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Markets play a basic role in economic welfare. In rich countries life would be unimaginable without access to a wide array of reasonably well functioning markets, from food to credit and insurance. It is almost never the case that a rich-country household has to produce something in order to consume it, or that its members cannot sell their labor for a salary or wage. Credit markets function for small businesses and farms to finance investment projects, credit cards can be used to help households cover income shortfalls, and insurance markets help protect people from unexpected income and health shocks. Access to markets is just as compelling for a poor rural household in Rwanda, India or Peru. Without good access to markets, a poor household cannot market its produce, obtain inputs, sell labor, obtain credit, learn about or adopt new technologies, insure against risks, or obtain consumption goods at low prices. Equally important, it cannot use its scarce resources like land and labor efficiently. Its decision making is constrained. Cut off from markets, it is forced into self-sufficiency, whether for food, labor, or other items. Its own subjective valuations, rather than market prices, the