Productive asset transfer programs, often involving livestock, are a popular antipoverty program globally. In a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the impacts of a Heifer International asset transfer program in Nepal.

For the poor, the contradiction between gloomy prospects and daily concern for their future welfare can create a difficult conflict. Why plan for the future if you see no hope for improvement? The poor could reduce this psychological distress and increase their day-to-day happiness by closing...

Research has shown that an individual’s beliefs about what she can achieve have an impact on how she invests in her future. Using baseline data from a larger study on an asset transfer program for women in rural Nepal, we tested how these women’s aspirations affected their investment in the...

Households who choose to adopt new agricultural technologies have a limited amount of labor they can invest in making those technologies productive and profitable. As part of a broader randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Burkina Faso, we explored how the adoption of a labor intensive fertilizer...

In all parts of the world, farmers face myriad risks. Not only do farmers face the same risks that we all face — disability, health crisis, etc. — but the additional risks of being dependent on external factors like the weather for their livelihoods. In Bangladesh those risks are magnified...

In many developing countries, microfinance institutions (MFIs) are well established throughout rural areas, with high functioning savings groups already in existence. These groups of about 15-30 members usually meet monthly and give small savings contributions that are required at each meeting....

Increasing access to credit can spur the adoption of more productive technologies, but may require reducing risk for both smallholder farmer and lender. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we investigated how drought index insurance coupled with agricultural loans impacts the agricultural...

Ecuador and several other Andean countries have prioritized the establishment and strengthening of agricultural insurance markets for smallholder farmers at risk of poverty. At the request of the Ecuadorian government, we recently explored whether index insurance would more effectively protect...

Risk management and resilience are becoming a focus for how to support and empower agricultural households who are vulnerable to weather-related shocks. Index insurance has shown tremendous promise where conventional agricultural insurance is not possible or cost-effective, but this promise can...

An agricultural index insurance contract’s quality is hidden. On its surface, farmers considering a policy or national governments seeking to subsidize coverage have no way to know whether a product has the potential to provide real value.