Dominique van de Walle is a Lead Economist in the World Bank's research department. She studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania, the London School of Economics and the Australian National University, and began her career at the Bank as a member of the core team that produced the 1990 World Development Report on Poverty. Her research interests are in the general area of poverty and vulnerability, public policy and gender, encompassing social protection, safety nets and impact evaluation; rural development, land distribution, rural infrastructure, poverty and women's marital trajectories. Much of her recent research focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa.