Since its creation in 1997, the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) has been recognized as a global leader in development. Described by the Economist as being a model for other rich countries, DFID has resolutely focused on reducing poverty in the poorest countries,...

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries, yet yields in these countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields is the use of improved agricultural technologies, such as...

Many existing classifications of developing countries are dominated by income per capita (such as the World Bank’s low, middle, and high income thresholds), thus neglecting the multidimensionality of the concept of ‘development’. Even those deemed to be the main ‘alternatives’ to the...

How do firms decide to provide HIV/AIDS prevention services? In this CGD Working Paper, Visiting Fellow Vijaya Ramachandran analyzes data from 860 firms and 4,955 workers in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. She finds that larger firms, and those with more highly skilled workers invest more in AIDS...

Does economic development depend on geographic endowments like temperate instead of tropical location, the ecological conditions shaping diseases, or an environment good for grains or certain cash crops? Or do these endowments of tropics, germs, and crops affect economic development only through...

Jenny Aker and Isaac Mbiti examine the growth of mobile phone technology over the past decade and consider its potential impacts upon quality of life in low-income countries, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. They first provide an overview of the patterns and determinants of mobile...

We examine the growth of mobile phone technology over the past decade and consider its potential impacts upon quality of life in low-income countries, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. We first provide an overview of the patterns and determinants of mobile phone coverage in...