Luc Christiaensen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1632422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Luc Christiaensen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Luc |
| FAMILY NAME | Christiaensen |
| SIGNATURE | CHRISTIAENSEN L |
| AFFILIATIONS | World Bank |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1844-3080 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 413 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 38 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Distance, prospects, and migration to towns and cities
How Do Migrants Fare in Africa’s Urban Labour Markets
Africa’s urban population is on the rise with migrants often feared as a direct source of urban underdevelopment under the premise that they integrate poorly into urban labour markets. This study examines the validity of this premise using data from six African countries. Specifically, it explores whether destination labour market and welfare outcomes systematically differ between migrants and nonmigrants, and whether the results differ depending…
Migrants, Markets, and Mayors
Research on migration and urban development in Africa has primarily focused on larger cities and rural-to-urban migration. However, 97 percent of Africa’s urban centers have fewer than 300,000 inhabitants, and a sizable share of urban migrants come from other urban areas. A more holistic and dynamic perspective, incorporating migration flows along the full urban hierarchy, as well as urban-urban migrants, is needed to better understand and levera…
Does agricultural intensification pay in the context of structural transformation
Modern inputs and mechanization are promoted across Africa to raise smallholder labor productivity and broker the structural transformation. Yet, adoption has remained low and the implications for returns to labor and labor allocation remain poorly understood. This paper explores the effects of different intensification packages on farm performance, market orientation, and food security using data from lowland rice farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. Emplo…
Economic and social development along the urban–rural continuum
The economic and social development of nations relies on their population having physical access to services and employment opportunities. For the vast majority of the 3.4 billion people living in rural areas, this largely depends on their access to urban centers of different sizes. Similarly, urban centers depend on their rural hinterlands. Building on the literature on functional areas/territories and the rural–urban continuum as well as insigh…
When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
While city migrants see their welfare increase much more than those moving to towns, many more rural-urban migrants end up in towns. This phenomenon, documented in detail in Kagera, Tanzania, begs the question why migrants move to seemingly suboptimal destinations. Using an 18-year panel of individuals from this region and information on the possible destinations from the census, this study documents, through dyadic regressions and controlling fo…
Viewpoint
Decomposing the Contribution of Migration to Poverty Reduction
In an economy with migration, poverty changes are composed of a number of forces, including the income gains and losses realized by the various migration streams. We present a simple but powerful decomposition methodology that uses panel data to measure the contributions of different migration streams to overall poverty change. An application to Tanzania shows the new insights that are provided – in particular on the role of migration to secondar…
Migration and Jobs
With an estimated 724 million extreme poor people living in developing countries, and the world's demographics bifurcating into an older North and a younger South, there are substantial economic incentives and benefits for people to migrate. There are also important market and regulatory failures that constrain mobility and reduce the net benefits of migration. This paper reviews the recent literature and proposes a conceptual framework for bette…
Where to create jobs to reduce poverty
Secondary towns, jobs and poverty reduction
Agriculture, structural transformation and poverty reduction
Whether the sector of growth matters for the speed of poverty reduction, why, and how best to invest to maximize the poverty reducing effects of sectoral growth remain topics of intense debate. Drawing on the more recent history and applying a range of methods, the papers in this special issue confirm the view that growth in agriculture is on average more poverty reducing than an equivalent amount of growth outside agriculture. They also add impo…
Why secondary towns can be important for poverty reduction – A migrant perspective
Why Secondary Towns Can Be Important for Poverty Reduction – A Migrant's Perspective
This paper develops the concept of "action space" as the range of possible destinations to which a migrant can realistically move at a given point in time and, intimately linked to this, the set of possible livelihoods at destination. It shows how this space expands and contracts over time through "cumulative causation." Such a dynamic framework allows for appreciating the role of secondary towns in rural-urban migration and poverty reduction. Se…
Agriculture in Africa – Telling myths from facts
Stylized facts drive research agendas and policy debates. Yet robust stylized facts are hard to come by, and when available, often outdated. The 12 papers in this Special Issue revisit conventional wisdom on African agriculture and its farmers' livelihoods using nationally representative surveys from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture Initiative in six African countries. At times they simply confirm our commo…
Prevalence, economic contribution, and determinants of trees on farms across Sub-Saharan Africa
Demography, urbanization and development
Poverty in a Rising Africa
Perceptions of Africa have changed dramatically. Viewed as a continent of wars, famines and entrenched poverty in the late 1990s, there is now a focus on “Africa rising” and an “African 21st century.” Two decades of unprecedented economic growth in Africa should have brought substantial improvements in well-being. Whether or not they did, remains unclear given the poor quality of the data, the nature of the growth process (especially the role of …
How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women
