The seven largest emerging market economies-China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey-constituted more than one-quarter of global output and more than half of global output growth during 2010-15. These emerging markets, called EM7, are also closely integrated with other...

Limited access to finance, particularly bank credit, is a long-standing hurdle for Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs), with varying severity of financing constraints across countries. SMEs face higher transaction costs and higher risk premiums since they are typically more opaque and have less...

What are the key success factors for the agriculture credit guarantee schemes (CGS)? Are there any design features and interventions to minimize the risk? This paper tries to draw some lessons learned specific to agriculture CGSs based on some case studies in developing countries, and aims to...

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Albania are significant contributors to the economy. In 2018, according to the Albanian Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), 99.8 percent of active enterprises were MSMEs, employing 79.8 percent of the workforce and realizing around 69 percent of...

This paper presents evidence on implementation of the World Bank Group and Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening Initiative "Principles for Public Credit Guarantee Schemes for Small and Medium Enterprises". The evidence is based on a self-assessment of 60 schemes in 54 countries. Overall,...

This study exploits a natural experiment to investigate the impact of land reform on the fertility outcomes of households in rural Ethiopia. Public policies and customs created a situation where Ethiopian households could influence their usufruct rights to land via a demographic expansion of the...

This paper presents trends in monetary and nonmonetary dimensions of wellbeing in Ethiopia using data from the Household Consumption and Expenditure and Welfare Monitoring surveys implemented in 2000, 2005, and 2011. The paper provides evidence on changes in overlapping deprivations using a...

This paper evaluates the effect of the Rural Capacity Building Project, which aimed at promoting growth by strengthening the agricultural service systems in Ethiopia and by making them more responsive to smallholders' needs. The project intended to increase the outreach of agricultural extension...

Maintaining permanent coverage of the soil using crop residues is an important and commonly recommended practice in conservation agriculture. Measuring this practice is an essential step in improving knowledge about the adoption and impact of conservation agriculture. Different data collection...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) varieties have important nutritional differences and there is strong interest to identify nutritionally superior varieties for dissemination. In agricultural household surveys, this information is often collected based on the farmer's self-report. However, recent...