This special issue originates with a three week Seminar in Christian Scholarship that Calvin College graciously hosted in July 2005 on the topic, "Making Markets Work for the Rural Poor: Christian Mission and Global Enterprise". This seminar involved 14 participants from 10 different colleges...

This paper uses a unique, spatially-explicit dataset to study the link between agricultural performance and rural poverty in Madagascar. We show that, controlling for geographical and physical characteristics, communes that have higher rates of adoption of improved agricultural technologies and,...

This paper introduces a special issue featuring a set of papers on institutional arrangements for reconciling rural poverty reduction with renewable natural resources conservation in the low-income tropics. Collectively, these papers make four core points. First, synergies do not naturally...

This paper explores the consequences of nonlinear wealth dynamics on the formation of informal insurance networks. Building on recent empirical work among a poor population that finds evidence consistent with the hypothesis of poverty traps, and using original primary data on social networks and...

Market participation is both a cause and a consequence of economic development. Markets offer households the opportunity to specialize according to comparative advantage and thereby enjoy welfare gains from trade. Recognition of the potential of markets as engines of economic development and...