The contribution of women to labor in African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60-80%. Using individual, plot-level labor input data from nationally representative household surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study estimates the average female labor share in crop production at 40%. It is slightly above 50% in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37%), Ethiopia (29%), and Niger (24%).…
Food price seasonality in Africa
Everyone knows about seasonality. But what exactly do we know? This study systematically measures seasonal price gaps at 193 markets for 13 food commodities in seven African countries. It shows that the commonly used dummy variable or moving average deviation methods to estimate the seasonal gap can yield substantial upward bias. This can be partially circumvented using trigonometric and sawtooth models, which are more parsimonious. Among staple …
Seasonality in Local Food Markets and Consumption
This paper revisits the extent of seasonality in African livelihoods. It uses 19 years of monthly food prices from 20 markets and three years of nationally representative household panel surveys from Tanzania. Trigonometric specifications are introduced to measure the seasonal gap. When samples are short and seasonality is poorly defined, they produce less upward bias than the common dummy variable approach. On average, the seasonal gap for maize…
Making the Most of Africa's Growth
Direct dividend transfer programs are promising as an additional instrument to reduce inequality and increase the poverty-reducing powers of economic growth in resource-rich countries
Poverty Reduction During the Rural–Urban Transformation – The Role of the Missing Middle
Measuring poverty over time
Who is Vouching for the Input Voucher? Decentralized Targeting and Elite Capture in Tanzania
Consumption risk, technology adoption and poverty traps
The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction—An empirical perspective
Poverty Reduction During the Rural–Urban Transformation – The Role of the Missing Middle
Natural Disasters and Growth
How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women
The contribution of women to labor in African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60-80%. Using individual, plot-level labor input data from nationally representative household surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study estimates the average female labor share in crop production at 40%. It is slightly above 50% in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37%), Ethiopia (29%), and Niger (24%).…
Demography, urbanization and development
Who is Vouching for the Input Voucher? Decentralized Targeting and Elite Capture in Tanzania
Economic and social development along the urban–rural continuum
The economic and social development of nations relies on their population having physical access to services and employment opportunities. For the vast majority of the 3.4 billion people living in rural areas, this largely depends on their access to urban centers of different sizes. Similarly, urban centers depend on their rural hinterlands. Building on the literature on functional areas/territories and the rural–urban continuum as well as insigh…
Child Malnutrition in Ethiopia
Agriculture, structural transformation and poverty reduction
Whether the sector of growth matters for the speed of poverty reduction, why, and how best to invest to maximize the poverty reducing effects of sectoral growth remain topics of intense debate. Drawing on the more recent history and applying a range of methods, the papers in this special issue confirm the view that growth in agriculture is on average more poverty reducing than an equivalent amount of growth outside agriculture. They also add impo…
Why secondary towns can be important for poverty reduction – A migrant perspective
Prevalence, economic contribution, and determinants of trees on farms across Sub-Saharan Africa
Food price seasonality in Africa
Everyone knows about seasonality. But what exactly do we know? This study systematically measures seasonal price gaps at 193 markets for 13 food commodities in seven African countries. It shows that the commonly used dummy variable or moving average deviation methods to estimate the seasonal gap can yield substantial upward bias. This can be partially circumvented using trigonometric and sawtooth models, which are more parsimonious. Among staple …
Small area estimation-based prediction methods to track poverty
Does agricultural intensification pay in the context of structural transformation
Modern inputs and mechanization are promoted across Africa to raise smallholder labor productivity and broker the structural transformation. Yet, adoption has remained low and the implications for returns to labor and labor allocation remain poorly understood. This paper explores the effects of different intensification packages on farm performance, market orientation, and food security using data from lowland rice farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. Emplo…
Where to create jobs to reduce poverty
Secondary towns, jobs and poverty reduction
Comparing village characteristics derived from rapid appraisals and household surveys
In an environment where everyone is aware that most outsiders are associated with financial resources that are to be disbursed, data may be as much the outcome of social interactions as they are immutable 'facts.'" DP91
Growth, Distribution and Poverty in Africa
This book synthesizes, and elaborates on the results of a series of country studies, completed under the Poverty Dynamics in Africa Initiative, organized by the Africa Region of the Bank. These studies made use of vastly improved household survey data, which have enhanced understanding of African poverty dynamics during the past decade. The book examines the main factors behind observed poverty changes in eight countries - Ethiopia, Ghana, Madaga…
Growth, Distribution, and Poverty in Africa
Christiaensen, Demery, and Paternostro review recent evidence on the trends in \n household well-being in Africa during the 1990s. They draw \n on the findings of a series of studies on poverty dynamics \n that use the better data sets now available. The authors \n begin by taking a broad view of poverty, tracing changes in \n both income poverty and in other more direct measures of \n individual welfare. Experiences have been varied: several \n …
Child Malnutrition in Ethiopia
Child Growth, Shocks, and Food Aid in Rural Ethiopia
Child stunting in Ethiopia has persisted at alarming rates, despite enormous amounts of food aid, often procured in response to shocks. Using nationally representative data, the study finds that while harvest failure leads to child growth faltering, food aid affected child growth positively and offset the negative effects of shocks in communities that received food aid. However, many communities that experienced shocks did not receive food aid. I…
