Ruth Vargas Hill
Biographic Data
| ID | 3709778 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ruth Vargas Hill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ruth Vargas |
| FAMILY NAME | Hill |
| SIGNATURE | HILL R V |
| AFFILIATIONS | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6868-1215 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Financial inclusion for agricultural investments
Growth, Safety Nets and Poverty
In the past 10 years, Ethiopia experienced high and consistent growth, invested in public goods provision to poor households, and saw impressive gains in well-being for many households. This paper exploits variation in sectoral growth and public goods provision across zones and time, to examine whether poverty reduction was driven by growth and provision of public goods and what type of growth -- growth in agriculture, manufacturing, or services …
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 insuran…
Vulnerability to Drought and Food Price Shocks
Offering rainfall insurance to informal insurance groups
Breaking the norm
We present results from an artefactual field experiment conducted in rural Peru that considers whether observing non-reciprocal behavior influences an individual's decision to reciprocate. Specifically, we consider the behavior of second movers in a trust game, assessing whether their decision to reciprocate is influenced by the observed reciprocity of others. In documenting the impact of an external shock to observed reciprocity, this paper show…
Using Stated Preferences and Beliefs to Identify the Impact of Risk on Poor Households
Whilst the importance of uncertainty in shaping economic behaviour of poor households is widely acknowledged, empirically identifying the impact of risk is difficult. By using data on risk preferences and perceptions of risk collected through hypothetical questions in combination with more traditional measures of a household's ability to deal with risk, this article identifies the impact of risk on production decisions. It shows both that data on…
Price Transmission and Trader Entry in Domestic Commodity Markets
Using detailed data from three simultaneous surveys of producers, traders, and exporters, this paper examines the transmission of international coffee prices through the domestic value chain in Uganda. We find that producer price fluctuations are inconsistent with constant transaction costs. We investigate three possible explanations for this finding: storage and contango, marketing costs that increase with price, and trader entry that raises sea…
Hierarchy, Commerce, and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America
Selling at the Farmgate or Traveling to Market
Using detailed survey data from Uganda, this article examines whether coffee producers sell to itinerant traders or directly to markets, where they can get a higher price but must incur a transport cost. We find that selling to the market is more likely when the quantity sold is large and the market is close by. Wealthy farmers are less likely to sell to the market, possibly because the shadow value of their time is higher. But if they have a lar…
Offering rainfall insurance to informal insurance groups
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 insuran…
Vulnerability to Drought and Food Price Shocks
Price Transmission and Trader Entry in Domestic Commodity Markets
Using detailed data from three simultaneous surveys of producers, traders, and exporters, this paper examines the transmission of international coffee prices through the domestic value chain in Uganda. We find that producer price fluctuations are inconsistent with constant transaction costs. We investigate three possible explanations for this finding: storage and contango, marketing costs that increase with price, and trader entry that raises sea…
Breaking the norm
We present results from an artefactual field experiment conducted in rural Peru that considers whether observing non-reciprocal behavior influences an individual's decision to reciprocate. Specifically, we consider the behavior of second movers in a trust game, assessing whether their decision to reciprocate is influenced by the observed reciprocity of others. In documenting the impact of an external shock to observed reciprocity, this paper show…
Selling at the Farmgate or Traveling to Market
Using detailed survey data from Uganda, this article examines whether coffee producers sell to itinerant traders or directly to markets, where they can get a higher price but must incur a transport cost. We find that selling to the market is more likely when the quantity sold is large and the market is close by. Wealthy farmers are less likely to sell to the market, possibly because the shadow value of their time is higher. But if they have a lar…
Hierarchy, Commerce, and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America
Price Transmission and Trader Entry in Domestic Commodity Markets
Using detailed data from three simultaneous surveys of producers, traders, and exporters, this paper examines the transmission of international coffee prices through the domestic value chain in Uganda. We find that producer price fluctuations are inconsistent with constant transaction costs. We investigate three possible explanations for this finding: storage and contango, marketing costs that increase with price, and trader entry that raises sea…
Using Stated Preferences and Beliefs to Identify the Impact of Risk on Poor Households
Whilst the importance of uncertainty in shaping economic behaviour of poor households is widely acknowledged, empirically identifying the impact of risk is difficult. By using data on risk preferences and perceptions of risk collected through hypothetical questions in combination with more traditional measures of a household's ability to deal with risk, this article identifies the impact of risk on production decisions. It shows both that data on…
Breaking the norm
We present results from an artefactual field experiment conducted in rural Peru that considers whether observing non-reciprocal behavior influences an individual's decision to reciprocate. Specifically, we consider the behavior of second movers in a trust game, assessing whether their decision to reciprocate is influenced by the observed reciprocity of others. In documenting the impact of an external shock to observed reciprocity, this paper show…
Offering rainfall insurance to informal insurance groups
Vulnerability to Drought and Food Price Shocks
Growth, Safety Nets and Poverty
In the past 10 years, Ethiopia experienced high and consistent growth, invested in public goods provision to poor households, and saw impressive gains in well-being for many households. This paper exploits variation in sectoral growth and public goods provision across zones and time, to examine whether poverty reduction was driven by growth and provision of public goods and what type of growth -- growth in agriculture, manufacturing, or services …
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 insuran…
Financial inclusion for agricultural investments
Economics (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Agricultural risk and resilience (5 works) · Agriculture (4 works) · Income, Poverty, and Inequality (4 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (4 works) · Agricultural economics (3 works) · Geography (3 works) · Actuarial science (2 works) · Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing (2 works)