This study examines the role of leadership in the development of transportation infrastructure, specifically bridges, in the Indian state of Bihar during the 2000s. Drawing from interviews and quantitative data, we show that leadership was a critical factor in fostering institutional change in...

In this note, the instruments supporting risk retention and risk financing at the national and regional/international levels will be the sole focus. Risk transfer, including insurance, is a very broad subject and requires a separate discussion; however, when a hybrid solution involves a transfer...

Earthquakes, floods, cyclones, and such other hazards each year affect approximately 200 million people. Developing countries absorbed 98 percent of these disasters and accounted for nine out of ten disaster-related deaths in the period 1991-2005. In fact, low and middle income countries suffer...

To many, reducing water losses is seen as key to more sustainable water management. The arguments to reduce water losses are compelling, but reducing water losses has turned out to be challenging. This paper applies a panel data analysis with fixed effects to determine the major drivers of...

Aid is good for the poor. This paper uses detailed aid data spanning 60 developing countries over the past two decades to show that social aid significantly and directly benefits the poorest in society, while economic aid increases the income of the poor through growth. This new and unequivocal...

This paper uses the gravity model to analyze whether the varying export performance of Croatian counties can be explained by their proximity to border gates, ports, and other county-specific characteristics. The analysis finds that longer distances to border gates increase trade frictions...

Extension services are a keystone of information diffusion in agriculture. This paper exploits a large randomized controlled trial to track diffusion of a new technique in the classic Training and Visit (T&V) extension model, relative to a more direct training model. In both control and...