Towards an Understanding of Household Vulnerability in Rural Kenya
This study illustrates a methodology to empirically assess household vulnerability using pseudo panel data derived from repeated cross sections augmented with historical information on shocks. It conceives vulnerability as expected poverty. Application of the methodology to data from rural Kenya shows that rural households faced in 1994 on average a chance of 39% of becoming poor in the future. Households in arid areas, who experience large rainf…
Tracking Poverty Over Time In The Absence Of Comparable Consumption Data
Following the endorsement of the Millennium Development Goals, there is an increasing demand for methods to track poverty regularly. This paper develops an economically intuitive and inexpensive methodology to do so in the absence of regular, comparable data on household consumption. The minimum data requirements for the methodology are the availability of a household budget survey and a series of surveys with a comparable set of asset data also …
The Role Of Agriculture In Poverty Reduction An Empirical Perspective
The relative contribution of a sector to poverty reduction is shown to depend on its direct and indirect growth effects as well as its participation effect. The paper assesses how these effects compare between agriculture and non-agriculture by reviewing the literature and by analyzing cross-country national accounts and poverty data from household surveys. Special attention is given to Sub-Saharan Africa. While the direct growth effect of agricu…
Natural Disasters And Growth - Going Beyond The Averages
There has been a steady increase in the \n occurrence of natural disasters. Yet their effect on \n economic growth remains unclear, with some studies reporting \n negative, and others indicating no, or even positive \n effects. These seemingly contradictory findings can be \n reconciled by exploring the effects of natural disasters on \n growth separately by disaster and economic sector. This is \n consistent with the insights from traditional mo…
The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction—An empirical perspective
Consumption risk, technology adoption and poverty traps
Small Area Estimation-Based Prediction Methods to Track Poverty
Tracking poverty is predicated on the availability of comparable consumption data and reliable price deflators. However, regular series of strictly comparable data are only rarely available. Price deflators are also often missing or disputed. In response, poverty prediction methods that track consumption correlates as opposed to consumption itself have been developed. These methods typically assume that the estimated relation between consumption …
Small area estimation-based prediction methods to track poverty
Measuring poverty over time
Who is Vouching for the Input Voucher? Decentralized Targeting and Elite Capture in Tanzania
Natural Disasters and Growth
Making the Most of Africa's Growth
Direct dividend transfer programs are promising as an additional instrument to reduce inequality and increase the poverty-reducing powers of economic growth in resource-rich countries
Poverty Reduction During the Rural–Urban Transformation – The Role of the Missing Middle
Seasonality in Local Food Markets and Consumption
This paper revisits the extent of seasonality in African livelihoods. It uses 19 years of monthly food prices from 20 markets and three years of nationally representative household panel surveys from Tanzania. Trigonometric specifications are introduced to measure the seasonal gap. When samples are short and seasonality is poorly defined, they produce less upward bias than the common dummy variable approach. On average, the seasonal gap for maize…
Poverty in a Rising Africa
Perceptions of Africa have changed dramatically. Viewed as a continent of wars, famines and entrenched poverty in the late 1990s, there is now a focus on “Africa rising” and an “African 21st century.” Two decades of unprecedented economic growth in Africa should have brought substantial improvements in well-being. Whether or not they did, remains unclear given the poor quality of the data, the nature of the growth process (especially the role of …
How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women
The contribution of women to labor in African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60-80%. Using individual, plot-level labor input data from nationally representative household surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study estimates the average female labor share in crop production at 40%. It is slightly above 50% in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37%), Ethiopia (29%), and Niger (24%).…
Food price seasonality in Africa
Everyone knows about seasonality. But what exactly do we know? This study systematically measures seasonal price gaps at 193 markets for 13 food commodities in seven African countries. It shows that the commonly used dummy variable or moving average deviation methods to estimate the seasonal gap can yield substantial upward bias. This can be partially circumvented using trigonometric and sawtooth models, which are more parsimonious. Among staple …
Why Secondary Towns Can Be Important for Poverty Reduction – A Migrant's Perspective
This paper develops the concept of "action space" as the range of possible destinations to which a migrant can realistically move at a given point in time and, intimately linked to this, the set of possible livelihoods at destination. It shows how this space expands and contracts over time through "cumulative causation." Such a dynamic framework allows for appreciating the role of secondary towns in rural-urban migration and poverty reduction. Se…
Agriculture in Africa – Telling myths from facts
Stylized facts drive research agendas and policy debates. Yet robust stylized facts are hard to come by, and when available, often outdated. The 12 papers in this Special Issue revisit conventional wisdom on African agriculture and its farmers' livelihoods using nationally representative surveys from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture Initiative in six African countries. At times they simply confirm our commo…
Prevalence, economic contribution, and determinants of trees on farms across Sub-Saharan Africa
Economics (35 works) · Geography (27 works) · Economic growth (26 works) · Poverty (21 works) · Development economics (17 works) · Income, Poverty, and Inequality (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Agriculture (13 works) · Agricultural risk and resilience (12 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (10 works)