We examine the effect of social institutions related to gender inequality on development outcomes. By characterizing and applying the recently developed Social Institution and Gender Index (SIGI) and its sub-components, we show how social institutions related to gender inequality are associated...

This paper attempts to determine the municipal level impact of the 1994 Law 142 water and sewerage services reforms on child mortality and service coverage. The objective of these reforms was to transfer service provision from the municipalities to specialized companies. These reforms were...

This paper estimates the causal effect of maternal participation in adult literacy programs on child mortality in rural Ghana, taking into account the possible endogeneity of program participation and endogenous program placement. Adult literacy program participation has a substantial impact on...

The belief in occult forces is still deeply rooted in many African societies, regardless of education, religion, and social class of the people concerned. According to many Africans its incidence is even increasing due to social stress and strain caused (among others) by the process of...

It is widely agreed that smallholder-led agricultural growth would contribute most to improved food security and reduced poverty. Yet, how to achieve broader and more sustainable access by smallholder farmers to productivity-enhancing inputs for food crop production remains a largely unsolved...

Empirical evidence from comparative studies on the impact of structural adjustment on Sub-Saharan African agricultural performance remains largely inconclusive. To illuminate this debate, we estimate the impact of liberalization on productivity, acreage, and production while controlling for...

Summary If labor markets operate with only minor frictions, productivity premiums associated with worker characteristics should equal the corresponding wage premiums. We evaluate this for labor market experience, schooling, job tenure, and training using matched employer-employee data from the...

We used baseline data, collected in July–September 2009, from a randomized controlled trial of a cash transfer program for vulnerable children in eastern Zimbabwe to investigate the effectiveness, coverage, and efficiency of census- and community-based targeting methods for reaching vulnerable...

Small-scale assemblers are both the most vilified and least understood actors in food value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on data from Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique, this article explores how maize assemblers influence the market access conditions of small-scale farmers. Assembly...

This paper examines whether shareholder-owned MFIs financially and socially perform better than NGOs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We also investigate the role of institutional quality in altering MFIs’ incentives and behavior in determining outreach. Our results indicate that NGOs are more...