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Papers by Alessandra Garbero
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Agriculture
This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of... more This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of rural producers benefiting from the joint support of the Senegalese state and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through the co-financed project PADAER. Data collection covers two regions in Senegal: Kolda and Tambacounda. The sample comprises 1167 farmers, including 379 beneficiaries of the index-based insurance facilitated by PADAER (Programme d’Appui au Développement Agricole et à l’Entreprenariat Rural). The quasi-experimental method known as the propensity score matching method was used to determine the impact of subscribing to index-based insurance on the farmer’s production, agricultural investments, and annual income. Although the results of the estimates show that the project has not yet had any effect on production, without the intervention of this project, farmers would have recorded a loss of about USD 115 (FCFA 57,600). Not only did the index-based i...
Social Science Research Network, Nov 9, 2006
Using household data from Northern Zambia, this article looks at HIV/AIDS impacts on different as... more Using household data from Northern Zambia, this article looks at HIV/AIDS impacts on different aspects of people's access to food. The findings draw particular attention to the variances in vulnerability among households burdened by illness and orphans that are headed by men, women and the elderly. It is argued that vulnerability levels to HIV/AIDS impact differ substantially among households and implicitly expose the underlying causal conditions that enable or disable people in their responsiveness. Households affected by HIV/AIDS cannot be treated as a homogeneous group and understanding the differences in vulnerability can play an important policy role in designing targeted support.
Economics Bulletin, Aug 11, 2019
Real-world ex-ante impact assessments are far from the ideal experimental design, where the eligi... more Real-world ex-ante impact assessments are far from the ideal experimental design, where the eligible population is supposed to be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Often, many surveys in developing contexts do not even collect data from a comparison group. We propose a methodology that recovers the counterfactual for ex-ante impact assessments of policy interventions under the conditions of distance decay in the exposure to continuous treatments and lack of control groups. We test this approach on data from a large-scale irrigation project in Ethiopia.
Journal of Policy Modeling, Nov 1, 2017
Based on crosscountry panel datasets, we find that (i) an increase in population share in agricul... more Based on crosscountry panel datasets, we find that (i) an increase in population share in agriculture is associated with poverty reduction once the longer-term poverty change or the dynamic is taken into account; (ii) rural non-agricultural sector also is poverty reducing in some cases; and (iii) increased population in the mega cities has no role in poverty reduction. In fact, the growth of population in mega cities is "poverty-increasing" in a few cases. Given that a rapid population growth or rural-urban migration is likely to increase poverty, more emphasis should be placed on policies that enhance support for rural agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. If our analysis has any validity, doubts are raised about recent research emphasising the role of secondary towns or urbanisation as the main driver of extreme poverty reduction.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations eBooks, 2003
Climatic events can have disastrous consequences on rural livelihoods, which rely mainly on agric... more Climatic events can have disastrous consequences on rural livelihoods, which rely mainly on agriculture and natural resources. The way households and communities respond to climatic shocks depends on their available resources. We formulated that education is a human capital asset that can increase coping abilities in difficult times because education improves access to both social and economic resources. Based on the Thai government surveys of the living conditions and life quality of 68,343 rural villages for the years 2009 and 2011, we investigated the impacts of floods and droughts in 2010 on community welfare, i.e., consumption and income in 2011 at the village level. Using difference-indifference methods, we analyzed how differential demographic composition and education could reduce or increase economic vulnerability to natural disasters. We found that floods and droughts do not produce a negative effect either on food and nonfood consumption, investment in agriculture and education, or on income. However, this applies mainly to communities with higher educational attainment partly because these communities can better secure government financial aid for flood and drought affected areas. Education thus may have an important role in reducing economic vulnerability.
Her work focuses on impact assessment methodologies and applied econometrics in developing region... more Her work focuses on impact assessment methodologies and applied econometrics in developing regions. She obtained her PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her thesis was a methodological assessment of the implications of different econometric methods used in the relevant literature to estimate the impact of adult deaths. Her first degree was in economics, and she specialized in demography and research methods. Her previous work experience involved working at the United Nations Population Division on population projections, and at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the impact of HIV and AIDS on food security and agriculture, as well as on the improvement of the collection, dissemination and use of gender-disaggregated data in agriculture and rural development. She also developed a methodology to evaluate the impact of HIV and AIDS on the agricultural labour force. Before joining IFAD, she was a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, where she was part of a team of analysts working on analytical, methodological and modelling research.
