Through a review of the literature, this paper examines the links of food and agriculture with nutrition in South Asia, a region characterized by a high level of malnutrition. The review finds that the level and stability of food prices play a critical part in food consumption, with rising...

The paper estimates the effect of product standards on firms? export decisions using two novel datasets. The first covers all exporting firms in 42 developing countries. The second covers pesticide standards for 243 agricultural and food products in 63 importing countries over 2006?12. The...

Household expenditures for children-related goods may change when one of the parent migrates and do so differently depending on whether it is the mother or the father that leaves. A sequential model that explains migration and budget allocation choices is proposed and its predictions are tested...

The economic debate on existence and definition of the middle class has become particularly lively in many developing countries. Despite this growing interest, the identification of the middle class group in these countries remains quite challenging. Building on a recently developed framework to...

In areas afflicted by civil conflict, development projects can potentially serve an important counterinsurgency function by redressing grievances of marginalized groups and reducing violence. Using a large-scale randomized field experiment in Afghanistan, this paper explores whether the...

Based on a randomized evaluation, the paper shows that a household-targeted Philippine cash transfer program significantly raised the local price of key foods relevant for child nutritional status. This shift in prices increased stunting among young nonbeneficiary children by 34 percent (11...

This study investigates the degree to which the association of height and earnings in Pakistan is independent of other cognitive and socioemotional skills. While taller workers are regularly observed to earn more, they commonly have higher cognitive ability. Thus, there is debate concerning the...

In 2004, a landmark study showed that an inexpensive medication to treat parasitic worms could improve health and school attendance for millions of children in many developing countries. Eleven years later, a headline in the Guardian reported that this treatment, deworming, had been "debunked."...

This paper examines the extent to which the three key underlying determinants of nutrition -- food security; adequate caregiving resources at the maternal, household, and community levels; and access to health services and a safe and hygienic environment -- on their own and interactively are...

There is an increasing recognition that investment in human development at an earlier age can have a significant impact on the lifetime earnings capacity of an individual. This notion is the basis for the popularity of conditional cash transfer programs to help boost child health and education...