-29 July.

Tadesse, G. and G. Shively. 2009. "Food Aid, Food Prices, and Producer Disincentives in Ethiopia" American Journal of Agricultural Economics 91(4): 942-55. This publication is available for those registered with the Wiley InterScience website.

Tran, N. A., G.E. Shively and P.V. Preckel. "A New Method for Detecting Outliers in DEA." Forthcoming in Applied Economics Letters.

Weber, B., A. Marré, M. Fisher, R. Gibbs, and J. Cromartie. 2007. "Education's Effect on Poverty: The Role of Migration." Review of Agricultural Economics 29(3): 437-445.

• Pathways for Ensuring Access to Assets: Land tenure reform and beyond (Liberia and Uganda)

BASIS Brief no. 2007-02. Land Tenure Reform and Beyond: Ensuring Women's Access to Assets, by Cheryl Doss, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Jeanette Carter, and Gorettie Nabanoga. July 2007. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 72K]

"Doss, Cheryl, Caren Grown, and Carmen Diana Deere. 2008. "Gender and asset ownership: a guide to collecting individual-level data." World Bank Policy Research working paper no. WPS 4704."

Bibliographic database of relevant literature available from PIs.

• Quantitative Impact Evaluation: MCC-MCA Nicaragua Compact

BASIS Brief no. 2010-01
Impact of Business Services on the Economic Wellbeing of Small Farmers in Nicaragua, by Patricia E. Toledo and Michael R. Carter. March 2010. 8 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 184K].

BASIS Brief no. 2010-01-S
Impacto de servicios para el desarrollo de negocios rurales en el bienestar económico de productores en Nicaragua, by Patricia E. Toledo and Michael R. Carter. March 2010. 8 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 184K].

Also see project page for links to data.

• Understanding the impact of idiosyncratic shocks on farm productivity and household asset building and protection in Ethiopia, Ghana and Bangladesh

Community-based risk management arrangements: An overview and implications for social fund design, by Ruchira Bhattamishra and Christopher B. Barrett. 61 pages [PDF 142K]

Risk Management and Social Visibility in Ghana, by Jacqueline Vanderpuye-Orgle and Christopher B. Barrett. February 2008. 36 pages. [PDF 228K]

BASIS Brief no. 2007-03. Local Risk Management: Protecting Household Asset Building and Farm Productivity from Idiosyncratic Shocks, by Christopher B. Barrett, Ernest Aryeetey, Agnes Quisumbing, Akhter Ahmed, John Hoddinott, Felix Naschold, Jacqueline Vanderpuye-Orgle and Tassew Woldehanna. July 2007. 4 pages. [PDF 72K]

Naschold, Felix and Christopher B. Barrett. "Do Short-Term Observed Income Changes Overstate Structural Economic Mobility?"

Quisumbing, Agnes R. "Poverty transitions, shocks, and consumption in rural Bangladesh: Preliminary results from a longitudinal household survey."

(For more information visit the project website: http://amacrsp.aem.cornell.edu)


• Understanding and Improving Financial Access for the Poor (Ghana)

  None to date

• Weather Insurance, Price Information and Hedging: Financial Initiatives to Help the Poor Manage Agricultural Risk (India)

BASIS Brief no. 2010-09. Marketing Complex Financial Products in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Rainfall Insurance in India, by Sarthak Gaurav, Shawn Cole and Jeremy Tobacman [Adobe Acrobat 88K].

Marketing Complex Financial Products in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Rainfall Insurance in India, by Sarthak Gaurav, Shawn Cole and Jeremy Tobacman. Full paper. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 232K]

BASIS Brief no. 2008-01
Weather Insurance, Price Information, and Hedging: Helping the Poor Manage Risk, by Shawn Cole, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Stefan Hunt, Jeremy Tobacman, and Petia Topalova. January 2008. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 101K]

Gine, Xavier, Robert M. Townsend and James I. Vickery. 2007. "Patterns of Rainfall Insurance Participation in Rural India." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4408.

Cole, Shawn, Jeremy Tobacman and Petia Topalova. 2007. "Weather Insurance: Managing Risk through an Innovative Retail Derivative." Working Paper.

