Deeper regional integration can be
beneficial especially for regions along international
borders. It can open up new markets on opposite sides of
borders and give consumers wider access to cheaper goods.
This paper uses data from five contiguous districts of
India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in the northeast of the
subcontinent to measure the degrees of trade complementarity
between districts. The paper illustrates that the regions

The aim of this paper is to provide
feedback on the question of socioeconomic benefits from
rural road development and the impact of transport
infrastructure on the poor, particularly the poorest and the
bottom 40 percent of the population. This study relies on
impact evaluation methodologies, which are traditionally
used in social sectors but less so in the transport sector.
These methodologies were launched in 2003 under the

Myanmar is a low-income agrarian country
with a high poverty rate. The livelihood of many poor people
depends on the performance of agriculture, especially the
rice sector. Rice accounts for 70 percent of Myanmar s total
cultivated area and 30 percent of the value of its
agricultural production. Increasing returns to rice
production will be the key to increasing farm wages and
incomes in the short to medium run. Higher rice production

This study seeks to examine how
National Rural Livelihoods Mission or NRLM may be leveraged
to improve food and nutrition security (FNS) in tribal
areas, preferably in a manner that would enhance the
effectiveness of the program's core livelihoods focus.
More broadly, the objective is to strengthen the capacity of
the Government of India (GoI) to deliver (or support)
effective FNS interventions in tribal and backward areas

The overall goal of this report is to
assist the World Bank Group (WBG) to achieve greater impact
for women from its current activities in agribusiness in
Papua New Guinea (PNG), and to provide clear recommendations
on additional interventions aimed at improving outcomes for
women. The report focuses on the supply chains for coffee,
cocoa, and horticultural products (fresh produce), as there
is a wealth of knowledge on these supply chains and on

Despite considerable progress in the
area of environmental management over the last decade,
Colombia still faces significant impacts from population
exposure to urban air pollution, inadequate access to water
supply and sanitation, and indoor air pollution from solid
fuel use. This study estimates that the total health cost
attributable to these three factors amounts to about 10.2
trillion Colombian Pesos (COP) annually, or about 2 percent

Nonseparable household models outline
the links between agricultural production and household
consumption, yet empirical extensions to investigate the
effect of production on dietary diversity and diet
composition are limited. Although a significant literature
has investigated the calorie-income elasticity abstracting
from production, this paper provides an empirical
application of the nonseparable household model linking the

The report begins with a summary of
programs reviewed, a description of the PMT targeting
system, and the profile of individuals in the database. It
then presents key findings from the review of budgets and
the analysis of SW Admin/PMT data on program coverage and
distributional equity of program benefits. The report
concludes with a discussion of policy implications and
recommendations that emerged from the key findings and the

This paper investigates the causal
consequences of Tropical Storm Agatha (2010) -- the
strongest tropical storm ever to strike Guatemala since
rainfall records have been kept -- on household welfare. The
analysis reveals substantial negative effects, particularly
among urban households. Per capita consumption fell by 12.6
percent, raising poverty by 5.5 percentage points (an
increase of 18 percent). The negative effects of the shock

In much of the developing world, the
demand for high frequency quality household data for poverty
monitoring and program design far outstrips the capacity of
the statistics bureau to provide such data. In these
environments, all available data sources must be leveraged.
Most surveys, however, do not collect the detailed
consumption data necessary to construct aggregates and
poverty lines to measure poverty directly. This paper

As Vietnam enters a crucial period of
urbanization corresponding to its present stage of economic
development, the Government of Vietnam has placed strong
emphasis on developing its system of cities. In accordance
with this objective this Urbanization Review is dedicated to
understanding the key dimensions and aspects of
Vietnam's urbanization process and to identifying
trends, opportunities, challenges and core policy priorities

Previous research on sex-selective
abortions has ignored the interactions between fertility,
birth spacing, and sex selection, despite both fertility and
birth spacing being important considerations for parents
when deciding on the use of sex selection. This paper
presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the
determinants of sex-selective abortions, fertility, and
birth spacing, using data on Hindu women from India's