"This paper addresses the deceptively simple question: What is the rural population of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? It argues that rurality is a gradient, not a dichotomy, and nominates two dimensions to that gradient: population density and remoteness from large metropolitan areas. It...

"Dabalen, Paternostro, and Pierre investigate the differences in outcomes (earnings and consumption) between individuals (households) who participate in the nonfarm sector and those who do not. They use propensity score matching methods where they create appropriate comparison groups of...

An analysis of a field survey to investigate household decisions about schooling in rural Pakistan suggests that hiring more female teachers and providing more primary schools for girls closer to villages will improve the chances of rural Pakistani girls entering school and staying enrolled

"The paper reviews the literature on the characteristics and impact of opinion leaders on the diffusion of new knowledge, concluding that there is no clear evidence on whether opinion leaders are more effective if they are similar in socioeconomic attributes to the other farmers rather than...

"This paper presents a methodology to evaluate fiscal decentralization focusing on the potential mis-targeting of intergovernmental fiscal equalization transfers. The approach builds on an explicit comparison and the summary measurement of different (horizontal) allocation distributions across...

"Indonesia experienced rapid growth and the expansion of the formal financial sector during the last quarter of the 20th century. Although this tendency was reversed by the shock of the financial crisis that spread throughout Asia in 1997 and 1998, macroeconomic stability has since then been...

"The notion of empowerment has been more often deductively claimed than carefully defined or inductively assessed by development scholars and practitioners alike. The authors define and assess empowerment through an in-depth examination of the extent to which a large community development...

"Most economists think of common property as physical-a body of water, a forest-and as bounded within geographic space. In this paper, building on work in social theory, the author argues that common property can also be social-defined within symbolic space. People can be bound by well-defined...

"The authors describe and analyze an unconventional approach to river basin management in a developing country undergoing rapid economic, political, and institutional change. The founding of the Brantas River Basin Management Corporation (Perum Jasa Tirta I - PJT 1), a national state-owned...