Agriculture
This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of... more This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of rural producers benefiting from the joint support of the Senegalese state and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through the co-financed project PADAER. Data collection covers two regions in Senegal: Kolda and Tambacounda. The sample comprises 1167 farmers, including 379 beneficiaries of the index-based insurance facilitated by PADAER (Programme d’Appui au Développement Agricole et à l’Entreprenariat Rural). The quasi-experimental method known as the propensity score matching method was used to determine the impact of subscribing to index-based insurance on the farmer’s production, agricultural investments, and annual income. Although the results of the estimates show that the project has not yet had any effect on production, without the intervention of this project, farmers would have recorded a loss of about USD 115 (FCFA 57,600). Not only did the index-based i...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 6, 2022
Effective rural development: IFAD's evidence-based approach to managing for results., 2018
Social Science Research Network, Nov 30, 2018
Improving market access of smallholder farmers in the developing world is considered an important... more Improving market access of smallholder farmers in the developing world is considered an important approach to moving them out of poverty and increasing their economic mobility. In China, rural poverty has declined at a phenomenal speed within just two decades, and much of this success story is attributable to rapid income growth in rural areas. Thus, having a good understanding of how development efforts in rural China may help alleviate poverty and improving economic mobility is of particular interest for policy, as they are instrumental in informing future project design and scaling-up of success stories to other regions in China as well as to other countries. The Guangxi Integrated Agricultural Development Project (GIADP) is an example of a development effort aimed at increasing rural household income in China through three project components: community infrastructure development, agricultural production and marketing support, and rural environmental improvement. The project was ...
The CGIAR Platform for Big data in Agriculture aims at using big data to solve agricultural devel... more The CGIAR Platform for Big data in Agriculture aims at using big data to solve agricultural development problems faster, better and at greater scale. Data has become a valuable global commodity, but it is much more than simply information: in expert hands, it is intelligence. Already, analysts are finding ways to turn big data-the immense stocks of information collected in computers worldwide-into an invaluable resource for planning and decision-making. It is helping accelerate the development of robust responses to some of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change/variability, food insecurity and malnutrition, and environmental degradation. The smart and effective use of data will be one of the most important tools for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Big data represents an unprecedented opportunity to find new ways of reducing hunger and poverty, by applying datadriven solutions to ongoing research for development impact. About CoP_SED The Community of Practice on socioeconomic data (SED-CoP), led by CIMMYT, aims at bringing together CGIAR centers, academia, not-for-profit research and development organizations and private sector partners willing to tackle major issues related to socioeconomic data. The community works together on strategies to make the data interoperable, in order to enhance the impact and the use of CGIAR-related socioeconomic data for partners in development. This space can be used as a discussion area, share and request relevant information and contribute towards building the community as a whole.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Agriculture
This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of... more This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of rural producers benefiting from the joint support of the Senegalese state and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through the co-financed project PADAER. Data collection covers two regions in Senegal: Kolda and Tambacounda. The sample comprises 1167 farmers, including 379 beneficiaries of the index-based insurance facilitated by PADAER (Programme d’Appui au Développement Agricole et à l’Entreprenariat Rural). The quasi-experimental method known as the propensity score matching method was used to determine the impact of subscribing to index-based insurance on the farmer’s production, agricultural investments, and annual income. Although the results of the estimates show that the project has not yet had any effect on production, without the intervention of this project, farmers would have recorded a loss of about USD 115 (FCFA 57,600). Not only did the index-based i...
Social Science Research Network, Nov 9, 2006
Using household data from Northern Zambia, this article looks at HIV/AIDS impacts on different as... more Using household data from Northern Zambia, this article looks at HIV/AIDS impacts on different aspects of people's access to food. The findings draw particular attention to the variances in vulnerability among households burdened by illness and orphans that are headed by men, women and the elderly. It is argued that vulnerability levels to HIV/AIDS impact differ substantially among households and implicitly expose the underlying causal conditions that enable or disable people in their responsiveness. Households affected by HIV/AIDS cannot be treated as a homogeneous group and understanding the differences in vulnerability can play an important policy role in designing targeted support.
Economics Bulletin, Aug 11, 2019
Real-world ex-ante impact assessments are far from the ideal experimental design, where the eligi... more Real-world ex-ante impact assessments are far from the ideal experimental design, where the eligible population is supposed to be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Often, many surveys in developing contexts do not even collect data from a comparison group. We propose a methodology that recovers the counterfactual for ex-ante impact assessments of policy interventions under the conditions of distance decay in the exposure to continuous treatments and lack of control groups. We test this approach on data from a large-scale irrigation project in Ethiopia.
