The general objective of this dissertation is to understand the relationship between economic growth, government expenditure in public services and infrastructure on different sectors of the population. Through three essays this dissertation pursues the objective by explicitly highlighting the...

We study how rural households in Ethiopia adapt to droughts through labor reallocation. By using three waves of panel data and exploiting spatial-temporal variations in drought exposure, we find that households reduce on-farm work and increase off-farm self-employment in response to both...

In many countries of the Global South, agri-food supply chains are transforming rapidly. One important feature of this transformation is growth in certain high-value agricultural subsectors, such as horticulture and cut-flowers for export. Growth in high-value agriculture often creates new...

The expansion of supermarkets in developing countries may have far-reaching consequences for poverty and rural development. While previous studies have compared farm profits between participants and non-participants in supermarket channels, wider household welfare effects have hardly been...

Private standards are gaining in importance in global markets for high-value foods. We analyze and compare impacts of three sustainability oriented standards – Fairtrade, Organic, and UTZ – on the livelihoods of smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda. Using survey data and propensity score...

In many developing countries, supermarkets are expanding rapidly. This also affects farmers’ marketing options. Previous studies have analyzed welfare effects for smallholders with crosssection data. Here, we use panel data and a differencing approach to study supply chain dynamics and better...