Rural areas still play a major role within the EU, as Europe is still a fairly rural continent. Moreover, EU rural areas are going through greater challenges and major transformations. After the Eastern enlargements of the EU (in 2004 and 2007), they are getting more and more heterogeneous, in...

In the next few years, India will be the most populous nation on earth. This large population will need a huge increase in agricultural productivity. At the same time, agricultural activity is highly energy and resource intensive. Moreover, many places in India are facing water crisis. Therefore...

Rural and urban development in sustainable context is a complex process that requires an improvement of the existing situation and a removing of the dysfunctions. Over time, the rural area was not addressed as much as urban area, rural analysis is often fragmentary explained and incomplete...

South Asia has experienced significant progress in improving human and physical capital over the past few decades. Within the region, India has become a global economic powerhouse with enormous development potential ahead. To foster human and economic development, India has shown a strong...

South Asia has experienced significant progress in improving human and physical capital over the past few decades. Within the region, India has become a global economic powerhouse with enormous development potential ahead. To foster human and economic development, India has shown a strong...

There is astounding variation in product quality sold in markets even when quality is difficult to ascertain and rules are poorly enforced. We investigate whether sellers differ in innate honesty (incur private cost to provide good quality) and whether this explains the variation in quality. Our...

We investigate whether better population health may impact economic performance through improvements in technical efficiency in agricultural production. Using district-level data from India, we employ a random-coefficients approach to estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function, computing...

The relationships between energy, the environment, and development are deep and complex. The International Energy Agency has noted that energy is deeply implicated in each of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of human development. Energy services provide an essential input to...

Sellers display astounding differences in their cheating behavior, even in developing countries with weak enforcement of rules. Using the context of informal milk markets in India, we examine the role of reputation and norms of honesty as potential explanations. Our results show that individuals...

Indian agriculture is estimated to be consuming about 78 percent of total fresh water resources available in the country. Yet, more than half of the gross cropped area is still dependent on rains. Extremely skewed allocation of scarce irrigation water amongst crops and inefficient use of the...