Journal of Policy Modeling, Nov 1, 2017
Based on crosscountry panel datasets, we find that (i) an increase in population share in agricul... more Based on crosscountry panel datasets, we find that (i) an increase in population share in agriculture is associated with poverty reduction once the longer-term poverty change or the dynamic is taken into account; (ii) rural non-agricultural sector also is poverty reducing in some cases; and (iii) increased population in the mega cities has no role in poverty reduction. In fact, the growth of population in mega cities is "poverty-increasing" in a few cases. Given that a rapid population growth or rural-urban migration is likely to increase poverty, more emphasis should be placed on policies that enhance support for rural agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. If our analysis has any validity, doubts are raised about recent research emphasising the role of secondary towns or urbanisation as the main driver of extreme poverty reduction.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations eBooks, 2003
Climatic events can have disastrous consequences on rural livelihoods, which rely mainly on agric... more Climatic events can have disastrous consequences on rural livelihoods, which rely mainly on agriculture and natural resources. The way households and communities respond to climatic shocks depends on their available resources. We formulated that education is a human capital asset that can increase coping abilities in difficult times because education improves access to both social and economic resources. Based on the Thai government surveys of the living conditions and life quality of 68,343 rural villages for the years 2009 and 2011, we investigated the impacts of floods and droughts in 2010 on community welfare, i.e., consumption and income in 2011 at the village level. Using difference-indifference methods, we analyzed how differential demographic composition and education could reduce or increase economic vulnerability to natural disasters. We found that floods and droughts do not produce a negative effect either on food and nonfood consumption, investment in agriculture and education, or on income. However, this applies mainly to communities with higher educational attainment partly because these communities can better secure government financial aid for flood and drought affected areas. Education thus may have an important role in reducing economic vulnerability.
Her work focuses on impact assessment methodologies and applied econometrics in developing region... more Her work focuses on impact assessment methodologies and applied econometrics in developing regions. She obtained her PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her thesis was a methodological assessment of the implications of different econometric methods used in the relevant literature to estimate the impact of adult deaths. Her first degree was in economics, and she specialized in demography and research methods. Her previous work experience involved working at the United Nations Population Division on population projections, and at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the impact of HIV and AIDS on food security and agriculture, as well as on the improvement of the collection, dissemination and use of gender-disaggregated data in agriculture and rural development. She also developed a methodology to evaluate the impact of HIV and AIDS on the agricultural labour force. Before joining IFAD, she was a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, where she was part of a team of analysts working on analytical, methodological and modelling research.
Agriculture
This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of... more This study aims to assess the effects of risk management tools on the agricultural performance of rural producers benefiting from the joint support of the Senegalese state and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through the co-financed project PADAER. Data collection covers two regions in Senegal: Kolda and Tambacounda. The sample comprises 1167 farmers, including 379 beneficiaries of the index-based insurance facilitated by PADAER (Programme d’Appui au Développement Agricole et à l’Entreprenariat Rural). The quasi-experimental method known as the propensity score matching method was used to determine the impact of subscribing to index-based insurance on the farmer’s production, agricultural investments, and annual income. Although the results of the estimates show that the project has not yet had any effect on production, without the intervention of this project, farmers would have recorded a loss of about USD 115 (FCFA 57,600). Not only did the index-based i...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 6, 2022
Effective rural development: IFAD's evidence-based approach to managing for results., 2018
Social Science Research Network, Nov 30, 2018
Improving market access of smallholder farmers in the developing world is considered an important... more Improving market access of smallholder farmers in the developing world is considered an important approach to moving them out of poverty and increasing their economic mobility. In China, rural poverty has declined at a phenomenal speed within just two decades, and much of this success story is attributable to rapid income growth in rural areas. Thus, having a good understanding of how development efforts in rural China may help alleviate poverty and improving economic mobility is of particular interest for policy, as they are instrumental in informing future project design and scaling-up of success stories to other regions in China as well as to other countries. The Guangxi Integrated Agricultural Development Project (GIADP) is an example of a development effort aimed at increasing rural household income in China through three project components: community infrastructure development, agricultural production and marketing support, and rural environmental improvement. The project was ...
The CGIAR Platform for Big data in Agriculture aims at using big data to solve agricultural devel... more The CGIAR Platform for Big data in Agriculture aims at using big data to solve agricultural development problems faster, better and at greater scale. Data has become a valuable global commodity, but it is much more than simply information: in expert hands, it is intelligence. Already, analysts are finding ways to turn big data-the immense stocks of information collected in computers worldwide-into an invaluable resource for planning and decision-making. It is helping accelerate the development of robust responses to some of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change/variability, food insecurity and malnutrition, and environmental degradation. The smart and effective use of data will be one of the most important tools for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Big data represents an unprecedented opportunity to find new ways of reducing hunger and poverty, by applying datadriven solutions to ongoing research for development impact. About CoP_SED The Community of Practice on socioeconomic data (SED-CoP), led by CIMMYT, aims at bringing together CGIAR centers, academia, not-for-profit research and development organizations and private sector partners willing to tackle major issues related to socioeconomic data. The community works together on strategies to make the data interoperable, in order to enhance the impact and the use of CGIAR-related socioeconomic data for partners in development. This space can be used as a discussion area, share and request relevant information and contribute towards building the community as a whole.