The increasing availability of satellite data at higher spatial, temporal and spectral
resolutions is enabling new applications in agriculture and economic development …

With uninsured risk representing a major hurdle to investment, productivity growth, and
poverty reduction in developing country smallholder agriculture, index-based agricultural …

Rural microfinance must contend with the triple challenges of isolation, small‐scale
transactions, and risk. These challenges result in information asymmetries and transaction …

The gains from insurance arise from the transfer of income across states. Yet, by requiring
that the premium be paid up front, standard insurance products also transfer income across …

Microinsurance has recently received much attention as a promising tool to protect poor
individuals from important shocks. Yet, voluntary demand from people has been low …

Index-based weather insurance is a major institutional innovation that could revolutionize
access to formal insurance for millions of smallholder farmers and related individuals. It has …

The number of index insurance pilots in developing countries has grown tremendously in
recent years, but there has been little progress in our understanding of the quality of those …

Index insurance–in which payments are based on an index correlated with, but not identical
to, individual losses–has been faced with an unexpectedly low uptake, despite its promise …

Throughout the world, and particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, many of the
poorest people are farmers. Nearly 75 percent of those subsisting on $1 a day live in rural …

We report the results of a drought insurance experiment in Ethiopia, and examine whether
uptake of index-based insurance is enhanced if we allow farmers to pay after harvest …