One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a high profile initiative to narrow the inequality of access to ICT and improve educational performance. However, there is little empirical evidence on its impacts. In order to assess the effectiveness of OLPC, we conducted a randomized experiment of OLPC with...

Summary In the debate on trade and poverty it is argued that standards act as trade barriers and cause marginalization of the poor. This paper quantifies income and poverty effects of high-standards trade and integrates labor market effects, by using company and household survey data from the...

Summary This paper uses new poverty data based on household level surveys to analyze changes in rural poverty and rural-urban poverty differences in 23 transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The paper presents a series of hypotheses to explain differences...

Summary The combination of transition and globalization since the early 1990s has caused dramatic changes in the dairy chains in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper uses survey evidence from several Central and East European countries to document the growth of vertical coordination in the...

Summary This article introduces this special issue on the rapid transformation of the agrifood industry in developing countries and its effects on small farmers. We review the literature from the late 1980s to the present and find evidence first of food processing then retail transformation, and...

Summary Global retail companies ("supermarkets") have an increasing influence on developing countries, through foreign investments and/or through the imposition of their private standards. The impact on developing countries and poverty is often assessed as negative. In this paper we show the...