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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His work focuses on the relationships among poverty, nutrition, food security, agriculture, the environment, production, and migration—analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic levels, primarily using quantitative methods.

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Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Ruth Hill

Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Bio

Ruth Hill is the Director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit in the Food and Nutrition Policy Department. She was previously a Lead Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank, where she spent a decade leading work on the distributional impacts of climate change, fiscal policy, markets, and institutions. She also led the development of the World Bank’s Rural Income Diagnostics and conducted Poverty Assessments and Systematic Country Diagnostics in East Africa and South Asia. From 2019 to 2021, she was on external service as the Chief Economist at the UK government’s Centre for Disaster Protection. Before joining the World Bank in 2013, Ruth was a Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, conducting impact evaluations on insurance and market interventions. She has published in the Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Economic Review, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Experimental Economics, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and World Development. She holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Publications

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Journal Article

Strengthening producer organizations to increase market access of smallholder farmers in Uganda

2021Hill, Ruth Vargas; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olapade, Markus; Frölich, Markus
Details

Strengthening producer organizations to increase market access of smallholder farmers in Uganda

Smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is largely exposed to pervasive market failures, translating into missed opportunities and sub-optimal economic behavior. These failures can partly be traced to the importance of economies of scale in procuring inputs and marketing produce, where smallholders face disproportionately high transaction costs. Producer organizations could help to lessen transaction costs; however, only a few farmers in Uganda sell through them. We introduce two interventions aimed at promoting marketing via producer organizations: cash on delivery, and information on sales, and analyze their impacts in an RCT design: We find that providing cash on delivery increases the probability that a member chooses to sell through the group, and hence the volumes bulked by each group. This increase in volumes appears to have enabled groups to secure higher prices for their produce. No significant effect could be found for providing information on sales.

Year published

2021

Authors

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olapade, Markus; Frölich, Markus

Citation

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olapade, Markus; and Frölich, Markus. 2021. Strengthening producer organizations to increase market access of smallholder farmers in Uganda. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 50(3): 436-464. https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2021.19

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Constraints; Agriculture; Smallholders; Market Access; Producer Organizations; Information; Cash Flow

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2021.19 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Delayed premium payment, insurance adoption, and household investment in rural China

2020Liu, Yanyan; Chen, Kevin Z.; Hill, Ruth Vargas
Details

Delayed premium payment, insurance adoption, and household investment in rural China

We conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine the impacts of delayed premium payment on insurance uptake and the subsequent investment decisions among smallholder farmers in rural China. Our results show uptake among those with the delayed payment option is 10% higher than and three times as high as among those without the option. We also find a positive impact of delayed premium payment and insurance adoption on household investment in production, especially higher risk activities.

Year published

2020

Authors

Liu, Yanyan; Chen, Kevin Z.; Hill, Ruth Vargas

Citation

Liu, Yanyan; Chen, Kevin Z.; and Hill, Ruth Vargas. 2020. Delayed premium payment, insurance adoption, and household investment in rural China. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 102(4): 1177-1197. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajae.12038

Country/Region

China

Keywords

Asia; Eastern Asia; Insurance; Production; Livestock Production; Investment; Households; Randomized Controlled Trials; Capacity Development; Smallholders; Remuneration; Animal Production

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1002/ajae.12038 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh

2019Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kumar, Neha; Magnan, Nicholas; Makhija, Simrin; de Nicola, Francesca; Spielman, David J.; Ward, Patrick S.
Details

Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh

This study assesses both the demand for and effectiveness of an index insurance product designed to help smallholder farmers in Bangladesh manage crop production risk during the monsoon season. Villages were randomized into either an insurance treatment or a comparison group, and discounts and rebates were randomly allocated across treatment villages to encourage insurance take-up and to allow for the estimation of the price-elasticity of insurance demand. Among those offered insurance, we find demand to be fairly price elastic, with discounts significantly more successful in stimulating demand than rebates. Purchasing insurance yields both ex ante risk management effects as well as ex post income effects on agricultural production practices. The risk management effects lead to an expansion of cultivated area with concomitant increases in agricultural input expenditures during the monsoon season. The income effects lead to more intensive rice production during the subsequent dry season, with more intensive use of both irrigation and fertilizers, resulting in higher yields and higher total rice production.

Year published

2019

Authors

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kumar, Neha; Magnan, Nicholas; Makhija, Simrin; de Nicola, Francesca; Spielman, David J.; Ward, Patrick S.

Citation

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kumar, Neha; Magnan, Nicholas; Makhija, Simrin; de Nicola, Francesca; Spielman, David J.; and Ward, Patrick S. 2019. Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh. Journal of Development Economics. 136(January 2019): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.09.003

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Insurance; Risk Reduction; Uncertainty; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Crop Insurance; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.09.003 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Journal Article

Events

Ending Hunger and Malnutrition: Keeping Our Eyes on the Road
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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April 22, 2025, 9:30 – 12:00 pm

Ending Hunger and Malnutrition: Keeping Our Eyes on the Road

While global agricultural commodity prices have come down from the high levels seen in recent years, the world remains far off track in meeting the SDG2 of ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Last year, close to 300 million people faced food crisis while the number of people on the cusp of famine doubled. Efforts […]

The Pulse of Progress: Harnessing High-Frequency Survey Data for Development Research in the Polycrisis Era
IFPRI at External Event

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December 17 to 18, 2024

The Pulse of Progress: Harnessing High-Frequency Survey Data for Development Research in the Polycrisis Era

The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), the World Bank’s flagship household survey program, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are co-organizing a conference, The Pulse of Progress: Harnessing High-Frequency Survey Data for Development Research in the Polycrisis Era, which will take place on December 17-18, 2024, at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, […]

News

September 03, 2024 | Press Release

Ruth Hill joins IFPRI as the new Director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit

Ruth Hill joins IFPRI as the new Director of its Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI) Unit, starting September 3, 2024.