Cole, Shawn, Xavier Gine, Jeremy Tobacman, Petia Topalova, Robert Townsend and James Vickery. 2008. "Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India." Harvard Business School Finance Working Paper No. 09-116.

Operations manuals on the Futures Price Information and Weather Insurance. Also an instructional video on futures markets.

Pilot Projects

• Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security: A Field Experiment in Mozambique

  BASIS Brief no. 2010-04
  Subsidies and the Consequences of Drought: A Field Report, by Rachid Laajaj and Aniceto Da Fonseca Matias. July 2010. 2 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 75K].

  BASIS Brief no. 2010-02
  Subsidies, Savings, and Sustainable Food Security: A Field Experiment in Mozambique, by Michael R. Carter, Rachid Laajaj, and Dean Yang. May 2010. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 56K].

• Biometric and Finanical Innovations in Rural Malawi: A Field Experimental Approach

  BASIS Brief no. 2010-06
  Identifying Borrowers in Malawi: Dynamic Incentives in Rural Credit Markets, by Xavier Giné, Jessica Goldberg, and Dean Yang. September 2010. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 82K].

  "Identification Strategy: A Field Experiment on Dynamic Incentives in Rural Credit Markets." Draft paper of initial results. By Xavier Gine, Jessica Goldberg, and Dean Yang.
  

• Area Based Yield Insurance for Peruvian Coastal Agriculture

Carter, Michael R., Francisco Galarza and Stephen Boucher. "Underwriting Area-Based Yield Insurance to Crowd-In Credit Supply and Demand." Forthcoming in Savings and Development.

BASIS Brief no. 2008-07
Insuring the Never before Insured: Explaining Index Insurance through Financial Education Games, by Michael R. Carter, Christopher B. Barrett, Stephen Boucher, Sommarat Chantarat, Francisco Galarza, John McPeak, Andrew Mude and Carolina Trivelli. October 2008. 8 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 326K].

Spanish version available: Asegurando a los que nunca estuvieron asegurados: Explicando el seguro por índice a través de juegos de educación financiera

Underwriting Area-Based Yield Insurance ito Crowd-In Credit Supply and Demand by Michael R. Carter, Francisco Galarza and Stephen Boucher. Forthcoming in Savings and Development. [PDF, 28 pages]



Project Concept Note December 2007 [PDF, 18 pages]

Spanish version available: Nota Conceptual December 2007 [PDF, 18 pages]

BASIS Brief No. 46
Can Insurance Unlock Agricultural Credit and Promote Economic Growth? by Carolina Trivelli, Michael Carter, Francisco Galarza, Alvaro Tarazona, and Johanna Yancari. May 2006. 4 pages.
[Adobe Acrobat PDF 52K]


• A Productive Safety Net for Northern Kenya's Arid and Semi-Arid Lands: HSNP+ Program

BASIS Brief no. 2008-08
Altering Poverty Dynamics with Index Insurance: Northern Kenya's HSNP+, by Christopher B. Barrett, Michael R. Carter, Sommarat Chantarat, John McPeak, and Andrew Mude. November 2008. 2 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 47K].

BASIS Brief no. 2008-07
Insuring the Never before Insured: Explaining Index Insurance through Financial Education Games, by Michael R. Carter, Christopher B. Barrett, Stephen Boucher, Sommarat Chantarat, Francisco Galarza, John McPeak, Andrew Mude and Carolina Trivelli. October 2008. 8 pages. [Adobe Acrobat 326K].

Spanish version available: Asegurando a los que nunca estuvieron asegurados: Explicando el seguro por índice a través de juegos de educación financiera


Project Summary: Index-based Livestock Insurance for Northern Kenya's Arid and Semi-arid Lands: The Marsabit Pilot.

Barrett, Christopher B., Michael R. Carter and Munenobu Ikegami. 2008. "Poverty Traps and Social Protection."

Project Proposal by Christopher B. Barrett, Michael R. Carter, John McPeak and Andrew Mude. June 2008. [PDF, 15 pages.]

Poverty Traps and Social Protection by Christopher B. Barrett, Michael R. Carter and Munenobu Ikegami. February 2008. Working paper. [PDF, 36 pages.]