Donald F. Larson is a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank. He joined the Bank while pursuing a PhD in agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland, which he earned in 1995. Don also holds an MA in economics from Virginia Tech and a BA in economics from the College of William and Mary. Before coming to the Bank, Don worked for the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. With colleagues he has written or edited five books and has published in scholarly journals focused on rural development, carbon markets, natural resource management, and commodity risk management. He has worked with governments on policy issues in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Don was also part of a World Bank team that launched the first climate finance fund, the Prototype Carbon Fund, in 1999.