What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why?

After having been largely eliminated by structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and 1990s, many African countries have reintroduced large-scale input subsidy programs. The subsidy programs’ benefits, however, are highly contested, and there remains a lack of recent and high-quality research to inform policy discussion and guide research on more targeted “smart” subsidy programs implemented recently across the region.

Join us for a panel discussion of experts talking about methods, evidence, and implications for subsidy policies in developing countries. Thomas Jayne of Michigan State University and Shahidur Rashid of IFPRI will present highlights from several country studies focused on Africa and Asia. Their presentations will be followed by comments from Derek Byerlee, former senior advisor at the World Bank and director of the 2008 World Development Report on Agriculture; and Simeon Ehui, manager of the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development sector, South Asia Region.