SMS information campaigns are increasingly used for policy. A field experiment is conducted to study information sharing through mobile phone messages. Subjects are rural households in Mozambique who have...
This paper uses high-resolution satellite data on the proportion of buildings in a 250x250 meter cell to study the evolution of human settlement in Ghana over a 40-year period. The analysis finds a strong...
This paper investigates whether social structure helps or hinders factor allocation using unusually rich data from The Gambia. Evidence indicates that land available for cultivation is allocated unequally...
This paper investigates whether the prospect of redistribution hinders the formation of efficiency-enhancing groups. An experiment is conducted in a Kenyan slum, Ugandan villages, and a UK university town...
Do matching frictions affect youth employment in developing countries? This paper studies a randomized controlled trial of job fairs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The job fairs match firms with a representative...
The World Bank Economic Review is a professional journal used for the dissemination of research in development economics broadly relevant to the development profession and to the World Bank in pursuing...
A business plan competition is conducted to test whether survey instruments or panel judges are able to identify the fastest growing firms. Participants submitted six- to eight-page business plans and...
We conduct a business plan competition to test whether survey instruments or panel judges are able to identify the fastest growing firms. Participants submitted six- to eight-page business plans and defended...
Central place theory predicts that agglomeration can arise from external shocks. This paper investigates whether gold mining is a catalyst for proto-urbanization in rural Ghana. Using cross-sectional data...
Mobile phone coverage has expanded considerably throughout the developing world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. Existing evidence suggests that increased access to information technology has improved...
Mobile phone coverage has expanded considerably throughout the developing world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. Existing evidence suggests that increased access to information technology has improved...
This paper is organized in following headings: how can safety nets contribute to economic growth?; political reforms and public policy: evidence from agricultural and food policies; food security and storage...
This brief summarizes the when is capital enough to get female enterprises growing? Evidence from a randomized experiment in Ghana. The treatment was staggered from May 2009-February 2010. Standard models...
Patterns of correlation in innovation and contractual practices among manufacturing firms in Ethiopia and Sudan are documented. Network data that indicate whether any two firms in the utilized sample do...
Patterns of correlation in innovation and contractual practices among manufacturing firms in Ethiopia and Sudan are documented. Network data that indicate whether any two firms in the utilized sample do...
This issue of the World Bank economic review includes the following topics of interest: is there a metropolitan bias? the relationship between poverty and city size in a selection of developing countries;...
Despite the emphasis placed by microfinance organizations on lending to female business owners, evidence from three recent randomized controlled trials has cast doubt on the ability of capital alone to...
Standard models of investment predict that credit-constrained firms should grow rapidly when given additional capital, and that how this capital is provided should not affect decisions to invest in the...
Original Ugandan data collected by the authors are used to examine the determinants of funding to local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Success in attracting grants from international donors depends...
This issue includes the following: dollar a day revisited, by Martin Ravallion, Shaohua Chen, and Prem Sangraula; evidence on changes in aid allocation criteria, by Stijn Claessens, Danny Cassimon, and...